Author: Gugu Lourie
Avon Products announced on Friday its CEO Jan Zijderveld will step down, effective immediately, concurrent with the closing of the sale of the company to Brazilian-based Natura &Co. Zijderveld took the helm at the company in February 2018. He will be replaced by Angela Cretu, who is responsible for the business outside of Latin America and for the oversight of the Avon brand globally. In his nearly two years at Avon’s helm, Mr. Zijderveld has been instrumental in turning around the company through its Open Up strategy, which aims at making Avon the digital social selling beauty company by rebuilding the fundamentals and…
Already negatively impacted by US lawsuit for alleged funding the Taliban in Iran, MTN Group is now reeling from the US-Iran tension. The tension is occupying a global centre stage after the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. The price of oil surged late Thursday after the killing of Soleimani. For more read: ‘Westerners should leave UAE immediately’: Gulf warning as British troops put at greater risk in Iraq after US kills Iran military chief The news of the assassination of Soeimani would spook investors in MTN who have grappled against the challenges the mobile phone operator has experienced in…
MTN Group announced on Thursday it has concluded an agreement to dispose of its 49% equity holdings in the Ghana and Uganda Tower Company investments to a subsidiary of American Tower Company for $523 million, approximately R7.3 billion. This transaction is expected to close in Q1 2020, the company said in a statement. The company added t that its Asset Realisation Programme (ARP) in March 2019 which aims to simplify its portfolio, reduce debt and risk, improve returns and realise proceeds of at least R15 billion over three years. Following on the proceeds raised from the disposals of its stakes…
Volkswagen provides a glimpse into the future in which the search for charging stations for electric cars comes to an end. The company has announced a concept for a mobile charging robot that comes to electric cars and charges them on its own. The mobile robot brings a trailer in the form of a mobile energy storage device to the vehicle and connects them; it then uses this energy storage device to charge the battery of the electric vehicle. The mobile energy storage device stays with the vehicle during the whole charging process. The robot, in the meantime, charges other…
A consortium led by Chinese tech giant Tencent is buying a 10% stake in Vivendi’s Universal Music Group for 3 billion euros (R47 billion), the companies announced Tuesday. The sale values the world’s largest music company at 30 billion euros (R470 billion). The Tencent-led consortium is joined by Tencent Music Entertainment and certain global financial investors. The consortium has the option to acquire up to an additional 10% equity stake in UMG at the same enterprise value by January 15, 2021. Prior to the closing of the Consortium-Universal Music Group transaction, Tencent Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group also intend to…
Mauritius is an island that is famed for its beautiful beaches and for its reputation as an “African success story”. Since its independence from the UK in 1968, it has had tremendous economic progress, consolidated its democracy and maintained political stability. AfrAsia Bank and New World Wealth have reviewed Africa: Wealth growth by country, 2008 – 2018 as part of their 2019 Africa Wealth Report. The 2019 Africa Wealth Report provides a comprehensive review of the wealth sector in Africa, including HNWI trends, luxury trends and wealth management trends in 17 countries and 20 cities across the continent. Total wealth held in…
AfrAsia Bank and New World Wealth have reviewed the most popular luxury cars in Africa as part of their 2019 Africa Wealth Report. The 2019 Africa Wealth Report provides a comprehensive review of the wealth sector in Africa, including HNWI trends, luxury trends and wealth management trends in 17 countries and 20 cities across the continent. Luxury car brands with dealerships in Africa are listed below, ranked by African revenue. As reflected Porsche has dealerships in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, Mauritius and Morocco. Porsche sells around 2,000 cars in Africa per annum (of which around 1,300 are sold in South…
Telkom has unveiled its Big Deal for January 2020. The SmartBroadband 20GB Wireless is an LTE data offer, which includes 20GB Telkom anytime data a month and 20GB night surfer data a month. The deal includes the following: 20GB Anytime data 20GB Night Surfer data Huawei LTE router, A R99 Once-Off SIM This deal will run until the end of January 2020 and is only available on a 24-month contract. The unused inclusive anytime data on SmartBroadband 20GB Wireless Post-paid plans shall roll over to the end of the next calendar month. Rolled over data will be depleted first before the…
South Africa’s MTN vowed to defend itself against lawsuits alleging that the company paid the Taliban for protection, providing the insurgency with money that was used to attack and kill U.S. troops. Africa’s and the Middle East biggest mobile phone operator faces a lawsuit filed United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday, 27 December 2019, for violation of the anti-terrorism act. The complaint was filed on behalf of American service members and civilians, and their families, who were killed or wounded in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017. The Wall Street Journal reported that the plaintiffs are the…
Naspers-owned tech giant Prosus has tabled a final cash offer to buy Just Eat, which operates a leading global hybrid marketplace for Online Food Delivery. Just Eat has rejected a £5bn hostile swoop by Prosus, the Dutch arm of South Africa internet titan Naspers. Its board is instead recommending investors support a planned merger with Takeaway.com that was announced this summer. In October, the Euronext and JSE-listed tech giant made a bid of 4.9 billion pounds ($6.35 billion or R94 billion) or 710 pence a share, in cash for Just Eat. For more read: Naspers’ Prosus Makes R94bn Bid For Just Eat Earlier…