Author: Gugu Lourie

Vodafone Group announced today that Nick Read has agreed with the board that he will step down as Group Chief Executive and as a Director of Vodafone on 31 December 2022. Read be available as an adviser to the board until 31 March 2023. Margherita Della Valle has been appointed interim Group Chief Executive. She will accelerate the execution of the Company’s strategy to improve operational performance and deliver shareholder value. In addition to being appointed interim Group Chief Executive, Margherita Della Valle will also continue as Group Chief Financial Officer. The Board has initiated a process to find a…

MTN Group emerged victorius in a R73 billion lawsuit initaited 10 yeears ago by Turkish operator Turkcell. Turkcell and East Asian Consortium, or EAC had initiated action against it and certain of its subsidiaries in 2013, seeking damages over allegations of impropriety in the award of the first private mobile telecommunications license in Iran. In 2020, Turkcell withdrew as a plaintiff, leaving EAC as sole plaintiff. The court dismissed the action without costs on Wednesday, ending the litigation. “In a judgment handed down by the High Court of South Africa on 30 November 2022, EAC’s action against MTN has been…

Truworths has been approved for secondary listing on A2X Markets and its ordinary shares will commence trading on the stock exchange from 5 December 2022. Truworths will retain its primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and its issued share capital will be unaffected by its secondary listing on A2X. Founded in 1917, the company listed on the JSE and the Namibian Stock Exchange in 1998. The Truworths International Group is one of the leading fashion retailers in Africa with 785 mainly Truworths and Identity stores, together with 92 Office stores and concessions in the UK, Germany and the Republic of…

Vodacom has launched a patient engagement solution which includes a computer-aided emergency services dispatch system, a first for South Africa’s public healthcare sector. Together with the Northern Cape Department of Health, and under the leadership of the acting head of the provincial health department, Riaan Strydom, Vodacom has created an end-to-end technology solution to make the province’s healthcare services more accessible. The launch, which took place in the Northern Cape, at the Provincial Health Offices highlights how public-private partnerships can spearhead innovation and ultimately save people’s lives. “Since 2019, Vodacom and the Northern Cape Department of Health have been hard…

Telkom today reported less than half the earnings it had in the same quarter a year ago and announced the resignation of its chairman Sello Moloko. The company said headline earnings per share – South Africa’s main profit gauge – dropped by 51.9% to 137.2 cents a share for the six months to end-September 2022. Telkom also reported that group revenue down 0.7% to R 21.2 billion and EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation) down 17.3% to R4.9 billion. The decline in EBIDTA of 17.3%, partially offset by lower finance charges and fair-value movements, resulted in a decline…

Telkom announced today that its chairman Sello Moloko has resigned due to workload reasons. Moloko will step down as chairman of the partially state-owned telco by no later than 31 March 2023. Moloko is also the chairman of Absa. He took the reins on Absa’s board in April from Wendy Lucas-Bull. Moloko was appointed as the chairman of Telkom board on 20 March 2018 and became Chairperson of the Board in June 2019. He served as a Member of the Remuneration Committee and Chairperson of the Nominations Committee. “Sello Moloko has informed the Board of his intention to step down…

JSE-listed low-cost retailer Pepkor announced today that its FinTech business Flash now supports 202 000 traders in the informal market and is immersed in the South African informal market. “The average turnover generated per trader improved by 12% during the year,” said Pepkor. “Flash’s understanding of consumer needs, the technology used and their extensive interconnected network of partners work to better connect the informal and formal market sectors.” Pepkor owns PEP, Bradlows, Ackermans, Capfin, Incredible Connection, Hi-Fi Corp, Rochester, Timbercity and Shoe City. Shop owners can use the Flash devices to increase their business by offering multiple services to attract…

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just a few days away, so Ookla –  which owns and operates the popular speedtest.net Internet speed testing service – wanted to help you navigate those deals with hard data on the fastest 5G popular devices. Ookla used Speedtest Intelligence to look at 5G performance data in the 10 countries with the highest number of connected mobile devices according to GSMA that also had an established 5G market during Q3 2022. As a reminder, Ookla already looked at the newer models in the Apple iPhone 14 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 earlier this quarter, right after both…

Contro, a South African telehealth start-up that focuses on sexual health and confidence treatment services, has announced the close of their oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, raising a total of R10.1 million. Investment was raised from four international and local VCs, including Plug & Play, iCubed Capital, WZ Capital and the Jozi Angels Network, prominent local and international Angels, and Contro received grant funding from the i3 fund backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Contro launched in June 2021 and currently offers six services including subscription services for birth control, erectile dysfunction treatment and hair loss treatment, as well…

