Tech & Business News Highlights:
Octotel Purchase approved: In March 2024, global investor Actis, a UK-based investment firm, announced it would sell Octotel, a South African fiber network operator, to a consortium, with the deal only requiring awaiting regulatory approval. The South African Competition Commission has now granted conditional approval for the acquisition by a consortium including STOA and Thebe Investment Corporation. The approval comes after significant growth and expansion of Octotel over the past four years, following Actis’ investment in the company.
Groq-2 Launched: A new large language model (LLM) Ai, called Grok-2 from Elon Musk’s company xAI was launched last night. Integrated within X itself and available through the Premium ($7 USD/month) and Premium+ ($14/month with no ads) subscription tiers, Grok-2 comes, in two model sizes: Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini. Grok-2 offers state-of-the-art performance in a wide range of tasks including chat, coding, reasoning, and vision-based application, while Grok-2 mini is a smaller, faster version optimized for efficiency, suitable for simpler text-based prompts requiring quicker responses.
New Leader at Kemare Set to Deliver the Goods: The Moma mine, In Mozambique, is one of the largest producers of heavy mineral sands products in the world accounting for about 7% of global titanium feedstock has recently moved focus of operations to their new Nataka deposit which is the largest ore zone in Kenmare’s portfolio, and is reported to be on course to deliver. MD Tom Hickey says his top priority at Kenmare Resources will be to deliver the company’s transition of operations to the Nataka deposit at the Moma mine, at a capital cost of $341m. Hickey has just recently taken over leadership of the group from Kenmare founder Michael Carvill.
Growth for Standard Bank: Africa’s biggest lender by asset value, Standard Bank announced that its half-year profit rose by 4%, with revenue performance strengthened via growth in its franchise and its banking businesses, combined with strong earnings growth in its insurance and asset management unit. The bank reported that headline earnings rose to 22 billion rand in the six months ended June 30, up from 21.2 billion rand in the previous year.
Markets:
Market News: The latest U.S. inflation data failed to significantly boost global stocks and bonds, as concerns over persistent price pressures raise doubts about the Federal Reserve’s rapid, deep rate cuts. In Japan GDP rose 0.8% quarter on quarter compared to estimates of a 0.5% rise. This was also a reversal from the revised 0.6% fall seen in the first quarter. Following the GDP data release, Japanese markets rose, while the yen strengthened marginally against the U.S. dollar with the BOJ unlikely to be bullish on raising rates soon. The rand is trading at its best levels in a month, due to expected interest rate cuts in the US. The Rand is likely to take its direction from international data and keep in the R18.00 to R18.50 range in the short term.
Commodities: Gold is trending upwards in early trading and is currently at $2492.70 with platinum and palladium as well as copper all trading upwards. Brent crude remains below $80 mark and is currently at $79.94
Other News:
Tanzanian Cabinet Changes: Pre election tensions continue in Tanzania with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan removing long-serving Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu in a mini cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday. This has been seen as part of broader efforts to realign her government ahead of general elections next year.
According to a statement issued by Chief Secretary Moses Kusiluka, the president has appointed Jenista Mhagama as the new minister of health.
South African EFF Leader Set to Quit: according to reports on SABC this morning, controversial political Party Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Floyd Shivambo is planning on quitting the party leadership. Shivambo and party Leader Julius Malema have been under pressure after a poor show in the May general elections and with looming legal issues regarding the VBS bank scandal. They have called an urgent press conference for later today where it is expected that Shivambo will announce his resignation from the party.
