Author: Gugu Lourie

Shares in Blue Label Telecoms have continued to dive after a week to forget for the JSE-listed group. On Thursday, shares in Blue Label Telecoms, which owns half of Cell C, tumbled 7.43% to close at R2.74 a share. Blue Label Telecoms’ share price reached a new low of R2.67 after dropping 1.84% by 13:07 today, pushing its market value to R2.4 billion. Back in October 2016, Blue Label Telecoms’ market value shot up to R19.3 billion when the firm invested in Cell C. The downward spiral of Blue Label Telecoms shares is attributed to the woes of Cell C,…

South Africans are increasingly unhappy with mobile service providers. But while they are unhappy they are not changing their mobile service providers, such as Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, and Telkom. The number of people choosing to change their mobile network operator without losing their mobile number is sitting at 77,019 every month. This is according to Number Portability Company (NPC), which was supposed to protect the customer by enabling him or her to vote with their feet when they are not happy with the Telco services, seems concerned with service woes. The NPC is owned jointly by Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Telkom,…

Not so long ago Blue Label Telecoms was one of the darlings of the JSE, with its share price showing no signs of slowing down. Blue Label Telecoms listed on the JSE in November 2007 at R6.75 a share and attracted global tech giant Microsoft as an investor (which later sold its shareholding in 2010). The company’s growth enabled it to buy half of the mobile phone operator Cell C. Blue Label Telecoms’ market value shot up to R19.3 billion in October 2016 when the firm invested in Cell C. The market cap, however, has shrunk to about R3 billion…

Crisis-hit Cell C has defaulted on interest payments of loans due July 2019 on certain bilateral loan facilities totalling 40% of its total debt at Dec. 31, 2018, according to rating agency S&P Global Ratings, which today lowered the company’s rating to default. The mobile phone operator, which has been grappling with debt for some time now, has been a drag on its biggest shareholder Blue Label Telecoms. The operator is struggling to service an almost R9 billion debt load. Shares in JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms, which owns half of Cell C, tumbled 7.43% to close at R2.74 a share.…

South Africa’s retailer Mr Price, which runs its mobile virtual network operator on a Cell C’s network since 2014, continues to make money from cellular and mobile. Its services are becoming an alternative to your traditional mobile phone companies, such as Vodacom, MTN, and Cell C, etc. However, MR Price is only known for its affordable and quality clothes. You may wish to know the amounts of money the company is making from the lucrative cellular and financial services. The retail group announced on Thursday that the insurance revenue of R81.1 million decreased 5.2% and cellular and mobile revenue increased…

Things keep getting worse for the JSE-listed group. At 12:20 today, Blue Label Telecoms shares fell 6.1% to slide all the way to R2.92 a share, pushing the company’s market value way below the R19.3 billion in October 2016 when the firm invested in Cell C. The company’s shares have more than halved in the past year, giving it a R3 billion in market value. This is more than R2 billion lower than the controversial R5.5 billion paid by Blue Label Telecoms for its 45% stake in Cell C. The latest reason why Blue Label Telecoms shares are tanking…

Last month, Cell C said it has appointed Bowmans Attorneys to “investigate any parts of the business where we suspect that there may be irregular business practices”. Given that Cell C executives have been accused of many things by #SAVECELLC and #CellCKwenzenjani group on social media the probe may in fact be overdue. For more read: R219 Million Paid To Three Top Execs At Cell C in 2017 The allegations are that executives have been dishing out contracts to family members. Even, S&P rating agency downgraded Cell C’s rating profile, placing it deeper into ‘junk’ status in June. Last week,…

The publication of the 2019 financial year results of JSE-listed group Blue Label Telecoms will be delayed until late September. Blue Label Telecoms informed investors on Monday that the delay is due to various issues related to Cell C. The JSE-listed group is the largest shareholder of Cell C, South Africa’s troubled mobile phone operator. The company informed investors that its financial results for the year ended 31 May 2019 will be released on SENS on 26 September 2019. The results had been expected to publish later this month. “Blue Label’s audit for the year ended 31 May 2019 is…

JSE-listed technology group Blue Label Telecoms shares took another nosedive on Thursday as it emerged that troubled Cell C has fallen behind on payments to MTN for using its network. Cell C has a roaming agreement with MTN. In its half-year results, MTN announced that it is owed R393 million by Cell C and has written off a part of the amount. The share price of Blue Label Telecoms was trading 1.55% lower at R4.46 a share by 15h00 on Thursday, reflecting investor concern that the troubles at Cell C may be far from being resolved. In 2017, Blue Label…

