South Africa News Archives - Page 31 of 72

25Apr

By Arjen de BruinNo Comments

Main, South Africa News

When the bottom line is booming but the output is barely-there. Are mines missing a golden opportunity in this commodity cycle?

By Arjen de Bruin, Managing Director at OIM Consulting We’ve heard rumblings about the world being on the precipice of a post-pandemic ‘roaring 20s’. And — at least in the case of the mining sector — there are certainly signs that point to this. For commodities, in particular, the boom is very much, well, booming. Mines are reporting super profits, commodity prices continue to hover high in the stratosphere, and investors are eyeing the sector like hungry vultures. In the first half of 2021, the Journal of Mining and Metallurgy reported on the current commodity cycle, evidencing this unprecedented boom in stark black and white. “The S&P GSCI Industrial Metals Index has increased by over 86% since March 2020. The London Metal Exchange (LME) Index, which comprises aluminium (42.8%), ...

The Great Resignation has landed on SA shores, businesses take heed

15Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

The Great Resignation has landed on SA shores, businesses take heed

Ryan Silberman, Group CEO at Webfluential and YPO Africa member examines what is driving SA’s wave of Covid-catalysed resignations – and how businesses need to adapt The Great Resignation, a term coined by psychologist Anthony Klotz, is a post-pandemic movement that saw a wave of resignations take hold across the United States (US) and other parts of the world. In 2021 alone, more than a quarter of America’s total workforce resigned from their jobs. While a beat or two behind, South Africa (SA) is starting to see signs that point to the same phenomenon. Towards the end of last year, Old Mutual’s reward-management platform Remchannel revealed that employee turnover had increased by 16% across all sectors, while just under 69% of its survey respondents indicated that they were battling to ...

12Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Events, South Africa News

Africa-focused Banking & Finance team from Baker McKenzie advised on one of Global Trade Review’s Best Deals 2022

Baker McKenzie's Africa-focused Banking & Finance team advised on one of Global Trade Review's (GTR) Best Deals 2022 . The team advised Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited and certain of its subsidiaries (Aspen Group) on this winning deal, which comprised a joint financing package for the amount of €600 million (around ZAR 10 billion) that was finalised by the IFC, the French Development institution PROPARCO, the German development finance institution DEG and the United States (US) international Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The transaction was finalised in 2021. Baker McKenzie's Financial Institutions team in South Africa, led by Partner and Head of Banking & Finance in Johannesburg, Lodewyk Meyer, advised the Aspen Group in relation to a common terms agreement, a term lo...

4Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Energy, South Africa News

Is your building energy efficient? Tsebo Energy Management can give you the data you need to find out

The ongoing issues surrounding electricity supply in South Africa – not to mention climate-related discussions around the viability of the energy sector in general – has many businesses and building owners reconsidering whether those precious kWh units are going to waste unnecessarily. And just in case the obvious waste of money and energy that bad management represents wasn’t enough to get you wondering about your own use, it’s about to become law in South Africa as far as public spaces are concerned. South Africa is under immense pressure to not only stabilise our electricity supply, but also to alleviate our reliance on outmoded forms of energy generation – particularly coal, which is the source of 90% of our electrical power generation. And while not many would argue that becoming mo...

Flow wins Best Late-Stage Startup at AfricArena Awards

1Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Startups

Flow wins Best Late-Stage Startup at AfricArena Awards

South African proptech leader Flow has won the Best Late-Stage Startup award at the 2022 AfricArena Summit, held in Johannesburg last week. The summit was a side event to the South African President Investment Conference and supported by the Technology Innovation Agency and VC firm Edge Growth. Over 140 in-person attendees and more than 1 000 virtual viewers joined more than 60 high-level investors at the summit as it sought out Africa's best disruptors, across a variety of industries. The event saw 21 startups from across Southern Africa come together to learn, network, and showcase their innovative Ideas to the AfricArena ecosystem of investors, incubators and accelerators. “It’s at events like AfricArena that you get to lift your head up from the entrepreneurial trenches and get the ...

30Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Energy, Green Energy, South Africa News

Landmark for renewable energy in SA, with grid-connected battery system in Ekurhuleni

Ekurhuleni Municipality has approved the connection of a large solar PV plant and battery system, marking a landmark moment in renewable energy projects in South Africa. The PV and lithium-ion battery system will form one of South Africa’s largest microgrids: a 1.8 MW solar PV facility alongside a 2.9 MWh battery, whilst being grid-connected in order to stabilise the local grid. PepsiCo Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), who procured the system from the SOLA Group, aims to secure energy supply and reduce carbon emissions at its large distribution centre, near Kempton Park in Johannesburg. “We are pleased to have implemented such a landmark project at one of our South African facilities,” said Umesh Himraj, Engineering Sustainability Lead at PepsiCo SSA. “This approach and investment into ...

24Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News, Tech

Tony Houldsworth joins Omnisient Advisory Board

Technology industry veteran and Group President of Flooid – a leading unified commerce platform for the retail and hospitality sectors - joins Omnisient’s Advisory Board to support and accelerate international expansion plans. Omnisient, Africa's privacy compliant data collaboration platform, welcomes Tony Houldsworth as member of its Advisory Board. Tony has consistently been at the forefront of retail commerce technology and as Group President of Flooid leads the vision and strategy for one of the world’s most advanced unified commerce platforms. Omnisient is a privacy preserving data collaboration platform that allows businesses from retail, healthcare, finance, and other major verticals to safely share and monetise their consumer insights without compromising security, losing con...

Carry1st drives growth in Africa’s gaming industry, supported by AppsFlyer

24Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

Carry1st drives growth in Africa’s gaming industry, supported by AppsFlyer

Carry1st, one of Africa’s leading gaming publishers, has released new insights from its market data that highlight successes that have shaped its growth in the gaming sector. Since the launch of SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off in October 2021, the game has managed to acquire more than 2 million users, ranking in the Top 5 most downloaded games across Africa. This has been possible by enlisting the support of technology developed by AppsFlyer to drive market growth. Carry1st faced a number of challenges in growing Krusty Cook-Off’s user base at scale while still maintaining a healthy ROI. The African gaming market is complex, and many of the tried and tested user acquisition and monetization strategies that are prevalent in most regions aren’t as effective in Africa. Moreover, ad networks are...

22Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Why the subscription economy is transforming B2B operating models forever

By Jaco Frederik Möller, Solutions and DIMS Product Manager, Canon South Africa From Hello Fresh to the Spotify, subscription services are now so commonplace they’ve almost become the norm. Subscriptions started life in the media world, with newspaper and magazine subscriptions dating back centuries. But in the last ten years, the subscription business model has exploded in popularity across consumer industries including fashion, food and beauty, creating what has been dubbed, the ‘subscription economy.’ The model, which promotes a more convenient, cheaper way of accessing goods, has revolutionising the way we buy and sell consumer products. It should be no surprise then, that it’s now transforming B2B operating models. In the last few years we’ve seen the proliferation of cloud-based ‘...

21Mar

By Gareth PriceNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

10 lessons in 10 years: what I’ve learned as a successful business owner which may surprise you

By Gareth Price, Founder of Cloudworx and Investmint; 5 time Ironman finisher 10 years ago, I started a business. Or so I thought. What I did was I went to the shop and spent R4 000 on a printer and printed a few letterheads and business cards. And I declared myself self-employed. I was armed with a fancy qualification, an economy in a recession, and a whole lot of enthusiasm to become a “one-man-band” accountant. 10 years on, I still have the fancy qualification, an economy in a recession and a whole lot of enthusiasm. The difference is that I’ve grown my business well beyond the “one-man-band” I envisioned. And I think I’ve learnt a lot of valuable lessons over the years. Some of these I learned the easy way - by watching others get it wrong and doing it better myself. And some ...