Northern Business Review

Northern Business Review The Northern Business Review newspaper is positioned to serve as a vantage point for linking all businesses in the North

04/09/2015

Report - Johannesburg: City with most millionaires in Africa

According to a report by AfrAsia Bank and New World Wealth released yesterday, 23 400 of Africa’s approximately 163 000 dollar millionaires live in Johannesburg. Egypt’s capital Cairo is second with 10 200. Africa’s millionaires hold about $670 billion in their collective purses.
Cape Town featured fourth while Durban seventh (with 2 700), and Pretoria eighth (with 2 500) – all made it into the top 10. Oddly, not only is South Africa topping the continent’s wealth chart but the list comes in the midst of a shrinking economy which is battling rand shrinkage and a manufacturing slump.
South Africa’s economy contracted by 1.3% (seasonally adjusted and annualised) in the second quarter of 2015, according to preliminary estimates of real gross domestic product (GDP) released by Statistics SA.

Moody's Investors Service announced through a communique that it expects South Africa to avoid sliding into a recession ...
03/09/2015

Moody's Investors Service announced through a communique that it expects South Africa to avoid sliding into a recession this year, despite signs that the economy is struggling after contracting in the second quarter this year.

Moody's Senior Vice President, Kristin Lindow, said in a statement that electricity shortages, low commodity prices, a drought and weaker than expected global growth will constrain Africa's most advanced economy over the next 18 months. However, this was already reflected in the government's Baa2 rating, stable outlook, she said.

The economy contracted by 1.3 per cent on annual basis in the second quarter, data showed last week.

“The economy is suffering from the steep collapse in commodity prices, the negative impact of which has been more severe than the benefits obtained from the drop in oil import prices,” Moody’s said. The 1.3 percent quarterly contraction in the three months through June “has sparked speculation about a possible recession, which we think will be avoided, but barely”, it said.

Pic Credit: Weekly Africa

02/09/2015

Business owners warned to be more vigilant

Police have called on business owners to be vigilant and ensure that their premises are secure as the festive season approaches.

This follows two separate robberies on Tuesday, at Clearwater Mall and a Shoprite store in Naledi, Soweto.

Two suspects were arrested and four more are on the run after they robbed the Shoprite, while two men were killed, two were wounded and two others were arrested at following a shootout between police and suspects at Clearwater Mall.

At the same time three men, who were believed to be on their way to commit a robbery were wounded while four others were arrested after a high speed chase on the N12 Highway Jet Park Road.

The police's Mpande Khosa says security cameras are vital as suspects can be identified.

“Be vigilant in terms of their security and make sure that their equipment, especially their security cameras, are working so that if something happens, it can assist in the investigation.”

On Tuesday, Gauteng police said they waited at the Clearwater Mall to prevent the robbery after observing groups operating in other malls in the province.

Khosa says businesses are easy targets.

“We just want to alert business, as you know we’re moving toward the festive season. Criminals will be gearing up to make money for Christmas.”

He says anyone with information on the suspects still on the run must come forward.

EWN

31/08/2015

Rand continues getting weaker

South Africa's rand traded weaker against the dollar early on Monday after the Federal Reserve's vice-chairman suggested over the weekend that the United States may raise rates in September.

At 06h30 GMT the rand eased 0.14 percent to 13.3275 per dollar, extending losses to a third straight session following a modest recovery from last week's all-time low.

The unit collapsed to 14.00 versus the greenback last Monday on the back of a global stocks sell-off triggered by concerns over China's slowing economy as well as the timing of rate hike in the US.

27/08/2015

Woolworths sees surge in sales

South Africa’s Woolworths Holdings Ltd raised sales 45.4 percent to just over R58 billion for the year to June and increased headline earnings 6.1 percent to 369.7 cents per share as its well-heeled customers continued to shop resiliently despite tough economic times, it said in a statement on Thursday.

“We believe that economic conditions in South Africa and Australia will remain constrained, especially in the lower and middle-income segments of the market. The upper-income segments in which we operate continue to show some resilience. Trading for the first eight weeks of the new financial year has been positive,” said Woolworths, whose stores sell gourmet foods and high-margin clothing labels.

