Author: Gugu Lourie

MTN Group, Africa and the Middle East largest mobile phone operator, announced on Thursday it has added 10.4 million new subscribers for mobile, data and mobile money services for the 9 months to September 2019. The Johannesburg-based company said subscribers rose quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) by 3,5 million to 243,7 million. The company, which is valued at R179 billion on the JSE, added that active data subscribers increased QoQ by 4,7 million to 87,0 million. While active MTN Mobile Money customers rose QoQ by 2,2 million to 31,7 million. The operator said service revenue rose year-on-year (YoY) by 9,6%, with earnings before…

Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures) has led a $40 million (R600 million) investment in ElasticRun, a virtual logistics network that is revolutionising consumer products delivery across India. The funds have been raised with participation from existing investor Avataar Ventures and Kalaari Capital. The new investment round will help the company expand its deeply penetrated logistics network, which is already helping to reshape India’s $300 billion logistics industry. ElasticRun will also use the new funds to further build its technology platform to accommodate new product lines, expand the platform to additional categories, and to evolve its analytics and machine learning platforms to…

PayU, the payments and Fintech business of Prosus, today leads the fresh round of investment worth $11 million (R165 million) through the acquisition of a minority stake in Fisdom, a high growth consumer wealth tech platform in India. In addition to PayU, current investors Saama Capital and Quona Capital also participated in this round. This move marks PayU’s entry into a new segment, wealth tech, and demonstrates the company’s commitment towards investing in and building a broader FinTech ecosystem in India around core payments and lending businesses. Founded by Subramanya SV and Anand Dalmia, Fisdom is a high-growth wealth tech…

South African firm Axon Wireless has launched Africa’s first ‘tap and go’ system for mobile SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card registration.   Ivory Coast is the first country on the continent where mobile users are able to comply with KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements by simply placing their national identity cards on a mobile phone screen and letting the agent’s pre-loaded Axon software do the rest.   By instantly reading and recording citizens’ identity information, SIMs are registered in an astonishing 45 seconds. “Mobile’s all about convenience and we’re extending that efficiency to the customer sign-up process. The system has…

The CEO and other executives of the troubled JSE-listed technology group 4Sight Holdings have resigned. The company informed investors on Wednesday that CEO Vince Raseroka has resigned with immediate effect, having also tendered his resignation as an employee. “To afford the reconstituted board the opportunity to allow for a smooth transition, Gary Lauryssen and Jason du Plessis will remain employed by the 4Sight Group. Tinus Neethling will remain in his current role as Telco Cluster head within the 4Sight Group,” the company informed investors. Lauryssen, du Plessis and Neethling have also resigned at 4Sight with immediate effect. The company announced…

Blue Label Telecoms remuneration committee seems not to be perturbed by shareholder destruction in the company. The committee has rewarded the executives handsomely despite the company’s market value being hit hard by poor investment in struggling mobile phone operator Cell C. Together with Cell C’s trading loss and further impairment of its property, plant and equipment and an impairment of our own investment, Blue Label recorded a net loss related to Cell C of more than R6 billion. The company which used to be regarded as a JSE’s best-kept secret has seen its shares plummet 50% year-to-date and dropped 87%…

Net 1, the company behind Cash Paymaster Services that used to run SA’s social grant payment system, has injected R300 million in embattled mobile phone operator Cell C. Cell C is 45% owned by JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms, 15% by Net 1, 3 Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) collectively hold 30% (in turn held by 3C Telecommunications and further in turn held as 29.4% by the Employee Believe Trust, 45.6% by Oger Telecoms and 25% by broad-based black empowerment grouping CellSAf); and Cell C Management and Staff hold 10%. Net 1 and Blue Label Telecoms have written down to zero the…

Net 1, the company behind Cash Paymaster Services that used to run SA’s social grant payment system, is considering selling its 30% stake in DNI, the largest wholesaler of Cell C starter packs in the country. The JSE and Nasdaq-listed firm has framed the sale to generate additional liquidity to fund its other businesses. Net 1 disclosed in its recently published annual report that on May 3, 2019, its wholly owned subsidiary, Net1 Applied Technologies South Africa or Net1 SA, entered into an agreement to grant a call option to DNI to acquire Net1 SA’s remaining 30% interest in DNI.…

