Wiese wins Shoprite battle; consumer sentiment plunges; Moody's hits Eskom; Dischem, Telkom

Loading player...
Christo Wiese, the retail magnate who saw his billions evaporate as the Steinhoff share price plunged amid a financial scandal that erupted in late 2017, has clung to his position of power at supermarket multinational Shoprite.

South Africans are feeling very glum about the economy - and that’s official. The FNB consumer sentiment index slumped deep into negative territory during the third quarter of 2019, the bank’s economists report.

In a blow for Eskom, Moody’s pushed the state power firm’s credit rating deeper into sub-investment territory on Tuesday, saying a government plan to reorganise the cash-strapped South African firm would be hard to implement without explicit support from the cabinet.

Looking at the JSE, the best performer on Tuesday was Dischem, climbing nearly 7% as news emerged that Coronation Fund Managers had acquired a beneficial interest in the securities of the company.

Leading the losers on the JSE was Telkom, with its share price plunging nearly 8% on the news that its interim results will disappoint investors.

The worst may be over for the world economy’s deepest slowdown in a decade, says Bloomberg. A wave of interest-rate cuts by central banks including the Federal Reserve and mounting hopes of a US-China trade deal are buoying confidence in financial markets just as key economic indicators show signs of stabilisation after recent declines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
5 Nov 2019 2PM English South Africa Investing · Business News

Other recent episodes

Why Jakkie Cilliers (ISS) guarantees Africa in 2050 will be far more stable than today

At a time when news headlines across Africa highlight political friction, economic distress and security concerns, a guarantee of better times ahead may sound almost provocatively optimistic. Yet Dr Jakkie Cilliers, founder of the Institute for Security Studies and head of its African Futures and Innovation Programme, bases that guarantee…
25 Sep 5AM 35 min

Andy Calitz on Eskom, the job he didn't get, and what came next

He was on the shortlist to run Eskom and lost out to André de Ruyter. Years later, Andy Calitz, who ran South Africa's transmission grid before a career that took him from Shell to Gazprom's control room and the helm of LNG Canada, still thinks about it most weeks. In…
25 Sep 3AM 55 min

Warren Wheatley breaks his silence on his FSCA debarment

Three trades, R301 in total, and a 20-year ban from the financial sector. Warren Wheatley, the chartered accountant who helped put together the Capitec empowerment deal and went on to found Altvest, now Africa Bitcoin Corporation, broke his silence to Alec Hogg days after resigning as CEO. The FSCA says…
23 Sep 12PM 54 min

Brent Bozell on the US-South Africa breakdown

Six months after warning a Hermanus room full of business leaders that Washington's patience was wearing thin, US Ambassador Brent Bozell returned to BizNews to explain what happened next. Five asks, a 15-day deadline and a six-page reply that, in his words, answered none of them. The result: visa bans…
23 Sep 10AM 40 min