Phuthuma Nhleko, group president and CEO of JSE-listed emerging markets telecommunications group MTN, has not completely given up on the idea of concluding another big acquisition. “Though we realise there are far fewer opportunities out there, we cannot afford to be inactive because the terrain is changing all the time,” Nhleko told analysts at the group’s interim results presentation in Johannesburg on Thursday.
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The strong rand has taken its toll on MTN, Africa’s largest mobile operator MTN. In the six months to 30 June, the group’s revenue has fallen 2,2% to R56bn. However, revenue would have been 12%, or R8,2bn, higher than reported if the rand had not been as strong.
Japan’s Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT), which is in the process of acquiring Dimension Data in a R24bn all-cash deal, should be pleased with the SA-based technology group’s latest financial results. In the three months to 30 June 2010, Didata has lifted sales by a robust 22% over the same period in 2009, boosted by a good performance from its systems integration division.
After years of investment in airport upgrades, and even entirely new international airports, Airports Company SA (Acsa) is turning its spending priorities to technology to make its airports more efficient and extend their lifespan. Acsa will spend R165m in the coming year on top of R187m spent last year.
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has received a written assurance from pay-TV licensee Super 5 Media that it is still in operation. “We received a communiqué from Super 5 Media a week before last clarifying its position in relation to recent press reports,” says Icasa spokesman, Paseka Maleka.
As MTN’s outgoing president and CEO Phuthuma Nhleko prepares to present his final interim results set on Thursday, analysts are hoping the group’s board will announce his successor at the same time. At the beginning of March, MTN made the surprise announcement that Nhleko had decided to step down and would leave the group by March next year.
Outgoing Telkom chief financial officer Peter Nelson has offloaded more of the shares he holds in the JSE-listed telecommunications group. Telkom announced late on Friday that Nelson had sold nearly 40 000 shares worth more than R1,3m. He sold the shares last Thursday.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) president Joseph Kabila has intervened in the ongoing dispute between Vodacom and Congolese Wireless Network (CWN), the junior partner in the JSE-listed cellular group’s operation in the troubled central African nation, to try to find a solution to a protracted dispute between the parties. Earlier this year Vodacom and CWN agreed to international arbitration proceedings in Brussels after relations between the two groups appeared to break down completely.
A company owned partly by communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda was given a R20m contract to investigate service delivery protests in Mpumalanga, City Press reported on Sunday. The contract was allegedly awarded to Abalozi Security Risk Advisory Services without following tender rules. An Nyanda family trust is alleged to have a 45% shareholding in Abalozi.
Cellphone group Vodacom and its partner, financial services firm Nedbank, will launch M-Pesa, Kenya’s wildly popular money transfer service, in SA at the end of August. The two companies have set 31 August as the date for the product’s official SA launch.