Shuka Minerals to join AltX; Disney plans Abu Dhabi theme park
In a slower day for local corporate news, Shuka Minerals, which owns a mine in Tanzania and is listed in London, announced plans for a secondary AltX listing, while DRD Gold reported that wet weather has taken a toll on its profits. In international news, the Walt Disney Company on Wednesday unveiled plans for a new theme park in the United Arab Emirates, underscoring the country's emergence as a financial and entertainment global hub.
SA business
Mining and development company Shuka Minerals announced it was seeking a secondary inward listing on the JSE's AltX with effect from 21 May. It said it is looking to make things easier for SA investors and potentially invest in local mining opportunities. Shuka, with a market value of over R50 million, has been listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) for 20 years and had acquired an operating asset in 2016, a coal mine in Tanzania. The group, formerly known as Edenville Energy, said it is considering projects in Zambia, South Africa, and other African countries that are rich in copper, lead, and zinc deposits. The AltX is a parallel market geared towards small and medium-sized companies looking for rapid growth.
SA's biggest tailings retreatment specialist DRD Gold reported a 12% fall in production to 35 141 ounces in its third quarter to end March, relative to the second, as 'unprecedented' wet weather conditions hit its access to sites. Cash operating costs per kilogram increased by 10%, but prices picked up by the same amount, with the group reporting a 2% fall in adjusted ebitda to R761.7 million. The group is just over 50% owned by Sibanye-Stillwater.
MTN Uganda, the fourth-largest African market for JSE-listed MTN Group by subscribers, has reported a sharp climb in first-quarter profit as it benefits from a healthy economic backdrop and a surge in data revenue. MTN Uganda reported a 20.6% rise in profit to 180.9 billion Ugandan shillings (R903 million) in the three months to end March, when overall subscribers climbed 14.6% to 22.8 million, and data revenue jumped by almost a third. It, however, has faced headwinds, with an interim industry-wide directive from last prompting a reduction in mobile termination rates by about 42%, and voice revenue only rose by 1.5%. However, the reduced pricing resulted in a 16.5% uplift in traffic, which helped cushion the impact of the cuts, it said.
Banking group Absa announced the appointment of René van Wyk as its chair with effect from 15 July. Van Wyk was Absa's interim CEO in 2019. He re-joined the board, after a cooling-off period, as a non-executive director on 1 August 2020 and thereafter became an independent non-executive director from 1 August 2021. He was Registrar of Banks and head of banking supervision of the South African Reserve Bank until May 2016. Prior to that, he worked for Nedbank from 1993 to 2011, occupying various positions, including Nedcor Investment Bank's executive director for risk and CEO of Imperial Bank.
Holding company Universal Partners, which has its primary listing in Mauritius and invests in growth businesses across Europe, reported a fair value loss of about £347 000 (about R8.5 million) for its third quarter to end March, largely related to its valuation credit group SC Lowry, which is denominated in dollars. The group, which also owns dental care platform Portman Dentex, reported about a 6.5% fall in net asset value per share to R27.95 for its nine months.
Datatec, an ICT services group that operates in more than 50 countries, flagged a jump of between 76.1% and 83.1% in headline earnings per share for its year to end February. The group had said previously it continued to see strong demand for its services during the previously, especially in the areas of cybersecurity and hybrid cloud infrastructure.
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has initiated a dedicated project to investigate fees charged by SA banks in order to determine whether further action is needed. That's according to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, who made the revelation in a written reply to a parliamentary question by EFF MP Omphile Maotwe, who had asked whether National Treasury was investigating 'exorbitant' bank charges. Maotwe also wanted to know whether National Treasury had a policy to address expensive bank charges. 'The FSCA has observed several variations in the pricing approaches and structures between different banks. In some cases, there are significant disparities in fees between banks for the same, or relatively similar, products or services,' Godongwana said in a written response dated 14 February this year.
