COMPANY NEWS BRIEF

Canal hiked its stake in MultiChoiceThe French entertainment giant Canal has hiked its stake in MultiChoice to 26.26%. From around 6% in 2020, Canal built its stake to 15% by September last year. It reached 18.4% in mid-June, and 20.1% in by July this year. Pushing its shareholding to beyond 35% will trigger a mandatory buyout offer to other shareholders.Canal is owned by Vivendi, which is also the owner of one of the recording giant Universal Music Group, as well as the advertising giant Havas.Canal previously called its stake in MultiChoice "a long-term financial investment", but the sharp increase in its shareholding has fuelled renewed speculation that it may have more ambitious plans in store.Like MultiChoice, the Paris-headquartered Canal has a large footprint in Africa. The Canal Afrique pay-television offering is big in French-speaking countries in central and west Africa, with more than five million subscribers on the continent. For its part, DStv owner MultiChoice has 21.8 million active African users, of which nine million are in South Africa.Canal and MultiChoice have teamed up on co-productions in the past, most recently an action-drama series called Spinners in South Africa. -Fin24Momentum Metropolitan books record profitsMomentum Metropolitan Holding's (MMH's) rebound from its Covid-19-induced lows in 2021 has seen its financial metrics surpass pre-pandemic levels on multiple fronts.The Centurion-based insurer delivered R4.4 billion of normalised headline earnings in the year ending June, compared to just over R1 billion in the previous financial year, benefiting a little from the partial release of provisions put in place due to the pandemic.But not only did these earnings shoot the lights out compared to the record lows the company reported in 2021, they also surpassed both the 2020 and 2019 financial years by billions of rands. MMH recorded R3 billion normalised headline earnings in the 2019 financial year, with this profit measure then halving in 2020.The 2022 earnings also bring MMH closer to the goals set out in its new strategy, "Reinvent and Grow", which has moved the goalpost to R5 billion in normalised headline earnings by the end of June 2024.In the 2021 financial year, MMH recorded a net mortality loss of R2.8 billion because of Covid-19 death claims. This time around, the Covid-19 impact on its earnings was less severe, resulting in the partial release of opening Covid-19 provisions the company had set aside, thus boosting the profits by R105 million. -Fin24Anglo American launches sustainability-linked bondAnglo American on Thursday launched its first, €745 million, sustainability-linked bond which will include performance targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fresh water abstraction, and to support job creation in host communities.The 10-year bond, which will mature in September 2032, is the first instrument issued since the diversified mining group published its Sustainability Financing Framework.Should Anglo not meet certain targets, bond investors will be entitled to a higher final coupon payment."The financing mechanism will see a coupon increase of 40bps [basis points] accruing from September 2031 for each of the selected KPIs that do not achieve its target or if the verification of the target being achieved has not been published," the company said.Anglo's Sustainability Financing Framework covers bonds, loans and other financing instruments and links the company’s funding requirements to stretch goals set out in its Sustainable Mining Plan.Anglo's is not the first such bond in South Africa.Earlier this year Harmony Gold announced it had secured multi-tranche loan facilities which included three sustainability-linked loans related to green power and water use targets. -Fin24SA Express placed in final liquidationThe high court has placed SA Express (SAX) in final liquidation on Wednesday, after it went into provisional liquidation already in April 2020 when a business rescue attempt failed. It had not operated since.Repeated attempts to conclude a sale of the airline failed, and in March this year the provisional liquidators announced the reopening of the bidding process. This attempt, however, also appears to have failed. The provisional liquidators indicated in 2020 that the amount to be raised was R50 million. At the time, the sale by the liquidators of the airline's few tangible assets raised about R30 million. The Fly SAX consortium, made up of former employees, offered R5 million for the intangible assets of SAX, which essentially comprised the licences and related routes. However, early in August this year, the Air Services Licensing Council cancelled the licences of SAX on the grounds that it was not complying with the licensing provisions of the International Air Services Act. The loss of its licences meant SAX had no intangible assets left, either.SAX has liabilities of more than R900 million, including outstanding salary payments to employees. The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture's report made mention of various questionable dealings linked to the airline. -Fin24FirstRand splashes out billions to shareholdersSouth Africa's most valuable bank, FirstRand, is forking out a record R26.2 billion to shareholders for its 2022 year, getting a boost from higher interest rates and easing pandemic conditions, while also welcoming improved corporate sentiment and some progress in the government's structural reform efforts.FirstRand's profits rose 23% to R34.55 billion in its year to end-June, with the lender upping its ordinary dividend 30% to R3.42 per share, while also paying out a R1.25 via a special dividend.FirstRand’s earnings remain tilted towards SA and are mainly generated by its large lending and transactional franchises, something which the group says has "resulted in deep and loyal customer bases."FNB's overall 13% deposit growth was led by commercial clients with a rise of 18%, also lending more to them relative to retail customers, at 11% growth vs 6%. FNB, which contributed 60% to group earnings, grew normalised profits by 22% to R19.6 billion."With confidence slowly improving, credit demand in the corporate sector increased," the firm said."Signs of positive structural reform developments included the liberalisation of energy production, confirmed private sector involvement in Transnet and the ports, and the successful completion of the 5G spectrum auction in March 2022."-Fin24Growthpoint ups dividendSouth Africa's biggest listed property group Growthpoint has upped its full-year distribution and payout ratio despite a slight dip in revenue for its 2022 year, with asset sales weighing on its performance a little, but helping improve the health of its balance sheet.Growthpoint, which owns half of the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, upped its dividend per share 8.4% to 128.4c per share for its year to end-June. It's pay-out ratio climbed to 82.5% from 80%, with revenue slipping 0.6% to R13.5 billion. Distributable income rose 5% to R5.3 billion, with finance costs falling 4.1% to R3.2 billion."Our diversified portfolio, strong balance sheet and stable hard currency dividend income streams position us defensively for 2023," the group said in its results."However, given the high level of uncertainty in the local and global macro-economic environment, coupled with rising interest rates and inflation, we expect muted distributable income per share growth for 2023."The value of the group's property assets rose 5.2% to R160.8 billion to end June, while the value of its 408 directly-owned properties in SA was unchanged at R68.8 billion, despite R2.1 billion in asset sales locally. The group is diversified across retail, office and industrial, and its loan-to-value, a measure of indebtedness, declined to 37.9% from 40%. -Fin24

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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