The group, which will pay a dividend of 247 cents per share against 240 cents a year earlier, said that the transformation and integration of Australian department store David Jones, acquired in 2014, was progressing well.

Woolworths reported that clothing sales and general merchandise sales grew 9.6 percent overall and four percent in comparable stores, including its high-end Country Road brand. The sales of children’s wear and women’s footwear also improved despite underperforming earlier in the year.

Gross profit margin for clothing and general merchandise edged 0.7 percent higher to 47.4 percent.

The group’s food business saw sales grow 13.5 percent with sales in comparable stores up 6.6 percent. Gross profit margin grew a slight 0.4 percent to 25.7 percent.

24/08/2015

Rand decline continues

The rand continued to plummet on Monday morning.

The currency was trading at R13,44c to the dollar after reaching its lowest level in 14 years on Friday.

The decline is believed to have been due to international factors that saw emerging market currencies taking major losses against the dollar.

Weak factory growth in China had soured investor sentiment towards emerging markets as markets in Asia Asian stocks declined to three-year lows while a slump in Chinese equities gathered pace.

The rand has lost over 10 percent against the dollar and pound this year.



- eNCA

21/08/2015

The rand has tumbled to new 14-year low as the currency weakens and breached R13 to the US dollar.

In July, it hit a session low of R12.68 cents to the dollar and lost nearly 1 percent to the dollar in Thursday’s trade, extending this year's total loss to 11 percent this year alone.

According to Thomson Reuters data, the local currency touched 13 against the greenbacks, a level last seen 14 years ago.

Mary-Ann Chetty, Senior Innovation Manager at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, returned from the United States th...
20/08/2015

Mary-Ann Chetty, Senior Innovation Manager at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, returned from the United States this weekend after completing the 2015 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.
Selected as one of 500 fellows from over 30 000 applications from across Sub-Saharan Africa, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of President Barack Obama’s flagship programme.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship was launched by President Obama’s administration five years ago, to support emerging African leaders as they drive economic growth, enhance democratic governance, and strengthen the civil society structures that will help the continent grow and prosper.

19/08/2015

Vodacom makes first VoWiFi call in South Africa

In another technology first Vodacom has made the first ever commercial voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) call in South Africa.
Typically reserved for data, the move to use WiFi technology to carry voice traffic will mean better call quality for consumers. By effectively integrating WiFi into its network as another voice carrier Vodacom is ensuring a seamless voice experience no matter what the connection (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE, WiFi).
The first call, made at the company’s Midrand office on 4 June, was placed by Vodacom’s Network Engineering Officer, Beverly Ngwenya. She used the call to contact Vodacom’s Chief Technology Officer Andries Delport.
“No matter how prepared you are when you switch on a new service; it’s always a little nerve-wracking. The first thing I did was call Andries to let him know we’d been successful and everything was working exactly as planned,” said Ngwenya, who was responsible for the deployment of the service.
Commenting on the achievement Delport said:
“Our network team works hard to ensure we’re always one-step ahead and leading the adaption of new mobile technology. This was the case with Voice over LTE (VoLTE), which we launched earlier this year, as well as when we first launched our LTE/4G network in 2012. Voice over WiFi is the next step in ensuring the best quality voice calls for our customers.”
The service is currently live across the Vodacom network.

StarTimes secures rights to beam Bundesliga games in South AfricaPay-TV service provider StarTimes said that it has secu...
18/08/2015

StarTimes secures rights to beam Bundesliga games in South Africa

Pay-TV service provider StarTimes said that it has secured the exclusive broadcasting rights for the Bundesliga, the German men's top football league, for five years. The 306 games from the 2015-2016 season will be broadcast live on the StarSat Sport channels, MyBroadband reported. Gary Rathbone, Director of Sport at StarTimes, said it is delighted to have signed an exclusive deal with Bundesliga.

Address

Elsecar Street Unit 11 APD Industrial Park
Kya Sand
2163

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Northern Business Review posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Northern Business Review:

Shortcuts

Share

Category