COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF
Netcare CEO to take early retirement
Netcare, the owner of South Africa's biggest network of private hospitals, said on Friday long-serving CEO Richard Friedland would be taking early retirement at the end of September 2024.
Friedland, aged 60 as of 2022, was appointed CEO in September 2005 and has been with the group for three decades. In his role as CEO, he oversaw the expansion of the group while guiding it through "unprecedented times," notably the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said on Friday.
Netcare, valued at over R20 billion on the JSE, had a network that included 49 acute hospitals with almost 10 000 beds in 2022, while employing more than 18 000 staff. It also operated 13 mental health facilities and 65 primary healthcare facilities.
During his tenure, Friedland oversaw the building of five new flagship hospitals, while also founding several key and business units. This includes Netcare 911 - which provides emergency services - a new pathology offering, Netcare Diagnostics, as well as NetcarePlus, an insurance offering.
"Under his leadership, the group has undertaken the most ambitious healthcare digitisation project on the continent, which is transforming Netcare and providing a long-term sustainable competitive advantage," Netcare said.
His commitment to sustainability has also resulted in numerous local and international awards, the group said, while the "foresight of this strategy which was implemented 10 years ago in 2013, has also played a pivotal role in reducing Netcare’s exposure to the impacts of the instability of the national electricity grid."-Fin24
Eskom hands control back to Ekurhuleni
Eskom has returned control of load shedding back to the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) less than a week after it took over when the municipality failed to implement power cuts.
Eskom said on Friday that the CoE committed to implementing load shedding, and that it had "put controls in place to address the challenges" that prevented it from doing the planned power cuts.
"Eskom will continue to monitor the CoE and other municipalities to ensure that they implement load shedding accordingly. Eskom will take over the load shedding of any municipality that fails to comply for whatever reason, even after it has been engaged on the matter, as was the case with Ekurhuleni," Eskom said.
"The power utility is obliged to take the necessary precautions to protect the integrity and stability of the grid."
Eskom announced last week that it had taken control. It had previously taken over some of the role and left the municipality to load shed substations that had "critical loads". It later handed back all load shedding after the municipality asked to assume responsibility again.
The CoE, however, failed to implement the cuts, which necessitated Eskom stepping in again.-Fin24
Nersa approves NTC’s licence
The process of unbundling Eskom is one step closer to realisation after SA's energy regulator approved the operating licence for an independent transmission company.
On Friday, the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) said it approved a licence for the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTC) to operate the national power grid. This was after a public hearing in April, where all the presenters that made oral presentations supported the application for the licence.
The NTC will run the Transmission Network Service Provider, the Transmission System Planner, the office of the Grid Code Secretariat, and the System Operator. The System Operator has an overview of the systems of every unit at every power station in the country and manages the entire system's power supply and demand from a centralised control centre. The System Operator determines which stage of load shedding is required to ensure grid stability.
"This is a milestone decision by the energy regulator and will immensely contribute in Eskom’s unbundling trajectory," Nersa chair Thembani Bukula said in a statement.-Fin24
Court rules for banks in Sekunjalo matter
An appeals court has upheld the decision taken by three banks to stop offering their services to companies in Iqbal Survé's Sekunjalo group.
The Competition Appeal Court of SA found last week that the Competition Tribunal was wrong to order Mercantile Bank, Standard Bank and Access Bank to either reopen or not close Sekunjalo's accounts.
The ruling does not constitute the final word on whether Sekunjalo can retain banking services, however, as the investment holding group still has cases to be heard at the Equality and High Courts.
The three banks launched their appeal after the tribunal found in September 2022 there was evidence that banks had engaged in anti-competitive behaviour when they stopped offering banking services to firms in the Sekunjalo stable.
Banks started to pull their banking services following the publication of the findings of the Mpati Commission of Inquiry's Report into the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), citing fear of reputation damage.
