Company news in brief
Sanlam completes tie-up with AllianzSouth Africa's largest insurer, Sanlam, said on Tuesday all pre-conditions necessary for its joint venture with German giant Allianz have been met, with the two merging their African operations outside of SA.
Namibia will be included at a later stage, Sanlam said.
Sanlam first announced the tie-up in May 2022, creating a vehicle to provide insurance and financial services in 27 African markets that will operate under the name SanlamAllianz.
Sanlam holds 60% of the new joint venture, with Allianz owning 40% - with the ability to increase its shareholding to a maximum of 49% over time. The transaction became effective on Monday.
SanlamAllianz’s ambition is to be among the top three players, in both market share and profitability, in the markets where the company will operate, they said in a joint statement.
The joint venture is expected to have a combined group equity value (GEV) of approximately R35 billion. Retail and corporate clients will benefit from a broader offering of insurance products tailored to their needs as well as best-in-class financial solutions. – Fin24
TFG warns of earnings slide
Foschini owner TFG has warned interim earnings could fall by up to a quarter as the effect of a post-pandemic spending recovery internationally created a high base in the prior year, while intensifying load shedding brought increasing pressure to bear.
The company - which owns brands such as JET, Sportscene and Totalsports - said during the current six months to end September 2023, the international operations had returned to growing off pre-Covid-19 levels. Because of this, as well as intensifying power interruptions that were disrupting its South African operations, the company said earnings were expected to come in 15% to 25% lower than the same period last year.
TFG Africa, excluding Tapestry, lost about 250 000 trading hours during the period due to load shedding, which was 1.8 times more trading hours than the prior period due to higher levels of load shedding. The Tapestry business lost about 91 000 trading hours.
The group said that by 26 August 2023, a total of 2 284 stores had backup power, representing about 75% of TFG Africa's turnover.
The company also gave an outline of expected performance for the 22 weeks to 26 August 2023, showing that its group topline growth was still increasing by double digits even with the fall in the earnings for the six months to end September 2023. – Fin24