Strategy pays off for Famous Brands – Business Report
The efficiencies of Famous Brands’ integrated supply chain strategy had helped it to remain resilient during the adverse trading conditions of the past six months. According to Dirk van Vlaanderen, the company reported a solid set of interim results, with a strong performance from the supply chain business offsetting more subdued trading conditions in the franchising division.
MTN banks on mobile money – Business Day
MTN’s mobile money service has the potential to contribute 15% of MTN SA’s total revenues in the long term, the company said last week. In June MTN partnered with Pick n Pay, Boxer stores and Visa to re-launch mobile money service that will enable customers to transfer and receive money, and also pay bills. Mobile […]
MTN drops on Nigeria worries – Business Day
Shares in MTN Group fell 3.79% to close at R235.03 on concerns about regulatory pressure in the mobile operator’s largest market, Nigeria, which dragged down its subscriber growth there for the three months to September. However, MTN expects an improved performance during the remaining quarter of the year, after it resolved a number of matters with the […]
Reforms at Anglo begin to yield fruit – Business Report
Diversified global mining company Anglo American posted solid production figures in the quarter to September. Anglo raised its full-year iron-ore production forecast to a range of 45 million tons to 46 million tons. Rubin Renecke and Abdul Davids comment on the company’s production numbers.
BAT's cigarette sales volumes slowly going up in smoke – Business Day
The volume of cigarettes British American Tobacco (BAT) sold continued to decline in its third quarter ended September, amid contracting smoker markets in countries including Russia, Vietnam, Brazil, Poland and Canada. The JSE’s biggest stock by market value — R1.2-trillion — saw its share fall as much as 4.58% to R585 yesterday after it released interim […]
Retailers in for a rough ride – Finweek
Faced with a sputtering economy, high levels of consumer debt and a clampdown on unsecured lending, clothing and furniture retailers are under pressure to find new sources of growth. Big retailers reliant on offering credit sales to lower and middle-income consumers have been particularly vulnerable, with financial results reflecting an increasingly cash-strapped and cautious consumer […]
Autopage's new role – Financial Mail
Altron TMT is repositioning one of its telecom businesses, Altech Autopage Cellular, to offer increased internet services with a focus on corporate clients. Autopage’s business of reselling the products and services of various mobile network operators has come under pressure from price competition and the reduction in mobile termination rates. Its rival, Nashua Mobile, which […]
BAT: Confounding sceptics – Financial Mail
These days tobacco companies no longer carry the “sin share” badge but are increasingly given the more ominous “death share” tag. Ethical issues aside, the investment proposition, on paper, is preposterous: imagine investing in a company offering a much maligned product to a shrinking consumer market. It’s even more difficult when you consider that brand […]
Diversification helps grow Phumelela earnings – Business Day
Phumelela Gaming and Leisure — owner of five racecourses with training centres in Gauteng, the Free State, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape — saw earnings per share shoot up 32% in the first six months to July, underpinned by improved international operations. The positive momentum continued in the second half with a weaker rand providing […]