The report, published in March 2020, found that the PIC's investments in Sekunjalo subsidiaries showed a "marked disregard for PIC policy and standard operating procedures".-Fin24
Netcare, the owner of South Africa's biggest network of private hospitals, said on Friday long-serving CEO Richard Friedland would be taking early retirement at the end of September 2024.
Friedland, aged 60 as of 2022, was appointed CEO in September 2005 and has been with the group for three decades. In his role as CEO, he oversaw the expansion of the group while guiding it through "unprecedented times," notably the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said on Friday.
Netcare, valued at over R20 billion on the JSE, had a network that included 49 acute hospitals with almost 10 000 beds in 2022, while employing more than 18 000 staff. It also operated 13 mental health facilities and 65 primary healthcare facilities.
During his tenure, Friedland oversaw the building of five new flagship hospitals, while also founding several key and business units. This includes Netcare 911 - which provides emergency services - a new pathology offering, Netcare Diagnostics, as well as NetcarePlus, an insurance offering.
"Under his leadership, the group has undertaken the most ambitious healthcare digitisation project on the continent, which is transforming Netcare and providing a long-term sustainable competitive advantage," Netcare said.
His commitment to sustainability has also resulted in numerous local and international awards, the group said, while the "foresight of this strategy which was implemented 10 years ago in 2013, has also played a pivotal role in reducing Netcare’s exposure to the impacts of the instability of the national electricity grid."-Fin24
Eskom hands control back to Ekurhuleni
Eskom has returned control of load shedding back to the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) less than a week after it took over when the municipality failed to implement power cuts.
Eskom said on Friday that the CoE committed to implementing load shedding, and that it had "put controls in place to address the challenges" that prevented it from doing the planned power cuts.
"Eskom will continue to monitor the CoE and other municipalities to ensure that they implement load shedding accordingly. Eskom will take over the load shedding of any municipality that fails to comply for whatever reason, even after it has been engaged on the matter, as was the case with Ekurhuleni," Eskom said.
"The power utility is obliged to take the necessary precautions to protect the integrity and stability of the grid."
Eskom announced last week that it had taken control. It had previously taken over some of the role and left the municipality to load shed substations that had "critical loads". It later handed back all load shedding after the municipality asked to assume responsibility again.
The CoE, however, failed to implement the cuts, which necessitated Eskom stepping in again.-Fin24
Nersa approves NTC’s licence
The process of unbundling Eskom is one step closer to realisation after SA's energy regulator approved the operating licence for an independent transmission company.
On Friday, the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) said it approved a licence for the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTC) to operate the national power grid. This was after a public hearing in April, where all the presenters that made oral presentations supported the application for the licence.
The NTC will run the Transmission Network Service Provider, the Transmission System Planner, the office of the Grid Code Secretariat, and the System Operator. The System Operator has an overview of the systems of every unit at every power station in the country and manages the entire system's power supply and demand from a centralised control centre. The System Operator determines which stage of load shedding is required to ensure grid stability.
"This is a milestone decision by the energy regulator and will immensely contribute in Eskom’s unbundling trajectory," Nersa chair Thembani Bukula said in a statement.-Fin24
Court rules for banks in Sekunjalo matter
An appeals court has upheld the decision taken by three banks to stop offering their services to companies in Iqbal Survé's Sekunjalo group.
The Competition Appeal Court of SA found last week that the Competition Tribunal was wrong to order Mercantile Bank, Standard Bank and Access Bank to either reopen or not close Sekunjalo's accounts.
The ruling does not constitute the final word on whether Sekunjalo can retain banking services, however, as the investment holding group still has cases to be heard at the Equality and High Courts.
The three banks launched their appeal after the tribunal found in September 2022 there was evidence that banks had engaged in anti-competitive behaviour when they stopped offering banking services to firms in the Sekunjalo stable.
Banks started to pull their banking services following the publication of the findings of the Mpati Commission of Inquiry's Report into the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), citing fear of reputation damage.
The report, published in March 2020, found that the PIC's investments in Sekunjalo subsidiaries showed a "marked disregard for PIC policy and standard operating procedures".-Fin24
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