Super app Yassir, the most valuable startup in North Africa, has announced that it will soon be launching its on-demand grocery delivery services in South Africa. Founded in 2017 by Algerian native and Stanford PhD Noureddine Tayebi, the Yassir mobile app has quickly taken the continent by storm, expanding its footprint to six countries and 45 cities where it is used by more than eight million users. ‘Yassir’ means ‘easy’ in Arabic, which speaks directly to the company’s mission to make people’s lives easier, explains Yassir South Africa General Manager Timothy Kiluba. “More than another grocery delivery service, Yassir aims…

Telkom on Monday warned investors that it headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the six months to end-September 2022 will be cut by 55% compared to the prior interim period in 2021. HEPS is South Africa’s main profit gauge. Telkom advised shareholders that reported HEPS and reported basic earnings per share are expected to decrease by between 45% and 55% compared to the prior interim period ended 30 September 2021. Telkom attributed the expected loss mobile postpaid vs prepaid mix changing which had the impact of deferring revenue over 24 – 36 months, as well as the cost base increasing.…

Vodacom announced today that its Financial Services business reported a 19.2% rise in revenue to R4.4 billion fuelled by insurance business, with policies up 19.4% to 2.6 million and a recovery in Airtime Advance revenue growth. The Vodafone-owned company added that normalised M-Pesa revenue growth accelerated to 20.4% in the second quarter, as Tanzania lapped mobile money levies imposed in July 2021 and its new financial services continued to scale. New financial services such as loans and merchant services contributed more than half of M-Pesa revenue growth in the period. The group said Safaricom generated financial services revenue of R7.9…

Vodacom announced today that it has invested over R2 billion in batteries alone to enhance the resilience of our network so that we keep customers connected during extended periods of loadshedding. “At the same time, we continue to work closely with Eskom to find a renewable energy solution for the benefit of our planet and customers, having announced in September 2022 an in-principle agreement with South Africa’s energy utility to pilot a programme that would see Vodacom South Africa source its electricity from renewable independent power producers and contribute this into the national grid,” Shameel Joosub, Vodacom’s CEO informed investors…

The state’s role in terms of what we call regulation should change to be an enabler. This is the view of Andile Ngcaba, the executive chairman and founder of private equity firm Convergence Partners, noting that the telecommunications industry should strive to remove the word regulation in-laws, vocabulary, and terminologies. Ngcaba participated in a roundtable on “Looking Back, Going Forward: How Africa’s Tech History Contains the Roots of its Future” at Africa Tech Fest and AfricaCom 2022 in Cape Town. He was joined by Nic Rudnick – CEO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Nika Naghavi – Executive director of MNOs at…

Liquid Intelligent Technologies, which is owned by Strive Masiyiwa, is spending more than R350m into delivering Software Defined Network (SDN) offering known as Dataport. The client-controlled network can be scaled and customised to suit the datacentre and SME user market, and South Africa’s 20 000 connected buildings. SDN connections are typically used to connect enterprise networks, including branch offices and data centres, over local and long distances. Users have complete control over their operations through an efficient, easy-to-use web portal, from choosing destinations, speed and bandwidths, managing traffic demand, checking costs, and more. With Dataport, customers have complete oversight of…

The first regional Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) adoption in Africa has to be led through policies, said Anderson Amlamba, director of the AU’s Management Information System. Speaking at the launch of “Africa IPv6 Development White Paper” by the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), African Union (AU) and Huawei at the 4th Broadband Africa Forum at AfricaCom 2022, Amlamba said that’s the only way Africa will be able to get IPv6 adoption through all the different industry sectors and verticals. This first regional IPv6 white paper on the African continent systematically analyses the development of IPv6 in Africa and shares the…

MTN SA service revenue grew by 3.5% in the third quarter to end-September 2022, impacted by loadshedding and concessions to support the Cell C recapitalisation. Service revenue in the prepaid consumer business unit (CBU) grew by 0.4%, with postpaid CBU increasing by 4.2%. The enterprise business unit (EBU) continues to deliver strong double-digit growth of 19.7%. Furthermore, the wholesale business delivered 0.7% growth despite revenue concessions amounting to R82 million on the Cell C national roaming agreement geared to enabling the conclusion of their recapitalisation. In the nine months to September 2022, MTN SA grew its subscriber base by over…

