South Africa loses 355,000 jobs, Unemployment rises to 26.7%

South Africa’s UNEMPLOYMENT accelerated sharply in the first three months of this year to 26.7% from 24.5% in the fourth quarter of last year, Statistics SA data showed on Monday.

This indicates that 5.7-million people who are actively looking for jobs are unable to find any, as opposed to 5.2-million people in the fourth quarter of last year.

Companies are buying backs shares, need good reasons, says Pirc

Companies should stop buying up their own shares unless they can show why it is a good idea, a leading advisory firm has told the BBC.

Companies should explain why they are buying and cancelling their own shares and not paying more dividend or using cash to expand their businesses, Pirc told the BBC's Today programme.

South Africa's Chamber of Mines asks for ‘Royalty Relief’

The Chamber of Mines, which claims to represent 90% of SA’s mining industry by value, wants the Treasury to give loss-making mines in the embattled industry "royalty relief" to save companies and retain jobs.

The chamber outlined a number of suggestions for Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who delivers his budget speech on Wednesday, pointing out the distressed nature of the local mining industry, which is under pressure due to globally weak commodity prices, rising domestic costs and falling productivity.

Since 2012, gold, platinum and coal companies had cut 47,000 jobs, chamber CEO Roger Baxter said earlier in February. Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane has said another 32,000 jobs were at risk.

FedEx Express: France fines 20 delivery firms €672m for price fixing

The price hikes, which happened between 2004-10, were agreed during "secret meetings", the watchdog said.

The companies fined include the French divisions of FedEx Express, TNT and DHL Express with TLF, the delivery union, also included in those fined.

Business conditions in Private sector improve to Six-Month high

BUSINESS conditions in the private sector improved to a six-month high last month as new orders and employment levels stabilised while output declined at a slower pace.
 
The Markit/Standard Bank SA purchasing managers index (PMI) rose from 47.5 in October to 49.6 last month. About 400 private-sector executives at companies across various sectors were surveyed on current business conditions including new orders, employment and input prices.

Question time — for the Private Sector

 

SOUTH AFRICA- Whether it is the Marikana tragedy, the lack of transformation in the mining industry or that the economic growth rate of a country with such an active business community is revised to 1.5% (or that our sophisticated economy has been overtaken by Nigeria as the biggest on the continent) it is curious that business leaders have never been seriously critiqued for their role in this downward spiral.

LIRS seales 10 Firms over N45.52m Tax Fraud

The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) says it sealed 10 companies in August for failure to remit N45.52 million Personal Income Tax of staff to the state government.

Mrs Ajibike Oshodi-Sholola, the Head, Training Unit of LIRS, made this known on Thursday, saying that the companies were sealed in August during a state-wide tax law enforcement exercise.

 

She said that the affected companies’ tax liabilities were for the period between 12 months and six years.

According to her, six companies were sealed on Aug. 4 for tax evasion amounted to N6.197 million, while four companies were sealed on Aug. 11 for a total of N39. 327 million tax evasion.

Investors advised to explore REITs as alternative real estate financing

 

 Investors in real estate and general infrastructure have been advised to leverage Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) as a viable alternative to traditional sources of project financing.

After 16yrs of PDP, Nigeria still in total darkness

After 16 years, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is leaving the central government unable to fix the power problem that has kept the economy prostrate, BusinessDay can now reveal.

NAICOM moves to Implement RBS despite Operators’ Resistance

Insurance regulator, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), says it was going ahead to implement its Risk Based Supervision (RBS) initiative despite resistance from some operating companies.

SEC Investigates Private Placements’ Defaulters

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has commenced investigation of companies that floated private placements not yet quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE),  sources at the commission confirmed on Tuesday.

SEC moves followed the discomfort which the unfortunate development is causing the investing public and the huge funds trapped in the stagnated investment.

“Specifically the management has written the companies involved, especially those that indicated intention to list on the nation bourse in their prospectus during the funds raising,” the source said.