Author: Gugu Lourie

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…

Wingcopter, the German delivery drone manufacturer and service provider, today announced that it has raised $42 million or R672 million from renowned financial and strategic investors. The new funding is part of a Series A extension round, tripling the company’s total equity raise to more than $60 million or R960 million to date. Leading German retailer REWE Group as well as German investors Salvia and XAI technologies came on board as new shareholders. They were joined by Japanese conglomerate ITOCHU and previous backers Futury Capital from Germany and Silicon Valley-based Xplorer Capital. Drone Delivery has gained enormous momentum in the…

Southern Africa is the fastest region in Africa in terms of median download speed of 37.89 Mbps, followed by Northern Africa at 25.63 Mbps, Central Africa at 18.73 Mbps, Eastern Africa at 18.31 Mbps, and Western Africa at 17.00 Mbps,  a report by speed test service Ookla revealed on Wednesday. “When it comes to speeds in select African capital cities, Johannesburg was fastest with a median download speed of 65.54 Mbps — nearly 35% faster than that of the next-fastest city, Cape Town at 48.27 Mbps,” says Sylwia Kechiche, Principal Industry Analyst, Enterprise at Ookla. She added that Gaborone stood out…

Discovery Bank announced today that it will offer Vitality Pay as you Gym to all Discovery clients, including those with a Discovery Account. This is part of making physical activity more accessible for all Discovery clients. It’s easy to use and clients can access more than 170 Virgin Active and Planet Fitness clubs nationwide. Clients simply go to a club, scan the QR code at the entrance, seamlessly pay the access fee of between R75 and R100 (depending on the facility) from either a Discovery Bank transaction account, credit card or using Discovery Miles, and enjoy their workout. As an introductory special…