Author: Gugu Lourie

South African Convergence Partners, which is owned by ICT industry veteran Andile Ngcaba, has spent R75 million ($5 million) to acquire an additional stake in fast-growing FinTech Player Channel VAS. Convergence Partners exercised preferential and exclusive rights to acquire the stake as a result of an intra-consortium rebalancing of the holdings of another member of the Ethos consortium through which Convergence Partners is partially invested. Last week private equity firm Ethos announced that it has sold its 1.4% stake in FinTech player Channel VAS. The company said it has has sold a 1.4% stake in Channel VAS at a consideration of $5 million (R76.6 million). Ethos…

New Wave, a company co-owned by ICT industry veteran Phumlani Moholi has been awarded a contract for smart power management by SqwidNet, an Internet of Things (IoT) network operator in South Africa. Moholi’s company said this partnership will see New Wave undertaking to deploy and manage 1500 CabiSense devices in Sqwidnet’s network over a period of 3 years. “CabiSense is a network and power infrastructure solution that we’ve created and manufactured locally. It is designed to enhance the monitoring and management of network elements remotely in a manner that’s geared towards improved cost-efficiency and increased network availability,” says Moholi, an…

MTN Group announced on Friday it had appointed Tsholofelo Molefe as a new Group Chief Financial Officer (GCFO). Molefe has resigned with immediate effect at Telkom.Molefe, joined Telkom on 1 July 2016 as Deputy CFO and was appointed as Group CFO two years later. In her two-year tenure, she derisked the balance sheet, optimised working capital management through structural changes and enhanced the capital allocation framework to focus on return on investment. Prior to working at Telkom, Tsholofelo was the Finance Director at Eskom as well as the CFO for First National Bank’s Personal Banking division. She is also a…

Telkom announced on Friday it has appointed Dirk Reyneke as the acting chief financial officer (CFO) after the resignation of Tsholofelo Molefe. Molefe will also join the MTN Group board and take over from Sugentharan Perumal who has been acting in the position of GCFO since 1 September 2020. Perumal took on that role following the appointment of Ralph Mupita as MTN’s new president and CEO, replacing Rob Shuter. For more read: MTN Taps Telkom CFO As New Finance Chief Reyneke, current CFO of Openserve for the past 18 months will take over the position of Telkom Acting Group CFO,…

Netstar, a subsidiary of JSE-listed technology company Altron, has set up an office in Malaysia and is exploring expansion opportunities in Indonesia. The company pioneered the vehicle tracking and stolen vehicle recovery industry in South Africa in 1994. Netstar operations extend into Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia, and the organisation has customers throughout the rest of Africa and Australia. “We have set up an office in Malaysia with a local partner and are looking at expansion throughout South East Asia with Indonesia being the next market we are focusing on, our Australian operation has offices throughout that country,”…

Media group Media24 announced on Thursday plans to buy out all shareholders of Welkom Yizani, its black economic empowerment share scheme.  The media group is proposing to pay R15.70 per Welkom Yizani ordinary share. The proposal is subject to the approval of Welkom Yizani shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting scheduled for 22 January 2021. Investors paid in a subscription of R10.00 per share at the establishment of the scheme in 2006. Then scheme’s shares were listed for trading on an over the counter platform on 9 December 2013. The shares were stuck at R10.00 for more than a year and…

Vodacom announced on Wednesday that pre-orders for new Apple iPhone 12 family, including iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12, and iPhone 12 mini are set to begin on Friday, 11 December. The sales of the iPhones  is set to start on Friday, 18 December 2020. “Vodacom is excited to soon offer the eagerly anticipated new iPhone 12 family, including iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12, and iPhone 12 mini,” the Vodafone-owned company said in a statement. The newly designed iPhone 12 models feature expansive edge-to-edge Super Retina XDR displays for a brighter, more immersive viewing experience,…

South Africa’s private equity firm Ethos announced on Wednesday that it has sold its 1.4% stake in FinTech player Channel VAS. The company said it has has sold a 1.4% stake in Channel VAS at a consideration of $5 million (R76.6 million). “In line with the Board’s stated strategy of optimising capital allocation and enhancing shareholder value, Ethos Capital has sold a 1.4% stake in Channel VAS at a consideration of US$5 million (R76.6 million),” the company said. “The sale consideration has valued Ethos Capital’s stake in Channel VAS at $36.7 million (a 16% premium to the valuation as at…

South African FinTech group Capital Appreciation Limited (Capprec) today delivered strong growth for the six months ended 30 September 2020 boosted by ongoing acceleration in digital transformation and electronic payments. Capprec said on Wednesday revenue grew by 15% to R323.7 million and EBITDA by 20.2% to R81.6 million. The group’s headline earnings increased by 7.8% to R54.2 million. In the prior period, Capprec concluded and successfully executed a transaction that included the share repurchase and cancellation of 245 million shares. The lower number of shares in issue benefited headline earnings per share (HEPS), which grew by 29.7% to 4.45 cents…

Herotel, South Africa’s junior fibre network operator, on Monday announced the milestone of reaching 100 000 subscribers with its fibre and fixed wireless networks. Founded in 2014 with the stated goal of providing a single national fibre and wireless broadband provider that can better service South Africa’s growing internet connectivity needs, Herotel acquired around 39 owner-operated businesses and 45 000 customers over a four-year period. Operating in over 400 towns, Herotel is at the forefront of building, selling and maintaining its own next-generation fibre and fixed-wireless networks across the country, which requires servicing areas that many other industry players have not…