COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

MultiChoice names former PIC head as chair

DStv owner MultiChoice said on Monday it has named board member and former Public Investment Corporation (PIC) CEO Elias Masilela as chairman with effect from 1 April 2024.

Masilela is an independent non-executive board member and previously served as the head of policy analysis at Sanlam and deputy director general at National Treasury. He is also the chair of Ingagaru Property Investments and Sanlam, and is a former board member of the South African Reserve Bank and Government Employee Pension Fund.

Masilela replaces Imtiaz Patel, who will be stepping down at the end of March 2024.

"Given shareholder preference for an independent chair, it was always envisaged that Patel would step down at the appropriate time once a suitable replacement as independent chair had been identified," the company said.

"He will remain involved in assisting the group on a consultancy basis until October 2028. His involvement will include Showmax, SuperSport and other operational areas."-Fin24

MTN Nigeria picks new tower provider

Africa's largest mobile operator, MTN, said it has selected American Tower Corporation (ATC) as its preferred bidder to take over its tower services in Nigeria from 2025, replacing IHS Towers, with whom it has a tense relationship.

MTN Nigeria said in a statement ATC Nigeria Wireless Infrastructure Solutions was selected on the basis of its superior bid submission, with this concerning about 2 500 network sites.

"Additionally, this will further diversify our site portfolio and align with our proactive initiatives to renegotiate tower agreements, focusing on ensuring terms that will cushion the business from the volatility in our trading environment," it said in a statement.

The extensive trading relationship between New York-listed IHS - which was founded in Nigeria - and MTN has been cited by the former as a reason to deny the mobile operator board representation.

MTN holds 26% of IHS, which operates nearly 40 000 towers in Africa, the Middle East and South America, but its voting rights are capped at 20%. MTN doesn't have a representative on the IHS board, although its former CEO, Phuthuma Nhleko, is a non-executive director.

Earlier in 2023, MTN, along with French investment company Wendel – which owns 19% – demanded that those holding 10% or more of IHS get to nominate board members, but this had been dismissed by IHS. –Fin24

Caxton books record results

Publishing and printing company Caxton says a strong packaging performance as well as advertising demand among liquor traders and grocers helped it generate record revenue in its year to end June.

Revenue grew by 16.6% to almost R7 billion on the back of price increases to recover the large raw material input cost increases and volume increases in the packaging business, the group said on Friday.

Volumes in the newspaper and commercial printing plants remained largely unchanged, but its national advertising grew by 7%, largely driven by grocery and liquor retailers.

Valued at about R3.6 billion on the JSE, Caxton generates just over half of its revenue from packaging and stationary, and just under half from publishing, printing and distribution.

The group’s varied packaging operations had another record year driven by approximately 28% increase in revenue, it said, reporting market share gains in existing customers as well new products.

Its folding carton divisions delivered double-digit volume growth, helped by increased levels of load shedding, which benefitted the quick-service-restaurant (QSR) market as consumers seem to prefer to buy takeaway meals as the solution to the inability for home cooking.-Fin24

Musk’s X Corp sues California

Elon Musk’s X Corp. sued California to undo the state’s law aimed at exposing sources of hate speech and disinformation by requiring social media companies to explain how they moderate their content.

X, which operates the social network that used to be known as Twitter, argued in a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Sacramento that the law interferes with its editorial judgments that are protected as free speech under the Constitution.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said when he signed AB 587 last year that it was designed to protect the public by demanding companies reveal their policies on hate speech, disinformation, harassment and extremism on their platforms, and report data on their enforcement of the policies.

But the law’s true intent is “to pressure social media platforms to ‘eliminate’ certain constitutionally protected content viewed by the state as problematic,” according to the complaint.

When Musk acquired the social media company for US$44 billion last year, he vowed it would be free of censorship and he reinstated formerly banned users while firing content moderators. The self-styled “free speech absolutist” hired NBCUniversal ad executive Linda Yaccarino as chief executive officer in May to help repair partnerships in the media industry and lure back advertisers.-Fin24

Capitec flags earnings growth

Capitec, South Africa’s largest retail bank by customer numbers, has flagged a modest uptick in interim earnings as financial pressures on consumers led to higher credit impairments.

The Stellenbosch-headquartered lender, which has more than 20 million active clients, advised shareholders on Friday that group headline earnings per share are expected to rise between 8% and 10% for the six months to end-August 2023, up from a restated R37.36 for the comparative period. The restatement relates to the implementation of IFRS 17 Insurance contracts standard at the beginning of March.

Capitec said it tightened its credit extension criteria during the six months to end-August to appropriately address the risk in its loan book created by adverse economic conditions characterised by persistent inflationary pressures and higher borrowing costs.

"The economic climate in South Africa was characterised by an inflation rate in excess of the government’s target and increases in interest rates until June 2023," Capitec said in a statement.

"This led to consumers being under financial pressure, which impacted the retail bank loans and advances and resulted in a higher credit impairment charge and credit loss ratio."

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) hiked its benchmark repo rate to a 14-year high of 8.25% in May in an attempt to reign in an annual inflation rate that had remained above the upper limit of its 3% to 6% target range for 13 consecutive months. –Fin24