MTN, Africa’s largest mobile phone operator, could score R23 billion from a sale of its stake in HIS Towers, Africa’s largest telecommunication-towers company. MTN owns 29% stake in IHS Towers, and the remainder is held by French investment firm Wendel SA and Goldman Sachs & Co. Africa’s largest mobile phone operator is not selling its interest in IHS Towers, but the company informed investors on Thursday that its stake is not held for long-term strategic purposes. “Our associate tower businesses include our 49% holdings in both ATC Ghana and ATC Uganda. During the first half we saw a strong contribution…

Jumia – the largest e-commerce operator in Africa – was floated on the New York Stock Exchange(NYSE) on April 2019 and MTN is a significant shareholder. MTN – Africa’s largest mobile phone operator, owns 18.9% stake in Jumia. The stake is worth more than Clientele’s entire market value on the JSE, which is R5.1 billion. “Following the Jumia IPO and making reference to the NYSE share price of the business at the end of the period (30 June 2019), we now value our 18,9% stake at R5,5 billion at an American Depositary Share (ADS) price of $26,42,” MTN informed investors…

MTN  is re-focusing its business on building an integrated digital operator and the results are encouraging. The shift is part of a strategy to focus on the FinTech, digital, enterprise, and wholesale business areas. This is to position Africa’s largest mobile phone operator for the future where voice business will no longer be its bread and butter. MTN makes about 59% of its revenue from voice. In the six months to end June, MTN’s voice revenue rose 4.5% to R40 billion. However, this picture is slowly changing as MTN continues its journey to transform itself into a digital operator. In…

Blue Label Telecoms announced on Wednesday that it has promoted Douglas Craigie Stevenson to CEO of troubled Cell C. The JSE-listed firm, Cell C’s largest shareholder, said the appointment of Craigie Stevenson is with immediate effect. Craigie Stevenson was appointed as interim CEO in March. “In the past five months Douglas and his team have led the company to improved financial stability, sound business ethics and good governance, better operational performance and has established a path to sustainability,” Kuben Pillay, Chairman of the Cell C Board says. “His permanent appointment was unanimously approved by the board and we are fully…

Black Beard, South Africa’s tech solutions startup, rebrands to Basalt and the company is planning global expansion. The company’s key services include strategic innovative solutions development; web, system and app development; user acceptance testing; migration and porting; technical support; technical architecture; sustained engineering and personalised service. With its bold and sometimes unconventional style, Basalt has built transformative solutions for some of Africa’s major healthcare and financial institutions. Despite being a young company (founded in 2017), Basalt already has an impressive client portfolio including Standard Bank, Discovery, Westbrooke Alternative Asset Management, Investec Property, OUTsurance, Capricorn Fund Managers, NewzroomAfrik, Neopak and Buyisa…

Vodacom has launched a Super Value Data Offer, providing its customers 80GB. The promotion is available on SIM-only data bundles on a 24-month contract. The Super Value Data Offer is giving customers 80GB, consisting of: 30GB Data Night Owl (12 am – 5 am) 50GB Anytime Data The deal is available on a Huawei R218H Router for an additional R30 per month and on a Huawei B315 or a ZTE MF283 Home Router for R50 per month. Last week, MTN South Africa announced the launch of the 80GB Mega Deal at R299 per month. The mobile phone operator said the Mega Deal…

TymeBank announced on Wednesday it has promoted Tauriq Keraan to CEO after Sandile Shabalala resigned in June. The African Rainbow Capital-owned TymeBank said Keraan has been deputy CEO since 2018. In this role, he drove cross-functional execution and had line accountability for strategy, partnerships, data science, innovation, stakeholder engagement and operations. He also played a critical role in the market launch of TymeBank in 2019. He has played an instrumental role in the bank’s development, having been a founding member that led to Tyme’s inception in 2012 and has played a critical role in the market launch of TymeBank in…

The Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Science and Technology, Buti Manamela, will tomorrow officially launch the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) in Potchefstroom. SADiLaR is a national centre supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) as part of the new South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR). SADiLaR has an enabling function, with a focus on all official languages of South Africa, supporting research and development in the domains of language technologies and language-related studies in the humanities and social sciences. The centre supports the creation, management and distribution of digital language resources, as well as…