Global business
The Walt Disney Company on Wednesday unveiled plans for a new theme park in the United Arab Emirates, underscoring the country's emergence as a financial and entertainment global hub. The waterfront resort will be located on Abu Dhabi's Yas Island, and built in conjunction with local firm Miral, Disney said, adding it hoped to attract tourists from 'the Middle East and Africa, India, Asia, Europe, and beyond. Disney's announcement came ahead of US President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week. Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be the seventh since Disneyland was opened in Anaheim, California in 1955. Other resorts are in Florida, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The new resort will combine Disney's 'iconic stories, characters and attractions with Abu Dhabi's vibrant culture, stunning shorelines, and breathtaking architecture,' the company said in a statement. The California-based entertainment giant reported Wednesday a robust increase in quarterly revenues. The company said overall sales increased 7% to $23.6 billion (R431 billion) in the January to March period, with subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service growing to 126 million, adding 1.4 million new subscriptions. The gain in subscribers came as analysts widely expected a decline. - AFP
German premium carmaker BMW said Wednesday that it expected to largely ride out the impact of US tariffs over the coming year, and that it hoped to soften their impact. CEO Oliver Zipse told reporters on a call that BMW was lobbying hard for free trade and expected some success thanks to its worldwide footprint. 'We are advocating this at various political levels in our markets,' he said. 'People listen to us attentively and our arguments are well received.' Zipse added that he expected tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on Canada and Mexico to eventually be rolled back. 'We assume that the North American free trade zone will be restored because these countries are far too interdependent,' he said. 'The costs for everyone are far too large.' Trump has threatened and imposed a range of tariffs in a bid to boost American manufacturing, including a 25% levy on many car imports in effect since April. But he has also proven flexible, pausing previously announced punitive tariffs and adding some carveouts to the car duties. BMW has its largest site in South Carolina in the United States and the plant last year exported vehicles worth over $10 billion (R183 billion). The company stuck with its guidance for the year and expects earnings before taxes (EBT) for 2025 to be level with that of 2024, driven by demand for its pricier motors. – AFP
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, known for its blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss treatments Ozempic and Wegovy, cut its annual sales forecast on Wednesday, citing a decline in its US market share. Novo Nordisk blamed the revised outlook on competition from copycat versions of its popular GLP-1 injections made in US pharmacies - a practice known as compounding. The company said it now expects sales growth of 13% to 21% in 2025, down from a previous forecast of 16% to 24%. 'We have reduced our full-year outlook due to lower-than-planned branded GLP-1 penetration, which is impacted by the rapid expansion of compounding in the US,' Novo Nordisk chief executive Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said. 'We are actively focused on preventing unlawful and unsafe compounding and on efforts to expand patient access to our GLP-1 treatments,' he said in a statement.US pharmacies had been allowed to make their own version of Wegovy and Ozempic due to a shortage of the drugs. But US regulators ruled in February that the shortage had ended and ordered pharmacies to discontinue making the compounded versions. – AFP
Energy giant ExxonMobil is set to inject $1.5 billion (R27.5 billion) into the development of its deepwater operations in Nigeria, the country's oil regulator said on Wednesday. The planned capital deployment, spanning from the second quarter of 2025 to 2027, will primarily focus on revitalising production at the Usan deepwater oilfield, located on the key offshore block OML 138 in the eastern Niger Delta, approximately 70 kilometres offshore. The Usan field, discovered in 2002 and granted development approval in 2008, commenced production in 2012 and currently comprises around 34 subsea production and injection wells connected to eight subsea manifolds. ExxonMobil anticipates reaching a final investment decision (FID) on the Usan project in late Q3 2025. This decision is contingent upon the approval of the Field Development Plan and the securing of necessary internal and partner funding. During a meeting on Tuesday with Gbenga Komolafe, head of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), ExxonMobil's Managing Director in Nigeria, Shane Harris, stated that this $1.5 billion commitment is in addition to other planned investments aimed at developing further deepwater assets, including the Owowo and Erha fields. – Reuters
Over 10 million
Bank of America Global Research said in a report that it expects mass adoption of humanoid robots for commercial use to begin in 2028, with this phase expected to continue to 2034, with annual shipments possibly reaching 1 million per year. Mass adoption for all purposes - such as household chores - is expected from 2035, when annual shipments could exceed 10 million.
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