Author: Gugu Lourie

Lebashe Investment Group will not go ahead with a planned investment in EOH, a JSE-listed troubled tech firm. The investment group announced late on Friday that it will not invest another R250 million in EOH. In October 2018, Lebashe Investment Group announced entered into a binding long-form agreement with EOH, increasing the maximum cash injection into the technology group from  R250 million to R1 billion. The shareholding acquired through the capital injection, along with the 40 million A shares to be issued will make EOH, by a significant margin, Africa’s largest listed and empowered information technology group, said Lebashe at the…

(MTN updates figures of mobile money jobs to 400, 000 direct jobs instead of a million) The ripple effect of mobile money is changing the lives of people in Africa and beyond. “We estimate that the MTN mobile money ecosystem has contributed to the creation of 400 , 000 jobs across our footprint,” MTN Group said in an article published as part of the company’s launch of “We’re good together” initiative. For more read: Everyone Deserves the Benefits of a Modern, Connected Life, Says MTN This initiative is aimed at demonstrating how, in partnering with our host countries, we can…

Technology group Jasco Electronics announced plans to sell its Electrical Manufacturers Division. The JSE-listed company said its wholly-owned subsidiary Jasco Trading has entered into a sale of business agreement with African Zaibatsu Corporation (AZC) As part of the deal, AZC will acquire 100% of the Electrical Manufacturers Division (EM) for R65 million. The proceeds from the disposal will be applied towards reducing the Jasco corporate bond and the working capital loan. EM focusses on the business of contract manufacturing components for predominantly the domestic appliance industry in South Africa. AZC is a 100% black-owned and 100% black youth-owned South African…

The Southern African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (SAVCA), in partnership with First National Bank (FNB) and the SA SME Fund as lead sponsors, has launched a Fund Manager Development Programme (FMDP) with the aim of increasing the number of females-and black-owned and managed fund managers. South Africa’s private equity industry still has a way to go in achieving a truly diverse workforce. This is according to the 2019 SAVCA industry survey, which revealed that the percentage of female and black (as defined in the B-BBEE Codes) professionals within the industry in 2018 increased to 29.6% and 56.9% respectively,…

Blue Label Telecoms, which owns 45% of the troubled mobile phone group Cell C, may face suspension on the JSE bourse. The exchange said Blue Label Telecoms has failed to distribute its annual financial statements and notice of the annual general meeting within the four-month period stipulated in the JSE’s Listings Requirements. “Accordingly, the company’s listing on the JSE trading system has been annotated with a ‘RE’ to indicate that it has failed to comply and that the listing of this company’s securities is under threat of suspension and possible removal,” said the JSE on Tuesday. The exchange added that…

The Telkom October Big Deal has been revealed. Telkom’s SmartBroadband Wireless 40GB Anytime + 40GB Night Surfer SIM only data gives you 80GB per month for just R299. Night Surfer Data shall be valid between 12am – 7am. But you also have the choice to add a Huawei B525 router for R70 per month. That’s R369 in total for your very own WiFi at home. Connect all your devices and use your 80GB your way. The SmartBroadband 40GB Wireless is an LTE data offer. It is available as a SIM Only on a 24-month contract and as a deal which…

Stash, an investment app created by Liberty, now reaches 45 000 users. The tax-free investment app has been downloaded 50, 000 times with 175,000 investment transactions per month, and more than R70 million in investments so far. Liberty said on Monday this is a great reason for anyone to start stashing their spare change today. Stash is an app that simply rounds up transactions when you swipe your bank card and invests the digital spare change in South Africa’s Top 40 companies, tax-free. Stash is classified as a tax-free investment account, which means you don’t pay any tax on your…

Yoco announced today that its customer base of small businesses had crossed the 50,000 milestone and to further grow its customer base the South African FinTech firm is launching a new, lower-cost POS terminal The South African Point of Sale payments provider also launched the Yoco Go, a card machine targeting previously underserved small businesses that have not had access to card payment and Point of Sale technologies. The introduction of the Yoco Go is a critical element of the company’s growth strategy of doubling its merchant base over the next twelve months. Historically, small businesses have been excluded from the…

Cryptocurrency platform Coindirect has launched a brokerage system aimed at traders looking to do large volume cryptocurrency transactions. The “over-the-counter” (OTC) model, introduced this month, is a ‘first’ in South Africa and sets Coindirect apart from its local competitors in the market, the company claimed. “During our first two years in the industry we have paid close attention to which users are driving the volume of crypto trading,” Nic Haralambous, Coindirect’s COO, says. “Our approach is to bring cryptocurrency to as many users as possible, however, the data shows that a majority of the daily trading volume in South Africa…

Struggling mobile phone operator Cell C is showing no signs of recovery but it seems to be going slowly nowhere. JSE-listed telecoms group Blue Label Telecoms, which owns 45% of Cell C, informed investors on Thursday that the mobile phone operator incurred trading losses of R1.56 billion, impairments of its property, plant and equipment of R2.2 billion and de-recognised its deferred tax asset of R4.09 billion for the year ended-May 2019. Blue Label Telecoms said its 45% share amounted to R3.609 billion on the inclusion of the amortisation of intangible assets of R10 million and an expense of R65 million…