COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Gold Fields to engage shareholdersA resolution for the endorsement of the remuneration implementation report of miner Gold Fields, including a golden handshake for former CEO Chris Griffith, of three years' pay, garnered less than two-thirds shareholder support.The report got just over 64% of the vote, while over 35% voted against it. According to JSE listing requirements, in line with King Code IV on corporate governance, a vote against of more than 25% requires the company to begin engagements on the concerns, even if the vote isn't binding.As such, dissenting shareholders have been called on to email the company secretary before 23 June.According to Gold Fields 2022 annual report, former CEO Chris Griffith's total remuneration was almost US$5.1 million with almost US$3 million of this made up of "other payments," including his termination agreement. Griffith's contract with Gold Fields included a two-year restraint of trade - or a clause which prevents him from working for competitors.Griffith was also not required to work his 12-month notice period and received payment in lieu of this.According to the report, Griffith's salary - paid in dual currencies - was R10.5 million in 2022 in rands along with US$340 000.-Fin24Lewis flags increasing pressure on consumersThe Lewis Group showed how South Africans were coming under financial pressure with the furniture and appliance company's full-year cash sales sliding by double digits as more of its customers opted to buy goods on credit.But the owner of brands such as Beares, Best Home & Electric and UFO said that as cash sales fell 16% and credit sales grew more than 18% it also managed to maintain a healthy debtors' book.The company, which is an important bellwether for the state of the economy, said its performance "reflects the state of consumers in South Africa's low growth, high inflationary environment" adding that escalating fuel, energy, food and borrowing costs were placing "significant pressure on spending" while load shedding was "weighing heavily on consumer sentiment and economic growth".It flagged as a highlight, the "quality and performance" of its debtors' book saying that even with a weak consumer economy it had shown good growth with collection rates strengthening and the percentage of "satisfactory paid accounts" growing to record levels. This had resulted in the reduction of the debtors' impairment provision. "Despite this weak consumer environment, the group’s debtors’ book showed good growth of 7.5%. Our collection rates strengthened from 79% to 80.8% due to enhanced collection strategies. The percentage of satisfactory paid accounts increased to a record level of 80.4%, improving significantly from 68.4% five years ago," CEO Johan Enslin said in a statement accompanying results.-Fin24Citibank SA invests in Vaal international airportThe arm of US banking group, Citibank South Africa, has pledged R1.375 billion to develop a new infrastructure project in the Vaal area of Gauteng, which will include a new "sizeable" international airport.Citi South Africa's Chief Country Officer, Peter Taylor, believes that this investment for an aerotropolis will be a catalyst for additional investments that will bring manufacturing and agriculture hubs to the Vaal. He addressed the media on Thursday at an event with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic).Taylor also announced an additional R200-million investment from Citibank SA towards developing black industrialists in the Vaal area.An aerotropolis is an area where most of the infrastructure, including for suppliers, distributors and other related companies, is built around an airport."This is a massive infrastructure project. The timing of the airport itself will depend on a few things: the zoning, the licensing, the authority for the port, etc. But a lot of work has gone into this. A lot of those are being finalised. We are making an application for an SEZ (special economic zone), which will encompass this area that the airport will be built in," said Taylor.-Fin24e.tv owner pleased with its profit performanceeMedia Holdings, which owns e.tv, eNCA and OpenView, said it was pleased with stability in its core profit for its year to end-March, which came even as unprecedented load shedding hit industry advertising revenue to the tune of R500 million.Group profit fell about 10% to R378 million in the year to end-March, the group said, and while it cut its dividend a fifth to 20c per share, it managed to slightly grow operating profits.Profit fell amid a R16 million deferred tax asset raised in the prior year, while the company also spent an additional R20 million on marketing as part of its fight for eyeballs. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) rose slightly to R667.2 million.Revenue of R3.1 billion was only R20 million less than the previous year despite the under-pressure television advertising cake and a reduction in the eNCA licence fee received from MultiChoice, it said.eMedia said despite the pressure from load shedding, it once again outperformed the market in terms of advertising revenue in both the television and radio market. "This benefit in advertising revenues can be attributed to the group maintaining prime time audience market share at 34.5% in March 2023 from 34.1% in March 2022, a slight increase year-on-year," it said."The group is forging ahead with numerous technology advances and strategic planning to continue to be the audience share market leader," it added.-Fin24

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