Author: Gugu Lourie

South African banks will fully transition to digital banking within five years as consumers embrace digitisation. A new report on the future of retail banking drafted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on behalf of Discovery Bank found that more than two-thirds of South Africans (69%) believe that the country’s banks will transition to a fully digital banking system within five years. The Discovery Bank-BCG survey also found that most South Africans (60%) believe that in just five years, there may be no need for banks to have physical branches. The survey was based on responses from 1,000 consumers from all walks…

Swift intervention by the Financial Intelligence Centre’s Fusion Centre has seen government recover R659 million to the fiscus deemed to have been proceeds of crime. Through the Fusion Centre, the FIC’s crime fighting public-public collaboration has secured several positive outcomes, including the preservation and recovery of pilfered public funds. In a statement, the FIC said the two-year-old Fusion Centre had secured achievements in improving efficiency in financial investigations related to corruption, fraud, abuse of power and maladministration. “In addition, the collective work of the Fusion Centre has resulted in the recovery of tax revenue, identification of fraud in the temporary…

MTN today informed investors that negotiations to buy South Africa’s Telkom are still in progress. “Shareholders are advised that discussions are still in progress which, if successfully concluded, may have a material effect on the price of the Company’s securities,” MTN said on Monday. “Accordingly, shareholders are advised to continue to exercise caution when dealing in the company’s securities until a further announcement is made.” Last month, MTN announced that it was in early talks to buy Telkom, the partially state-owned fixed-line telephone operator. Africa’s largest mobile phone operator said in a statement it had entered into discussions to buy…

EasyEquities, which is 70% owned by JSE-listed company Purple Group, has reached terms with an e-wallet provider (Provider) in the Asia Pacific Region. The company will launch investing services within the Providers e-wallet Application (e-wallet APP). The Provider will offer the EasyEquities investing services to its significant user base in the region, comprising tens of millions of users, through its e-wallet App. The Provider has requested for limited disclosure at this time so as not to pre-empt the commercial launch of the product planned for September 2022. “This is an exciting opportunity for EasyEquities and the Purple Group to expand…

Prosus, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world, today announced it has agreed to acquire the remaining 33.3% stake in iFood, from minority shareholder Just Eat for €1.5 billion or R25.6 billion in cash plus contingent consideration of up to €300 million or R5.1 billion. Following the transaction, Prosus and its affiliate company, Movile (a Brazilian investor in technology companies) will fully own iFood. iFood has performed exceptionally well since Prosus first invested in the business through Movile, founded by Fabricio Bloisi, in 2013. Starting as an online food ordering website, the…

Data-only network provider Rain has withdrawn its statement that it wants to merge with partially state-owned telecoms group Telkom. Following engagement with the Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP), at the TRP’s instruction, rain hereby withdraws its press release of 11 August 2022, said in a statement on Tuesday. “As rain, we are pleased with Telkom’s SENS announcement stating that if an offer or formal proposal is received from rain, the board of Telkom will consider it. rain intends to submit a formal non-binding proposal to Telkom in due course,” said Vivian Ngalo Chief Communications Officer at Rain. “Further details will be published…

MTN Group is flirting with 20 million InsurTech registered aYo policies for the six months ended-June 2022. The company informed investors today that its InsurTech platform reached 17.9 million registered aYo policies, up by 31.9% year-on-year. MTN said active policies reduced by 26.9% year-on-year due to a shift in the strategy to focus on a higher average revenue per policy and new revenue streams, particularly in Uganda. This resulted in termination of free policies in the portfolio. “Active policy growth was also impacted by platform migration and integration challenges as we shifted to a proprietary infrastructure,” said MTN. In total,…

MTN GROUPsaid on Wednesday that it expects to spin off its Fibre Business within the next two years. “The structural separation of the fibre business is also underway and is set to be completed within the next two years,” Ralph Mupita, MTN Group CEO, informed investors on Thursday. He added that in this business, MTN made encouraging progress with the additional build of 670km of fibre in the period. “Across the portfolio we now have 101 800km of proprietary fibre.” MTN also disclosed that MTN GlobalConnect (MTN GC) continued to drive fibreco ambitions, scaling its fixed connectivity and wholesale mobility services…