The US Trade and Development Agency has provided funding to South Africa’s Wireless Access Providers Association (WAPA). The funding will be used for a pilot project that will help improve internet access for rural and semi-rural areas in South Africa through the use of American TV white space (TVWS) technologies. The pilot sites will be in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Gauteng, and in Mpumalanga. The consortium carrying out the pilot will be led by Adaptrum and includes Microsoft and International Data Corporation (IDC). The pilot will help WAPA promote TVWS networks to its wireless internet service provider member companies. “We are extremely…

Troubled JSE-Listed technology group EOH has re-launched the ICT business, which has been renamed iOCO, and the company seeks to improve its balance sheet efficiency. The group said in an update to shareholders on Thursday that re-launched the ICT business represents a key milestone in the internal reorganisation process. The process is aimed at simplifying the ICT business, integrating client offerings under one brand, driving governance imperatives and aligning the service delivery model and offerings for the cloud economy and fourth industrial revolution. The company added that work on the NEXTEC strategy continues, including how iOCO, NEXTEC, and the IP…

Telkom August Big Deal has been revealed. The company is offering a SmartBroadband Wireless deal for R249 a month on a 24-month contract and comes with an LTE WiFi router. The deal also includes: 20GB Telkom anytime data per month 20GB night surfer data per month (Night Surfer Data shall be valid between 12 am – 7 am) Customers on SmartBroadband Wireless 20GB offer are eligible to add a LIT TV box at an additional amount of R50pm x 24 months. Included in this August deal the ability to receive 3 months of Netflix on Telkom. Telkom said it reserve…

JSE-listed pay-TV group Multichoice has today published its integrated annual report detailing the salaries of its top executives. MultiChoice Group includes MultiChoice South Africa, MultiChoice Africa, Showmax Africa, and Irdeto. The company competes with global video-on-demand players like Netflix, Amazon, Facebook and iFlix continuing to offer alternatives in our territories. In the pay-TV market, operators such as StarSat, ZAP TV, Zuku TV and Azam TV all have the necessary broadcasting knowledge and experience to compete with MultiChoice. Improved mobile broadband penetration also facilitated growing competition in the provision of OTT services with the entry of StarTimes ON, iRoko TV, Cell…

Online sales are booming at South African supermarket chain Shoprite Holdings, which also owns the Checkers chain of supermarkets. Shoprite on Tuesday published a trading update for the six months to June 2019 showing online sales, which includes Click & Collect orders and its on-demand liquor home delivery partnership has swelled 386% with rapid customer acceptance. Excluding hyperinflation, Africa’s biggest retailer Shoprite reported a 3.2% (0.1% like for like) increase in turnover to R150.6 billion in the period to June 2019. Shoprite’s supermarkets increased the number of customers served by 2.3% and product volumes sold by 1.2%. Including the impact of the Angolan…

MTN Nigeria today announced that its subsidiary, Yello Digital Financial Services Limited (YDFS) has been granted a full Super Agent Licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The Super Agent licence enables the scale launch of MTN Nigeria’s FinTech strategy. This is part of the South African-based company’s plant to “be the largest bank in Africa” in the next three to four years. The company has also appointed Yolanda Cuba as Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer. Cuba will join the MTN Group Executive Committee reporting to the Group CEO Rob Shuter. In this role, Cuba will lead the Group’s strategic…

Nigeria, MTN’s largest market by subscribers, attracted 3.3 million subscribers in the six months to end-June 2019. The South African-based firm announced on Friday that its Nigerian operation now has 61.5 million customers. The operation was launched in 2001. MTN Nigeria is part of the MTN Group – a multinational telecommunications group which operates in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Two months ago, MTN made history as the first mobile telephone company to trade on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). MTN is now the second biggest Nigerian company listed on the NSE. Dangote Cement Plc owned by…

South Africa’s Telkom has cut the compensation of CEO Sipho Maseko for the 2019 financial year. In an integrated annual report, the company said it has paid Maseko a total package of R23 million in 2019 versus R27 million in 2018 financial year. The total package comprises of R8.2 million basic salary, a short-term incentive bonus of R7 million, a long-term incentive bonus of R5.3 million and R2 million in the dividend paid on unvested shares. Maseko, who has spearheaded Telkom’s turnaround, was appointed on 1 April 2013. “I have been fortunate to have a supremely talented, committed and engaged…