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Ramaphosa, billionaire Soon-Shiong open NantSA vaccine production campus in Cape Town

By: Irma Venter 19th January 2022 The NantSA vaccine manufacturing campus at Brackengate, in Cape Town, could soon produce its first Covid-19 vaccine, says NantWorks founder and CEO Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong. President Cyril Ramaphosa and Soon-Shiong on Wednesday officially opened the NantSA facility. →

President Cyril Ramaphosa and Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong cut the ribbon on the NantSA facility

Eskom says some industrial customers require ‘urgent’ assistance, but urges targeted subsidies

By: Terence Creamer 19th January 2022 Eskom has acknowledged that urgent interventions are needed to assist certain large industrial customers, some of which are competing with international companies whose electricity is subsidised, to navigate the transition to cost-reflective electricity tariffs. In a presentation on the third day... →

Photo by Creamer Media's Donna Slater
Eskom CFO Calib Cassim at a previous Nersa hearing

Tongaat defies small investors on R4bn rights issue

By: Bloomberg 19th January 2022 Tongaat Hulett won approval for a R4-billion rights issue to help keep the South African sugar maker afloat, in defiance of small investors who said the move hands too much power to a little-known new backer. The 132-year-old company secured the required support for the discounted fundraising... →

South African inflation nears top of central bank target range

By: Bloomberg 19th January 2022 South Africa’s inflation rate moved closer to the top of the central bank’s target range in December, highlighting the difficult choice between taming price growth and supporting a sluggish economy policy makers will face when deciding on interest rates next week. The annual inflation rate rose... →

Coca-Cola Africa to leverage sparkling drinks strength to expand in other drinks categories

By: Schalk Burger 19th January 2022 Sub-Saharan African bottling subsidiary Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) has said its strategy is to secure organic growth in the 14 markets it serves by leveraging its market share of sparkling drinks to expand in adjacent product categories and its ability to invest to support its strategy to... →

DoT, PRASA rehabilitating, reopening Mabopane rail commuter line

By: Schalk Burger 19th January 2022 The Department of Transport (DoT) and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) are making progress with the R1.4-billion programme to upgrade infrastructure and implement refurbishments to reopen the Mabopane Corridor, with Pienaarspoort to Pretoria and Mabopane to Pretoria services... →

BLSA accepts Bain’s membership withdrawal

By: Donna Slater 19th January 2022 Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) has accepted consulting firm Bain’s decision to withdraw from the organisation. BLSA has been criticised for recently re-accepting Bain to its membership after the firm's part in the so-called restructuring of the South African Revenue Service (Sars) to... →

Accelerated business transformation to drive M&A in 2022

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 19th January 2022 International law firm Herbert Smith Freehills’s (HSF’s) 2022 M&A report, its fifth yearly edition, confirms record global levels of mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in 2021, and identifies continued drivers for strong activity this year. According to the HSF Global M&A head Gavin Davies,... →

Wine exports make healthy recovery in 2021

By: Donna Slater 19th January 2022 Despite being negatively impacted by a series of local alcohol sales bans, global freight and localised port issues and a shortage of glass and packaging materials, export volumes of South African wine recovered to a healthier volume of 388-million litres, while the total value of local exports... →

French Navy patrol ship visiting Durban

By: Rebecca Campbell 19th January 2022 The French Navy offshore patrol vessel Champlain is currently in Durban harbour, the French Embassy in Pretoria has reported. The ship arrived on Monday and will sail on Friday. The vessel is based in the French overseas island territory of La Réunion (which is legally and constitutionally an... →

Photo by French navy
The B2M patrol ship Champlain

Bridging ICT infrastructure gap critical, requires innovative funding

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 19th January 2022 Creative new investment solutions are required to fund information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure that can accelerate the rollout of fast, unlimited Internet and provide low-income households with access to quality affordable data that can bridge the digital divide, Old Mutual... →

KZN has masterplan to drive developments around the Mkhuze Airport

By: Yvonne Silaule 19th January 2022 KwaZulu-Natal has a masterplan in place to drive developments around the Mkhuze Airport, which is undergoing a R72-million upgrade. During a visit to the airport this week, Premier Sihle Zikalala said that masterplan was expected to attract critical infrastructure investment in mixed-use... →

Modern disruptions priming chemicals industry for new way of doing business – Chieta

By: Donna Slater 19th January 2022 Despite the chemicals industry being the fifth hardest-hit industry globally as a result of supply chain challenges, oil price fluctuations and deglobalisation, the disruption has “primed” the industry for new business models, new partnerships and a new approach to problem-solving, says Chemical... →

