Author: Gugu Lourie
Africa’s pay-tv giant MultiChoice is planning to utilise its R11.8 billion cash pile to fund growth and the weather the COVID-19 pandemic storm. MultiChoice, which added 1.2 million 90-day active subscribers in the six months to end-September to close the period on 20.1 million households believes the strength of the balance sheet is critically important given the uncertain longer-term economic impact of COVID-19. The company added that a strong balance sheet is also critical due to potential challenges for specific markets in the Rest of Africa (RoA) because of a lower oil price. Some R7.3 billion in cash and cash…
MultiChoice, Africa’s biggest pay-TV operator, has acquired a 20% stake in BetKing, a pan-African sports betting group. As part of the deal, MultiChoice has made an made an upfront investment of $81 million (R1.3 billion), with the potential for a further payment of $31 million (R500 million) should certain earn-out targets be met between December 2021 and December 2023. As the group exercises significant influence over BetKing, the business will be equity accounted as an associate from 1 October 2020 by MultiChoice. The company said the deal is part of its plans to expand the its entertainment ecosystem. BetKing is…
Unemployment in South Africa has soared to 30.8% in the last three months, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the third quarter of 2020 revealed. The rise was a 7.5% increase from the second quarter. This comes after Stats SA in September reported that despite the South African economy shedding 2.2 million jobs due to the COVID-19 lockdown, unemployment in the country dropped to 23.3% in the second quarter of 2020. According to the report, released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Thursday, “The number of employed persons increased by 543 000 (3.8%) to 14.7 million compared to…
The new BMW iX SUV has been revealed as the brand’s first purpose-built electric SUV with two electric motors. The German carmaker says the BMW iX is the symbol for a new era of mobility at BMW. It is the first representative of a trailblazing generation of cars poised to redefine the driving experience, the feeling of space inside and the relationship between vehicles and those on board. The German carmaker said in a statement that the design and technology of the BMW iX form an overall package that lays the foundations for what is, in many respects, a new kind of driving…
Telkom considers its stock to be undervalued and will continue to explore ways to unlock trapped value, CEO Sipho Maseko told investors on Tuesday. “It is our core belief that we remain undervalued as a company,” Maseko said of his company’s share price. “Our market capitalisation is not a true reflection of our intrinsic value and there is a massive evaluation gap. We will explore ways to unlock this trapped value in this conglomerate.” On Tuesday, Telkom said that unlocking value from its portfolio of businesses is a key component of its capital allocation framework and will afford management…
With summer fast approaching, Vodacom is raising the bar this year with the launch of the Summer ShakeOff 2020 campaign. 2020 was a year filled with difficulties, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic putting many South Africans under pressure. Many would like to shake off the negativity of 2020 and look toward the opportunities that 2021 has to offer. As a result of massive customer engagement in the 2019 Shake!Up Summer campaign, the country’s leading network has introduced new interactive gamification and rewards campaign called Summer #ShakeOff 2020. This year’s exciting new game, enabled through a Daily or Mega…
Telkom, South Africa’s biggest fixed-line telephone group, on Monday posted a 25.4% rise in headline earnings per share (HEPS) to 219 cents for the six months to end-September 2020, bolstered by the growth of its mobile phone unit. HEPS is South Africa’s main profit gauge. The company said this was driven by an 18.8% growth in operating profit because of a 6.3% growth in group EBITDA. This was partially offset by an increase in the effective tax rate from 29.9% in the prior period to 34.8%. Telkom informed investors on Tuesday that its mobile business performed exceptionally well, despite the…
The new affordable HTC Wildfire E Lite smartphone deceptively looks like any other budget handset, but it packs features only associated with high-end mobile phones. This smartphone brand had disappeared from the local market for some time. It is now back in South Africa intending to recapture the interests of former and new customers. HTC smartphones are back on the market courtesy of an ICT firm, Evercomm, which obtained the exclusive rights to relaunch the phone brand in South Africa. The HTC Wildfire is an affordable smartphone that performs as well as, if not better, than many…
Vodacom has launched its latest “Red Hot Dealz”, offering not-to-be missed super value SIM-only data bundles on a 24-month contract. The Red Hot Dealz are available from 6 November until 6 December 2020. The Vodafone-owned operator is offering a 50GB data mega-deal, consisting of 20GB of anytime data and 20GB of Night Owl data plus a free 10GB video ticket, for R199 per month over 24 months. Through this deal you stand to save R1 200. The deal comes with a free Vodafone Mobile Wi-Fi Router if you extend the contract to 36 months. See more Red Hot Dealz below and you…
swiftVEE is targeting global expansion after the South African AgriTecth startup secured $1.5 million (R23.6 million). The investment round was led by Sybtropico, an unlisted company specialising in Agri investments across the fruit, vegetable, and livestock industries and a private syndicate. The industry is investing heavily in technology to create farm-to-fork solutions that optimise food production across the value chain in fruit, veg and livestock. Founded in 2016 and officially launching in 2017, swiftVEE is an agricultural trading platform that helps the buyers and sellers of livestock connect in real-time through the use of third-party “livestock agents”. Livestock agents are…