MTN announced today that its FinTech business saw revenue rose by 12.9%, with Mobile Money (MoMo) active monthly users up by 23.3% in the third quarter of 2022. In Q3 2022, MTN recorded a 32.7% increase in transaction volumes to 9.5 billion transactions, with transaction value up by 12.1% to $166.7 billion. The number of active merchants accepting MoMo payments increased by 64.4% to over 1.0 million, and the total value of MoMo merchant payments rose by 64.9% to $10.8 billion. In BankTech, MTN facilitated a total loan value of $1 billion, a 57.9% year-on-year increase, as it capitalised on…

MTN GlobalConnect, a digital wholesale and infrastructure services company and an operating company in the MTN Group, announced today that it has signed $28.2 million or R516 million fixed external infrastructure deals. MTN GlobalConnect is driving MTN’s fibreco ambitions in Africa. The telco is planning to demerge its Fibre and FinTech businesses and bring third-party investors to unlock value trapped in the company. External revenue grew by 16.9% year-on-year to $247.9 million or R4.5 billion, with Mobility revenue up by 18.3%. “Building scale infrastructure assets across Africa remained a key priority as MTN GlobalConnect expanded terrestrial fibre into its markets,” MTN informed investors. “We rolled…

MTN announced today that its Nigerian operation has added 5.7 million new susbcribers in nine months ended 30 September 2022 The telco said mobile subscribers rose by 9.7% to 74.1 million MTN aaded that active data users increased by 14.6% to 38 million, adding 3.7 million new active users. The operation’s active fintech subscribers rose by 68.7% to 11.2 million or 1.8 million active MoMo wallets since the launch of MoMo Payment Service Bank (PSB). “The investments we make to enhance the quality and coverage of our network continue to yield positive results, driving higher data usage and an expansion…

South Africa’s retailer Pick n Pay has been approved for a secondary listing on A2X Markets. The Pick n Pay Group, with a market value of R27 billion, informed shareholders that its primary listing on the JSE  and issued share capital will be unaffected by the secondary listing on A2X. “Shareholders are hereby advised that Pick n Pay’s ordinary shares have been approved for inclusion in the list of qualifying equity securities to be traded on A2X with effect from 1 November 2022,” Pick n Pay informed investors. Pick n Pay’s  Pick n Pay’s shares will commence trading on A2X…

Throughout its launch across Africa, top global streaming platform Spotify has demonstrated its commitment to bolstering the careers of African creators through on- and off-platform support programmes. In line with this, the company has announced a first-of-its-kind podcast initiative on the continent, the Africa Podcast Fund, with the goal of supporting podcasters and further amplifying their stories. The $100,000 or R1.8 million fund aims to bolster the careers of these podcast creators through financial grants, workshops and networking opportunities. The Africa Podcast Fund is offered to select creators from African countries with the biggest podcast listenerships, namely South Africa, Nigeria,…

Telkom announced on Wednesday that MTN had halted talks over its proposed takeover of the country’s biggest fixed-line telephone group. “MTN terminated discussions in relation to the MTN Proposal on 18 October 2022, as Telkom was not in a position to provide MTN with assurances around exclusivity,” Telkom informed investors. Discussions were at an early stage and had not progressed to due diligence nor had a binding offer been received by the Telkom board, said the company. “The Telkom Board has a legal and fiduciary duty to consider all bona fide offers. Shareholders are therefore advised that they no longer…

Struggling Eskom implemented Stage 4 load-shedding early Tuesday morning. The power utility said five generation units at five power stations broke down overnight. Eskom said as a result of the breakdowns, Stage 4 load-shedding was “implemented from 5-30 this morning until further notice”. Also read: Eskom Signs Leasing Agreements With Renewable Energy Companies ESKOMhas signed leasing contracts with four renewable energy companies to build new renewable energy facilities on land owned by the power utility. The four companies – HDF Energy SA, Red Rocket SA, Sola Group and Mainstream Renewable Power Developments SA – are expected to be connected to the national grid within 24…

Naspers through its Dutch-based technology investor Prosus is selling its Russian classified business Avito for RUB 151 billion or R45 billion to Kismet Capital Group (Kismet). Kismet is a private investment group with a track record of investing in technology and telecommunications businesses in Russia. All relevant regulatory approvals have been received. The South African-based group said the closing pf the deal is expected to occur in October 2022. “Since announcing our intention to sell Avito on 20 May 2022, our aim has been to manage the sale of the business in a responsible and orderly way,” said Naspers. “We…