Chieta CEO Yershen Pillay

Iata reports that last year’s third quarter saw easing financial pressures on airlines

By: Rebecca Campbell 19th January 2022 Pressure on the operating profitability of the world’s airlines lessened during the third quarter of last year (Q3 2021), the International Air Transport Association (Iata) reported in its latest Airlines Financial Monitor. However, jet fuel prices increased. The improvement in operating... →

Aarto still enforced until court judgment – Roads Agency

By: Thabi Madiba 19th January 2022 The Road Traffic Infringement Agency informed road users on Wednesday that the provisions under the Administrative Adjudication of the Road Traffic Offences Act are still enforceable until the Constitutional Court makes a judgment on the expected appeal. Last week, the Gauteng High Court in... →

Attacq progresses Waterfall developments

19th January 2022 Real estate investment trust Attacq is continuing to develop Waterfall City, its mixed-used development in Midrand, into a smart, safe and sustainable city. Tasneem Bulbulia expands. →

Attacq progresses Waterfall developments

NPA steps in as Optimum Coal Terminal interdict falls away

By: News24Wire 19th January 2022 The Johannesburg High Court has declined to grant a declaratory order sought by directors of the Gupta-linked Tegeta Exploration and Resources to prevent business rescue practitioners from progressing the rescue of Optimum Coal Terminal. The judgment, handed down on Tuesday, has, however,... →

30 heavily armed suspects kill Eskom security guard during cable theft incident

By: News24Wire 19th January 2022 An Eskom security officer has been shot dead in Soweto. Around 30 heavily armed suspects shot at the officer and six of his colleagues on Tuesday, 11 January during an alleged attempt to steal copper cable outside the Eskom Klipspruit Customer Network Centre (CNC) in Soweto. →

SARB to hike rates by 25 bps to 4% on January 27

By: Reuters 19th January 2022 South Africa's Reserve Bank (SARB) will raise interest rates to 4% on January 27 as it continues its hiking cycle amid a pick up in consumer price inflation, a Reuters poll found on Wednesday. Eighteen of 23 economists polled from January 12 to 18 said the central bank would add 25 basis points... →

Mbalula hopes to launch digital driving licence renewal system in February

By: News24Wire 19th January 2022 The government says it intends to fix the controversial and unreliable driver's licence system by going digital. Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has assured motorists that his department will soon launch a new digital licence renewal system. The department faces a huge backlog of drivers... →

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula

Eskom sustains 20.5% request despite big updates to cost assumptions

By: Terence Creamer 18th January 2022 State-owned electricity producer Eskom has submitted major updates to the cost assumptions included in its latest allowable revenue application but has nevertheless sustained its request for a 20.5% tariff hike for its upcoming 2022/23 financial year. In a presentation delivered on the second day... →

Eskom's OCGT power station at Atlantis in the Western Cape

Eskom requests more for diesel costs as it lowers EAF assumption for 2022/23 to only 62%

Investec to offer private bank clients solar-power financing

By: Bloomberg 18th January 2022 Investec plans to offer its private banking clients funding to install solar panels and battery storage systems in homes, bolstering its own green credentials and providing a power solution in a country regularly hit by electricity outages. The offering, which follows a pilot programme for 1 000... →

Global climate action accelerating, presenting commercial opportunities and risks - Boston Consulting

By: Schalk Burger 18th January 2022 Many company leaders underestimate the pace and extent of the change ahead and, as such, climate change early-movers can attract more talent, play in higher-growth segments and save cash and carbon, as well as reduce risk exposure, access cheaper financing and achieve higher shareholder value,... →

Brazil takes first step towards expanding its nuclear generation capacity

By: Rebecca Campbell 18th January 2022 Brazil has begun the process of identifying new sites for new nuclear power plants. The first step was the recent signing of a cooperation agreement between the federal Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Centre for Electric Energy Research (acronymed to Cepel, in Portuguese). Brazil has one of... →

Cyber-risks a major concern for South African, African businesses – Allianz

By: Schalk Burger 18th January 2022 Cyber-risks are the biggest concern for companies globally, in South Africa, Africa, the Middle East and Nigeria in 2022, and the threat of ransomware attacks, data breaches or major information technology outages are of greater concern to companies than business and supply chain disruption,... →

Cybersecurity perception gap remains, public safety threatened as cyberattacks spike – WEF

By: Schalk Burger 18th January 2022 Ransomware attacks increased by 151% in 2021, and there were on average 270 attacks per organisation, or a 31% increase compared with 2020. However, 92% of business executives surveyed say cyber-resilience is integrated into enterprise risk-management strategies, while only 55% of cybersecurity... →

