COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Ford SA supplier Metair’s CEO resigns



Automotive components and batteries group Metair has announced that its CEO, Sjoerd Douwenga, has resigned due to heath reasons.



Douwenga was appointed to Metair’s board in 2014 and later served as chief financial officer before being appointed CEO. His resignation is effective at the end of January.



“The board is understanding of Mr Douwenga’s decision and wishes him all the best in his future endeavours,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.



“The board would like to assure all stakeholders that the Metair leadership team is stable, experienced, and skilled. A recruitment process to identify Mr Douwenga’s successor has already commenced, and the board has put a plan in place to ensure leadership continuity during the transition.”



It said in the same statement that at the end of November, its Romanian battery company Rombat, along with other continental car lead-acid starter battery companies, received a statement of objections from the European Union’s competition regulator. The letter alleged Rombat and the other manufacturers may have violated EU anti-trust laws between 2004 and 2017.



“In line with the strict confidentiality obligations, Rombat is prohibited from disclosing any further information at this stage,” Metair said.



“For the avoidance of doubt, the statement does not constitute a definitive ruling by the commission and a final determination will only be made following receipt and assessment by the commission of Rombat’s submissions.”-Fin24



Eskom, Sasol pollution harms childrenTwo studies ordered by South Africa’s government into the impact of air pollution on community and child health showed emission limits it imposed on companies that emit the toxins are insufficient.



The studies were undertaken in key industrial regions by academics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, a state research agency, and were completed in 2016 and 2019, copies seen by Bloomberg show.



The government didn’t widely publicise the findings, a controversial decision given that it has faced lawsuits over pollution levels and is assessing whether to allow the state power utility to continue violating emission restrictions or enforce laws that could shut plants and worsen energy shortages.



Around the time of the second study’s completion, the government was sued by environmental activists for not enforcing its own laws in the so-called Highveld Priority Area and in 2022 South Africa’s High Court ruled that the government had breached citizens’ constitutional right to clean air. The government has appealed.



In August this year, activists filed another case against the government over pollution in the Vaal Triangle Air-shed Priority Area — which was examined in the first study. Both regions are close to South Africa’s biggest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria.-Fin24



Tharisa slips after warning of earnings fallShares of mining group Tharisa slumped almost 8% on Wednesday morning after it warned shareholders that headline earnings could fall almost a third in its year to end-September.



Headline earnings per share are expected to decrease in a range of 30.7% and 33.1%, the company said in an update, with its shares slumping as low as R13.22, though they later recovered to trade about 3% lower.



Tharisa, valued at about R4 billion on the JSE, operates its flagship Tharisa Mine about 35km east of Rustenburg in the North West. Tharisa also owns Karo Platinum, a low-cost, open-pit PGM asset under construction and located on the Great Dyke in Zimbabwe. The group had booked headline earnings of $117.4 million (R2.1 billion at the time) in its 2022 year.



The group had said in October that while it saw a strong increase in reef mined during its fourth quarter to end-September, PGM production still fell just over 19% to 179 200 ounces in its 2023 year.



Chrome concentrate production fell marginally, but the group benefited from an almost 26% increase in prices for this metal, widely used in the production of stainless steel.-Fin24



RCL Foods launch urgent bidsRCL Foods, the owner of Selati Sugar, and industry association South African Sugar Association (SASA) have launched urgent applications seeking to delay the business rescue vote of Tongaat Hulett on Friday, arguing that a battle over sugar levies risk making the proceedings unlawful.



In late November, the Durban High Court ruled against the business rescue practitioners (BRPs) of the sugar producers, ordering that the process which provides protection against creditors did not absolve them of obligations to make payments due to SASA.



SASA’s claims against Tongaat total R1.94 billion, with the high court finding in favour of arguments that the obligations to pay were statutory rather than contractual, and were “simply the costs of doing business”.



The court outcome has also been welcomed by the SA Canegrowers Association, which maintains that this is a “critical industry matter” but noted it is still likely to be a protracted process. –Fin24



Asisa announces surprise departure of CEOBusisa Jiya, the CEO of the Association for Savings and Investment SA (Asisa), is leaving the industry body to pursue other opportunities.