MTN Group said on Wednesday that the process with potential strategic investors for its FinTech business had been initiated, the outcome of which is anticipated to be concluded by the end of December 2022. In March, MTN announced plans to spin off its FinTech Business. For more read: MTN Set To Spin Off Fibre, FinTech Businesses, Invite Third Party Investors “The work to structurally separate the fintech business from the GSM business within the operations progressed well, and the implementation of inter-company agreements and necessary regulatory approvals are tracking in line with expectations,” Ralph Mupita, MTN Group CEO, informed investors on…

The Walt Disney Company has announced that Disney+ now has 221 million total subscriptions across our streaming offerings after adding 14.4 million new subscribers in the nine months to end-June 2022. “We had an excellent quarter, with our world-class creative and business teams powering outstanding performance at our domestic theme parks, big increases in live-sports viewership, and significant subscriber growth at our streaming services,” said Bob Chapek, CEO, The Walt Disney Company. Most of Disney+ growth for the quarter occurred outside of the United States and Canada, where the service added 100,000 subscribers to reach 44.5 million. The company reports…

Nedbank’s Avo super app continues to attract customers and businesses as it competes with Vodacom’s VodaPay app. Nedbank announced today that Avo has added 500 000 new customers in the past six months to end-June 2022 pushing its total users to 1.5 million. Since its launch in app stores on 19 June 2020, Avo has over 24 000 businesses registered and offering their products and services on this e-commerce platform, up by 37% year-on-year. Avo is a one-stop super app enabling clients to buy essential products and services online and have them delivered to their home, with seamless secure payments and credit enabled by the…

The South African government has published draft proposals to address the widespread theft of copper cable and other forms of metal from public infrastructure that has crippled power supplies, left trains unable to operate and damaged public facilities in many parts of the country. The proposals have been developed following consultations by the Departments of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic), Police, National Treasury, Mineral Resources and Energy, Public Enterprises (including state owned enterprises), and Transport and was published in the Government Gazette today by Minister Ebrahim Patel. The draft measures propose a six-month export prohibition on scrap and waste…

Facebook is shutting down its live shopping feature on October 1 to focus on Reels, the company announced in a blog post. The company said from October 1, 2022, you will no longer be able to host any new or scheduled Live Shopping events on Facebook. You will still be able to use Facebook Live to broadcast live events, but you won’t be able to create product playlists or tag products in your Facebook Live videos. Shifting focus to Reels “As consumers’ viewing behaviours are shifting to short-form video, we are shifting our focus to Reels on Facebook and Instagram,…

Vodacom Group has again demonstrated its resilience in the face of increasing pressure on consumers, increasing revenue by 5.2% to R26.1 billion in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, said revenue growth was underpinned by a resilient financial performance in most of our markets and South Africa in particular. “Our service revenue growth was supported by a 10.4% increase from our International portfolio and 9.3% growth from our financial services business. The growth rate in financial services was dampened by mobile money levies in Tanzania, and if adjusted for this impact would have been an…

THElatest data released today shows that the value of Vodacom’s mobile money platform, M-PESA, continues to rise at an impressive rate, with transaction values exceeding R5.7 trillion in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. Vodacom also informed investors that M-PESA had attracted 807 000 new customers. M-Pesa revenue grew 11.8% to R1.4 billion and was up 3.4% on a normalised basis. The company added that excluding the impact of the mobile money levies in Tanzania, normalised M-Pesa revenue increased 18.1%, highlighting the strong underlying growth momentum in customer and product adoption. “We added 807 000 M-Pesa customers in the quarter, with…

Vodacom announced today that its Super App, VodaPay, has added 300 000 new users in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. The VodaPay super app is available for download from Apple and Android app stores. VodaPay delivers a digital shopping, lifestyle and financial platform for consumers and businesses. “The rapid adoption rate of our VodaPay super-app in South Africa remains encouraging with 2.8 million downloads and 1.9 million registered users by quarter end,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO. “Given VodaPay is a precursor to M-Pesa’s evolution and further strengthens our fintech position across our footprint, we remain confident about the…

The Council of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) today announced the appointment of Dr Charley Lewis as the Acting Chairperson. His appointment is effective from 16 July 2022 to 03 April 2023, or until a Chairperson is appointed. The appointment of Lewis comes as ICASA bids farewell to its outgoing Chairperson, Dr Keabetswe Modimoeng, whose last day in office is today. The appointment of the Acting Chairperson is informed by the provisions of section 5(2) of the ICASA Act which provides that “in the absence of the Chairperson, the remaining Councillors must, from their number, elect an…