AFC raises $400m syndicated loan for post-pandemic recovery, infrastructure investment

By: Schalk Burger 18th January 2022 Private sector-led infrastructure finance provider the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has raised $400-million in a syndicated loan to support the post-pandemic recovery through critical development of infrastructure. The proceeds will facilitate upcoming infrastructure projects that address the... →

Japanese multinational shows interest in plastic-to-hydrogen tech development

By: Marleny Arnoldi 18th January 2022 Plastics-to-hydrogen company Hydrogen Utopia International (HUI) has signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Japanese multinational Mitsubishi Heavy Industries whereby the latter will review HIU’s technology and explore commercial opportunities for developing more advanced facilities. HUI is... →

Hillside Aluminium could get green $0.03c/kWh lifeline by 2030 – Mallinson

By: Martin Creamer 18th January 2022 It’s all about South Africa focusing attention on the generation and storage of its wonderful African sunshine and prime African wind. It’s all about going hammer and tongs for these three letters, SWS, which stand for solar, wind and storage – and eight hours of storage is all we need, which is... →

Energy consultant Clyde Mallinson interviewed by Mining Weekly’s Martin Creamer. Video: Darlene Creamer.

Fortress REIT acquires third logistics asset in Poland

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 18th January 2022 JSE-listed Fortress REIT has acquired its third logistics asset, MDC2 Park Łódź South, located south of Łódź in central Poland. Driven by the demand to supply high-growth western European economies, the first two signature acquisitions in Poland were made in 2020 to deepen and extend the... →

An artist's rendering of Fortress REIT's logistics asset, MDC2 Park Łódź South

Fortress MDC2 Park

Green ammonia team aims for bankable project proposal within 18 months

By: Marleny Arnoldi 18th January 2022 Since announcing plans to build a green ammonia export plant in Nelson Mandela Bay, the partners behind the project Hive Hydrogen, Built Africa and Afrox subsidiary Linde have witnessed a great deal of interest in this first-of-its-kind undertaking. The R75-billion project heralds a new area for... →

Hive Hydrogen South Africa chairperson Thulani Gcabashe

Richards Bay Bulk Terminal receives new multi-purpose ship loader

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 18th January 2022 The Richards Bay Bulk Terminal has taken delivery of a new multi-purpose ship loader as part of its capacity creation initiatives. This investment of over R124-million is expected to contribute to improved loading rates at the terminal, as well as to aid in the handling of increased volume... →

An image of Richards Bay Bulk Terminal's new multi-purpose ship loader

New ship loader

UK providing urgent climate crisis aid funding to East Africa

By: Rebecca Campbell 18th January 2022 The UK announced on Monday that it was going to provide a new support package to four East African countries, to help them deal with both extreme drought and flooding conditions. The package, worth £17-million, was announced by British Minister for Africa (roughly equivalent to a Deputy Minister... →

African energy at point of transition to uncertain destination

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 18th January 2022 Buffeted by a historic recession in 2020, sub-Saharan Africa's energy sector and economy experienced a challenging 2021, exacerbated by Covid-19-related complications. Now, the region's economies are rebounding and, spurred by the global energy transition, governments are decarbonising across the... →

Suzuki reports 67% surge in new-vehicle sales in 2021

By: Irma Venter 18th January 2022 Suzuki Auto South Africa (SASA) saw 67% growth in new-vehicle sales in 2021 as it delivered 27 583 new vehicles to customers, the highest on record for the local arm of the Japanese car manufacturer. SASA reported new-vehicle sales of 16 527 units for 2020. The same year also saw SASA breach the... →

Polihali Village and visitors’ lodge construction kicks off

By: Natasha Odendaal 18th January 2022 The construction of permanent housing, visitors’ lodge and associated infrastructure at the Polihali Village is set to start in January after the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) awarded the construction tender to the Polihali Village Joint Venture (JV) in December 2021.... →

Calls for renewables rises as scrutiny increases on corporate power use – Wood Mackenzie

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 18th January 2022 Flush with opportunity and the capital needed to move investment and merger and acquisition (M&A) strategies forward as the rush to decarbonise the global energy system heightens, corporate power and renewables companies need to prepare for rising near-term risk, says consultancy group Wood... →

Rothschild hired by Eskom’s creditors to help steer debt revamp

By: Bloomberg 18th January 2022 Eskom creditors started working with financial advisory firm Rothschild & Co. as South Africa’s struggling power utility prepares a long-awaited reorganization aimed at returning it to profit and lightening its debt load. Bondholders are forming a common front to protect their interests as the... →

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