The co-founders of Blue Label  Telecoms, which owns 45% of Cell C, after having bought the stake in a R5.5-billion deal last year, have resigned from the mobile phone operators’ board. With immediate effect, both co-founders and co-CEOs of Blue Label Telecoms Brett and Mark Levy are relinquishing their positions as non-executive directors of the Cell C board. The market value of Blue Label Telecoms has been hammered by Cell C’s troubles in the past few years. “[The Levy Brothers] will be concentrating their efforts on Blue Label only,” Blue Label Telecoms informed investors on Thursday. It is understandably, Blue…

Altron is set to continue to seek acquisitions as the company seeks to widen its reach, according to the company’s CEO on Thursday. “Our focus will remain on organic growth, supplemented by acquiring select small-to-medium-sized businesses in our focus areas, which will lead to enhanced capabilities and expanded geographic footprint,” said Altron’s Group CEO Mteto Nyati. He didn’t provide further details about targeted potential buys. Altron reported on Thursday a 4% rise in headline earnings per share (HEPS) from continuing operations to 73 cents a share and an interim dividend of 29 cents per share was declared for the six…

Prosus on Tuesday announced a rival bid for the U.K. based food delivery service Just Eat. The Euronext and JSE-listed company has made a bid of 4.9 billion pounds ($6.35 billion or R94 billion) or 710 pence a share, in cash. Just Eat is looking to complete a merger with Takeaway.com. The Naspers-owned firm said offer represents a premium of 20% to the bid from Takeaway.com. “We believe our global experience and resources can help Just Eat to achieve its significant potential. Our plan is to support the Just Eat management team, with whom we have worked closely as joint…

Old Mutual has provided financial services and products to individuals and business customers since 1845. In a move aimed at experimenting at lower costs and improve the experience for existing customers and attract new ones, Old Mutual has turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Old Mutual has selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider and will migrate its digital customer platforms, core insurance applications, and product administration systems to the cloud. Old Mutual is an African financial services group that offers a broad spectrum of financial solutions to retail and corporate customers across key markets in 14 countries. “AWS provides…

Troubled mobile phone operator Cell C wants to transform itself into a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). Cell C is unable to compete against bigger rivals, Vodacom, MTN and Telkom. In the year ended-May 2019, Cell C reported an after-tax net loss of R8 billion. Its woes are having a negative impact on JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms, which owns almost half of the mobile phone company. Blue Label Telecoms has written off its entire investment in Cell C to zero. In an interview with Financial Mail, Cell C CEO Douglas Craigie Stevenson revealed the company’s turnaround plan. After years of losses,…

Foursight Holdings Proprietary Limited (FH), the intermediary investment holding company of some of the South African subsidiaries, has filed for business rescue, becoming the latest local tech company to stumble. FH is a subsidiary of JSE-listed technology group 4Sight Holdings. 4Sight informed investors on Tuesday are advised that the directors of FH have passed a resolution placing FH into business rescue in terms of section 129 of the Companies Act, 71 of 2008. FH is an intermediate holding company, within the 4Sight group, and is heavily dependent on the cash flows in the form of dividends and management fees from…

About  50 “enterprise development” business partners and intermediaries have approached the courts to challenge troubled tech group EOH for blacklisting them over suspect payments. In July 2019, EOH reported that suspicious transaction to the value of R1,2 billion had been identified. The ENSafrica team, which was appointed by EOH, has made significant progress on the investigation, said the JSE-listed company on Tuesday. “They have completed almost 80% of their investigation into the R1,2 billion identified suspect payments. This amount has since been modified to R935 million and includes transactions with no evidence of valid contracts being in a place or…

The CEO of JSE-listed software services firm Adapt IT took home R3.66 million for the financial year ended 30 June 2019. As part of the package, Sbu Shabalala received R1.17 million in bonus and performance-related payments. In 2018, Shabalala was paid R2.7 million, plus R1.7 million in bonus and performance-related payments. While Tiffany Dunsdon, Adapt IT’s commercial director and MD of international operations, received R2.9 million plus R697 000 in bonus and performance-related payments. In 2018, her total package was R2.3 million. Nombali Mbambo, Adapt IT CFO, was paid R2.5 million for the financial year ended 30 June versus R1.9…

Adapt IT reported a 6% drop in headline earnings per share (HEPS) from continuing operations to 57 cents for the year ended 30 June 2019. HEPS is South Africa’s main profit gauge. The JSE-listed services group also announced on Monday it has deferred a dividend decision until after the 31 December 2019 interim reporting date to reduce the net gearing ratio in the short-term “The board has taken a decision that it is prudent to defer a dividend decision until after the interim period when cash flows of the group are generally stronger from a ‘seasonality’ perspective,” the company informed investors.…

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…