COMPANY NEWS IN BREIF

Rain puts in proposal for Telkom mergerSouth Africa's third-largest mobile operator Telkom says it is considering a proposal made by Rain on 14 September that would see the partially state-owned firm issue shares and merge with the data-focused group.Rain's public expression of interest in a merger in August had resulted in a public reprimand from SA's takeover regulator, given that it hadn't given any approvals. It also came shortly after Africa's biggest mobile operator, MTN, said it was considering buying Telkom in return for shares or a combination of cash and shares. One of Rain's major shareholders, African Rainbow Capital values it at about R20 billion, while Telkom is currently valued at a R23.7 billion on the JSE, and MTN is worth R225 billion. Bloomberg has also reported that the SA government has received an unsolicited R7 billion bid for its 40.5% stake in Telkom from investment firm Toto Consortium, part of a consortium that controls a 24% stake in Richards Bay Minerals, majority owned by mining giant Rio Tinto.Telkom had net debt of R7.5 billion at the end of March, and its board is currently considering ways to unlock value for shareholders, believing that the price at which its shares trade does not reflect the underlying value of the business."The Telkom board of directors, conscious of economic and market dynamics, and in accordance with its legal obligations, is considering various strategic options, including non-binding merger and acquisition proposals received to date," it said in a statement on Friday. -Fin24Council cancels some flight frequencies of SAAThe International Air Services Council (IASC) has cancelled some flight frequencies of South African Airways (SAA), because they have not been used.Frequencies are the number of times an airline flies on a specific route over a certain period, for example each week.The council falls under the Department of Transport and is mandated under the International Air Services Licensing Act, which regulates and controls international air services in SA. The act stipulates that air services on a licensed route cannot be interrupted for longer than three months or an alternative period determined by the council.SAA went into business rescue in December 2019. When the Covid-19 lockdowns were imposed and the rescue practitioners could not get more funding from the government at that time, all flights were halted. SAA came out of business rescue in April 2021 and restarted commercial flights on a much smaller scale a year ago. Correspondence between the IASC and SAA, seen by News24 Business, indicates that various engagements took place about a request by SAA for extensions to commence, partly commence, or increase with certain frequencies.As motivation for its request for extensions, SAA informed the council that the process of finalising a strategic equity partnership (SEP) with the Takatso Consortium is still underway. Regulatory approvals, including of the Competition Commission, are still needed. The market has also not recovered completely after the Covid-19 pandemic.-Fin24Exxaro wants to buy large solar companyExxaro Resources, one of South Africa's biggest coal miners, is considering bids for Actis’s BTE Renewables, according to people with knowledge of the matter.Chinese firms are also interested in acquiring the assets, said the people who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Actis is seeking about $800 million (R14 billion) for the company, the people said.From Australia to South Africa, companies and governments are looking to expand into cleaner projects in a bid to cut emissions and reduce their dependence on the dirtiest fuel. BTE generates 436 megawatts of electricity from its solar and wind-power plants in South Africa and Kenya, according to the company’s website.Exxaro and Actis declined to comment about the potential deal.Deliberations are ongoing and the companies could decide not to proceed with the bidding process, the people said. Actis could also retain the asset for longer, they added.South Africa generates the majority of its power from coal and is attempting to accelerate development of green energy. Companies are also considering their own generation due to the unreliability of supply from Eskom. Actis, which appointed Citigroup to advise on the deal, is looking to cash in on a booming market for new power projects across Africa, where demand for electricity is growing. The London-based private equity firm sold a majority stake in Lekela Power earlier this year. -Fin24Eskom employees get 1.5% wage increaseEskom, which is under unprecedented financial strain, received another blow when the CCMA awarded employees a further 1.5% wage increase, backdated to July 2021.The company is under unprecedented economic strain as it burns millions of litres of diesel a day to keep the lights on. This comes on top of lower sales revenue due to load shedding and its generally unsustainable position due to high debt, low-cost recovery and unpaid bills by municipalities. The award relates to the 2020/21 year in which Eskom granted a unilateral 1.5% increase to employees in the central bargaining forum. These are unionised employees belonging to NUM, Numsa and Solidarity. The CCMA has added an additional 1.5% which will be backdated to 1 July 2021. This year, Eskom employees received a 7% increase after a damaging illegal strike that triggered stage 6 load shedding. At the time, Eskom said that the wage increase would add R1 billion to the wage bill. The additional 1.5% will add about R142 million to the annual wage bill. It took a year for the arbitration to be finalised."The NUM understands that the CCMA works on the balance of probability and in this case the NUM version was more probable than that of Eskom," the union said in a statement. -Fin24Brands blast Twitter for adsSome major advertisers including Dyson, Mazda and chemicals company Ecolab have suspended their marketing campaigns or removed their ads from parts of Twitter because their promotions appeared alongside tweets soliciting child pornography, the companies told Reuters.Brands ranging from Walt Disney Co, NBCUniversal and Coca-Cola Co to a children's hospital were among some 30 advertisers that have appeared on the profile pages of Twitter accounts that peddle links to the exploitative material, according to a Reuters review of accounts identified in new research about child sex abuse online from cybersecurity group Ghost Data.Some of the tweets include keywords related to "rape" and "teens," and appeared alongside promoted tweets from corporate advertisers, the Reuters review found. In one example, a promoted tweet for shoe and accessories brand Cole Haan appeared next to a tweet in which a user said they were "trading teen" content."We're horrified," David Maddocks, brand president at Cole Haan, told Reuters after being notified that the company's ads appeared alongside such tweets. "Either Twitter is going to fix this, or we'll fix it by any means we can, which includes not buying Twitter ads."In another example, a user tweeted searching for content of "Yung girls ONLY, NO Boys," which was immediately followed by a promoted tweet for Texas-based Scottish Rite Children's Hospital. Scottish Rite did not return multiple requests for comment.-Fin24

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