COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Naspers brings forward profit targets

Global consumer internet and tech group Naspers says higher interest rates, as well as a bigger contribution from Tencent, helped it almost double its earnings in its half-year to end-September.

A significant reduction in the trading losses in its ecommerce portfolio also helped, and it expects to achieve underlying profitability in this business sooner than expected.

Core headline earnings surged 112% to US$866 million (R16 billion) in the six months to end-September, with trading losses in its continuing operations falling 85% to US$38 million.

Naspers owns a majority stake in its subsidiary Prosus, which almost completely accounts for its earnings. Prosus is the consumer internet arm of Naspers, housing its stake in Tencent, as well as its investments in online classifieds, food delivery, payments and fintech, and education technology. It owns stakes in companies like iFood in Brazil, PayU and Swiggy in India.

The group had set a target of profitability by the first half of its 2025 financial year for its underlying portfolio, but said on Wednesday it is now targeting profitability by the end of March 2024.-Fin24

Exxaro to sell ferroalloys unit to

Exxaro Resources said on Wednesday it planned to sell its ferroalloys unit to a black-owned business by the end of June 2024.

The Johannesburg-based coal miner, which has diversified into renewable energy and is looking for battery metal assets, has said the ferroalloys unit does not fit into its long-term strategy. The unit produces ferrosilicon, mostly used in steelmaking.

"Exxaro aims to enhance the economic participation of black-owned companies in the South African economy. In line with this intent, Exxaro has earmarked the ferroalloys disposal process to target black ownership. The sales process is anticipated to be concluded in 2Q24," the company said in a statement.

Exxaro, a major supplier of thermal coal to Eskom, is itself a majority black-owned business in line with South Africa's broad-based Black economic empowerment policy and regulations that seek to redress historic economic inequalities created by apartheid.-Fin24

PEP owner flags increase in robberies

Pepkor painted a grim picture of South Africa’s operating environment on Wednesday, flagging in full-year results that it was increasingly experiencing armed robberies and burglaries at stores, while dealing with load shedding, rising unemployment and cash-strapped consumers.

Despite these challenges, the PEP and Ackermans owner still managed to grow revenue 7.7% to R87.4 billion for the year to end September 2023 and gain market share in key categories such as baby, adult and home categories.

This was achieved even as it increased selling prices by 7.3% in PEP, Ackermans and Speciality – which includes brands such as footwear chain Tekkie Town.

The company said it sold two out of three babies’ and one out of two children’s apparel items in SA even as competition was increasing with significant promotional activity as a feature of the retail environment.–Fin24

A scramble for the broke Habib bank

Mysterious anonymous investors from Limpopo, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, as well as one of Botswana's richest politicians, are allegedly all separately poised to spend hundreds of millions of rands to save and take control of the controversial Habib Overseas Bank.

Habib is the same bank the Gupta family, through proxies, sought to take control of in 2016 when the family was losing access to all the major local financial institutions.

It has also been the subject of an amaBhungane exposé revealing large-scale money laundering.

These new alleged bids are being endorsed by a group of account holders claiming to represent almost a quarter of the deposits left in the crippled bank. In the process, they have temporarily blocked the South African Reserve Bank's (SARB) attempt to liquidate Habib and potentially hunt down misappropriated monies.-Fin24