Asisa’s board of directors said in a statement on Wednesday that Jiya “will be leaving by mutual agreement at the end of December 2023”.



His resignation comes less than two years after he joined Asisa and about five months since he was appointed to the board of Transnet by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan in early July.



“The board would like to thank Busisa for his contribution to transitioning Asisa into the next phase as Asisa celebrates 15 years of existence,” Asisa said.



The association is a non-profit company formed in 2008 to represent the savings, investment and insurance industry that contributes significantly to SA’s economy.-Fin24



Rigel in talks with a South African minerRigel Resource Acquisition, a New York-listed blank-cheque company, is in talks to combine with a South African gold miner, people with knowledge of the matter said.



The deal could value Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mining at as much as $425 million (R8 billion), said the people, who asked not to be identified as the details aren’t public yet.



The blank cheque company backed by Orion Resource Partners, a money manager with $8.5 billion of assets, hired Citigroup and Rand Merchant Bank to do a pre-sale and raise about $60 million early in 2024, said the people.



Blyvooruitzicht, Citigroup and Rand Merchant Bank declined to comment on the matter. Rigel didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.



Talks are ongoing, and there is no guarantee that a deal will be successfully concluded, said one of the people.



Rigel previously said the company signed a non-binding letter of intent for a business combination with a company in the global metals sector without providing details of the target.



Special purpose acquisition companies, or blank cheque companies, have attracted high-profile miners including Robert Friedland, who formed Ivanhoe Capital Acquisition Corp., and African Gold Acquisition Corp. that raised $360 million to target gold-mining assets.-Fin24



Lesaka Technologies CEO to step downLesaka Technologies said on Tuesday CEO Chris Meyer will step down from his position at the end of February after more than three years on the job. The company has appointed tech entrepreneur Ali Mazanderani as its executive chairperson with effect from the same date.



Kuben Pillay steps down from the chairperson position to act as the lead independent director, a role in which he will continue to chair all board meetings. Meyer will remain on the board as a non-executive director.



The company said Meyer led the successful turnaround and building of the Lesaka fintech platform during his tenure as CEO. Meyer joined what was still Net 1 UEPS Technologies from Investec Corporate and Investment Bank in July 2021 and oversaw turnaround efforts.



Net1 was the company behind Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), which had a controversial tenure running SA’s social grant payment system until its contract was declared irregular and invalid by the Constitutional Court in 2014.



The technology company, also listed on the Nasdaq, is currently valued at R3.8 billion on the JSE, and with the new leadership team under Meyer, it has worked hard to restructure itself and clean up its image through a rebranding.



There were also major changes in the shareholder register, with Antony Ball-led Value Capital Partners emerging as a significant minority investor with about a quarter of the stock, alongside IFC Investors with a 12% stake.-Fin24



Transaction auditors warn of ‘material uncertainty’Transaction Capital says it remains committed to the ongoing viability of its beleaguered SA Taxi business despite its auditors warning of a “material uncertainty” for ongoing talks to restructure a part of the minibus taxi financier’s enormous debt load.



While SA Taxi, which is almost 75% owned by Transaction Capital, owes its funders about R16.7 billion in outstanding debt, only about R5.2 billion of that is subject to ongoing discussions with 17 funders, including banks, asset managers and development finance institutions.



Should these talks fail to achieve a viable new agreement by March 2024, it could see SA Taxi having to cease lending money to minibus taxi operators altogether, potentially spelling the end of the company.



“The annual financial statements are obviously going through an audit lens, so the auditors are going to come at this from a very different angle than what we as a commercial business are going to say,” Mark Herskovits, Transaction Capital’s chief investment officer, told News24.



Auditors flagged the “material uncertainty” in the group’s year-end results on Tuesday, which showed SA Taxi made a headline loss from continuing operations of R3.7 billion to end-September, driven by a R1.1 billion increase in write-downs on repossessed vehicle stock.-Fin24