Company news in brief

Alexander Forbes changes nameSouth Africa&#039;s largest pension funds administrator has changed its name and its look. Alexander Forbes changed its name to Alexforbes, and shades of teal have replaced the orange and black colours that the company wore for decades.The company said this is to show a new Alexforbes that&#039;s moved away from being just a pensions administrator and insurer."This shift aligns with its vision of becoming the most impactful provider of financial advice serving both individual customers and institutional clients," said CEO Dawie de Villiers.In the past three years, Alexander Forbes sold its insurance operations to focus on being an "advice-led" business. It sold its short-term insurance business to Momentum Metropolitan in 2020 and, in June 2021, announced plans to sell its life insurance business to Sanlam for R100 million.De Villiers said in the next five years, Alexforbes wants to gain more market share and extend its leading positions across administration, retirements, healthcare and multimanagement capabilities. It also wants to grow its multi-national consulting business model into selected markets in Africa exponentially. – Fin24SAA lost billions prior to CovidMaterial uncertainties, including whether its strategic equity partnership with the Takatso consortium will get the necessary approvals, "may cast significant doubt on the South African Airways (SAA) group&#039;s ability to continue as a going concern", according to a report by the Auditor-General.The report contains financial statements for the year to end-March 2018, but also looks at the airline’s current situation. The 2018 financial results weren’t released before because the auditors withheld their audit opinion, as SAA’s status as going concern was at significant risk. This resulted in the group being placed in business rescue in December 2019.The report shows that the SAA group – which consists of SAA and its subsidiaries Mango (currently in business rescue and looking for a buyer), SAA Technical and Air Chefs - made a loss of R5.4 billion in 2017/18, with total income of R29.4 billion. This was lower than the R30.7 billion earned in the previous year. – Fin24Northam did not trigger a mandatory offerThe Takeover Regulation Panel in South Africa has ruled in favour of Northam Platinum and determined that the platinum miner&#039;s acquisition of Royal Bafokeng shares has not triggered a mandatory offer be extended to all shareholders.The panel, a regulatory body established in terms of the Companies Act, launched a probe into whether Northam had possibly triggered a mandatory offer after a request to do so was submitted by the independent board of Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat).Northam late last year acquired just shy of 35% RBPlat from its parent company Royal Bafokeng Holdings in a contentious deal which stunned the market and rival bidder Impala Platinum. The company had also secured an option to potentially take its shareholding up to more than 38% over time.When a shareholder acquires 35% or more of a company, it triggers a mandatory offer and so is obliged to offer to buy out all shareholders on the same terms. The RBPlat independent board thought this might be the case but Northam, which has paid a premium for the shareholding, denied it was so."Northam is pleased to advise that the TRP has today, 30 March 2022, ruled in favour of Northam’s position that the alleged mandatory offer has not been triggered and accordingly, the RBP TRP submission has been dismissed," the company said in a statement. – Fin24Gazprom targeted by EU antitrust raidsRussian gas company Gazprom&#039;s offices were raided by EU antitrust regulators, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, as the EU watchdog ramped up its investigation into the company&#039;s gas supplies to Europe.EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in January asked gas companies including Gazprom about tight supplies after accusations the Russian giant was withholding extra production that could be released to lower rising prices.Vestager was likely to intensify information gathering on Gazprom&#039;s European businesses, a person familiar with the regulator&#039;s thinking told Reuters last month.The European Commission declined to comment and the person declined to provide details of the EU raids.It is unclear if the offices in Berlin were raided by the EU investigators. Bloomberg was the first to report the raids in Gazprom&#039;s offices in Germany.Gazprom and the Kremlin have repeatedly denied withholding gas supplies, saying that all firm and long-term obligations have been met.Companies found breaching EU antitrust rules face fines up to 10% of their global turnover.Gazprom dodged a fine in 2018 after agreeing to reform its pricing arrangements and pave the way for rivals in eastern Europe following an investigation. - Reuters

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Republikein 2025-09-19

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