South Africa’s MTN announced today that it is in early talks to buy Telkom, the partially state-owned fixed-line telephone operator. Africa’s largest mobile phone operator said in a statement it had entered into discussions to buy the entire issued share capital of Telkom in return for shares or a combination of cash and shares in MTN. “Discussions are at an early stage and there is no certainty that the Transaction will be consummated,” stated MTN. “The board of directors of MTN (Board), individually and collectively, accept full responsibility for the accuracy of the information contained in this announcement and certify…

Today, InterNations publishes its Expat Insider 2022 survey, one of the world’s most comprehensive surveys about living and working abroad with nearly 12,000 survey respondents. Overall, the survey report analyzes 52 destinations around the globe, ranking the best and worst countries for expats and offering in-depth information on expats’ satisfaction with the Quality of Life, Ease of Settling In, Working Abroad, and Personal Finance in their respective country of residence. For the first time, the ranking also includes the new Expat Essentials Index, which covers digital life, admin topics, housing, and language Safety & Security Are Main Concerns for Expats…

Bdeo, a provider of Visual Intelligence solutions for the insurance industry, announced that it has expanded its relationship with Hollard and officially launched in the South African market. The two companies entered into a strategic collaboration to help streamline Hollard’s entire end-to-end motor claims assessment and damage repair process. Bdeo’s Visual FNOL technology allows Hollard policyholders to gather evidence of motor insurance claims through a self-guided image and video capture solution and deliver the information to Hollard Assessors in real-time to perform remote assessments. Bdeo’s Visual Estimate technology also estimates damage costs, enabling Hollard Assessors to generate assessment reports and…

MTN South Africa Chief Consumer Officer Mapula Bodibe takes the helm at MTN Rwanda, bringing with her more than 15 years’ experience with MTN, including in Uganda. She has a strong background in commercial strategy, consumer marketing, customer strategy, brand management and communications, product management and customer analytics. Sylvia Mulinge becomes MTN Uganda CEO, joining from Safaricom, where she served as Chief Consumer Business Officer for the Group. A seasoned executive, she brings with her a passion for transforming customers’ lives using technology. Mulinge replaces Wim Vanhelleputte, who will take on the new MTN Group role of Operations Executive: Markets.…

As load shedding escalates across the country, MTN South Africa is working around the clock to protect customers’ connectivity, with an aggressive rollout of batteries, generators and alternate power supplies. MTN is also reaching out to small businesses to supply generators for its operations. Charles Molapisi, MTN SA CEO, says MTN’s priority is keeping its customers connected and to this end, the company is exploring practical and innovative solutions to the power crisis. “There is no doubt the country is facing a power crisis but at MTN, we want to turn this crisis into an opportunity for small businesses by…

Today, Prosus and Naspers announced the start of an open-ended share repurchase programme of Prosus and Naspers shares. This programme will be funded by regularly selling small numbers of Tencent shares and is designed to efficiently unlock immediate value for shareholders and increase NAV per share over time. The programme will be active as long as the discount to NAV is at elevated levels. Prosus, the Dutch-based technology investor controlled by South Africa’s Naspers, said the programme is designed to increase net asset value per share, taking advantage of both Prosus’s and Naspers’s trading discounts to their underlying net asset…

Takealot, the country’s largest e-commerce platform, reported today a trading loss of $7 million or R111 million, or a 1% trading loss margin, for the year to end-March 2022 similar to the 2021 financial year. The Naspers-owned retailer said it remained near breakeven. Despite increased competitive pressure from bricks-and-mortar retailers, Superbalist, one of South Africa’s leading online fashion destinations, delivered strong revenue growth of 55% and improved its trading loss margin by almost 2 percentage points to 7% during the year. Mr D benefited from increasing awareness of online food delivery, a slower recovery of the restaurant market, and shifting…

South Africa’s internet behemoth Naspers announced today it has sold close to $4 billion or R63 billion worth of stock in JD.com that it received as dividends from investee Tencent. Tencent is China’s largest social media company. Naspers said its subsidiary Prosus, though its unit MIH TC Holdings sold  131.8 million shares in JD it got from Tencent, representing 4% shareholding in the Chinese retailer. JD.com is a leading supply chain-based technology and service provider. Its e-commerce business includes online retail and online marketplace. In the online retail business, JD.com acquires products from suppliers and sells them directly to customers…