COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Capitec shareholders vote against pay packageShareholders who hold almost half of Capitec’s shares have voted against the remuneration package of R177 million paid to its top three executives in the past year.

Investors holding 47.5% of its shares voted against the implementation of Capitec’s 2022 remuneration policy at its Annual General Meeting on Friday.

Capitec’s CEO Gerrie Fourie bagged R92.8 million, an 88% increase from the R49.2 million he earned in guaranteed pay and incentives a year earlier. CFO Andre Du Plessis got R60.4 million, also an 81% increase from the R33.3 million he earned the previous year. The bank’s executive for risk management, Nkosana Mashiya, was paid R24.3 million, a 73% increase from his previous R14 million.

Shareholder votes on remuneration policies are non-binding, meaning that Capitec can pay executives even if shareholders voted against it. But if shareholders holding 25% or more of the company voted against the policies, the company must engage them to try to find a common ground.

Capitec has invited dissenting shareholders to submit written questions or comments to its company secretary by no later than Monday, 6 June 2022. The bank’s remuneration committee will then engage them on 14 June. - Fin24Momentum Metropolitan claims ‘moderate’More insurers are reporting less Covid-19 impact on their profits this year. Momentum Metropolitan Holdings (MMH) – the third insurer to publish a trading update for the first few months of this year – said it experienced a mortality loss of R278 million for the nine months of its financial year, which ended on 31 March 2022. A year earlier, the company recorded net mortality losses of R1.1 billion.

Although the insurer’s death claims shot up in the Delta-driven third wave, it recorded significantly less death claims in the fourth wave. It said even though claims still remain higher than before the pandemic, mortality rates in its client base have improved significantly in the first three months of 2022.

As a result, MMH released significantly less Covid-19 provision between January and March than it did in the comparable period of 2021. It released R118 million of Covid-19 provisions it had set aside for the pandemic-related deaths compared to R1.1 billion it released in the six months to December 2021. The insurer still has R693 million in Covid-19 provisions remaining should anything change and spike its claims.

This time around, the insurer didn’t need to raise additional Covid-19 provisions whereas it was forced to raise another R2.2 billion for future Covid-19 claims at its half-year mark in September. - Fin24Adcorp rallies after profit increaseThe JSE-listed workforce solutions provider Adcorp’s share price rallied 6% on Monday after the company’s profit climbed by almost 200% in the year to end February. It also declared a dividend.

This was despite a 1.7% fall in its revenue to R11.5 billion compared to the previous financial year.

The company said its revenue was negatively affected by the strategic exit of low-margin contracts, the July unrest, flooding in Australia and the impact of Covid-19 in key markets.Adcorp assigns about 43 000 contingent or temporary staff daily for its clients. Furthermore, it does training in a number of disciplines. Its brands include Quest, Paracon, Labour Solutions Australia, talentCRU, and Torque IT.

Its total headline earnings per share climbed by almost 191% to 99.4 cents.

According to the group, the increase was due to improved margins, improved quality of earnings, prudent cost control and lower cost of funding due to debt reduction and active cash management. - Fin24PwC quits as Oceana’s external auditorPwC has resigned as external auditor of Oceana because of a “strained” relationship with the company, and a lack of transparent communication with the board, amid a tumultuous period at the troubled fisheries and logistics group.

At the last annual general meeting, shareholders holding 38% of Oceana’s shares voted against retaining PwC as the group’s auditors. Oceana was meant to consult with shareholders on the reappointment of PwC on Monday, but instead announced on the day that PwC had resigned.

Oceana said PwC said this was “due to their assessment of significant doubt as to whether there was objective and transparent communication between the board and PwC given the strained relationship, which they assert constituted a significant impairment of their independence.”

Oceana was looking at alternatives to PwC, and discussions with another of the big four auditing firms were progressing.

“The company is confident that it will be able to appoint new auditors within the required 40 business days.”- Fin24Gold Fields to buy Canadian minerGold Fields is buying Yamana Gold, a leading gold and silver mining company in Canada, making it the fourth largest gold miner in the world.

Yamana is a precious metals producer with significant gold and silver production, development and exploration stage properties and land positions throughout the Americas, including Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

The all share offer by Gold Fields, at an exchange ratio of 0.6 Gold Fields Consideration Shares for each Yamana Share, implies a valuation for Yamana of US$6.7 billion (about R103.78 billion), Gold Fields said in a statement on Tuesday.

The combined group will be headquartered in Johannesburg with operations across Canada, Australia, South America, Ghana and South Africa.

The board of directors of Yamana has unanimously approved the transaction and is recommending to Yamana shareholders that they vote in favour of the deal. All directors and senior officers of Yamana have also entered have agreed to support and vote their Yamana shares in favour of the transaction. - Fin24