COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Amazon sign up for load shedding solution

Fifteen companies, including Amazon's data services business in South Africa and property giant Redefine, will participate in a pilot project to trade electricity using the City of Cape Town and Eskom's grid infrastructure.

The announcement was made on Wednesday, following approval from the City's Mayoral Committee. Council is to give approval later this month, the city indicated in a statement.

The wheeling project – which involves electricity generated by an independent power producer at one point, to travel across the grid to the end consumer, or a business in this case – is set to kick off in July.

Wheeling allows people to buy electricity from each other using existing grid infrastructure. The future is now, as Cape Town gears up for the first electron to be wheeled between our pilot project participants this July.

Last year, the city invited applications from both customers and electricity generators to participate in the programme. The journey has involved concluding wheeling agreements and working out billing systems.

"The city is getting on top of the complexity of wheeling, which requires new skills, regulatory and policy changes, billing development and bilateral agreements.

"Our programme will allow electricity to be wheeled over both the municipal and Eskom distribution networks in Cape Town," said Councillor Beverley van Reenen, Mayoral Committee Member for Energy.-Fin24

Generale to sell four Africa units

French banking giant Societe Generale announced agreements to sell its subsidiaries in Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritania to two pan-African firms.

The Vista Group will acquire Societe Generale Congo and Societe Generale de Banques en Guinee Equatoriale, the bank said in a statement.

The Coris group will get Societe Generale Mauritanie and Societe Generale Tchad.

The transactions are expected to be completed by the end of the year, according to Societe Generale.

"Africa is a geography with growth potential, where the Group has built a historic presence and intends to focus its resources on markets where it can position itself among the leading banks," the bank said.

Societe General has also launched a strategic review of its 52-percent stake in its subsidiary in Tunisia, Union Internationale de Banques (UIB).-Fin24

Bidvest says its growth streak continues

Industrial conglomerate Bidvest said its "impressive" growth streak has continued unabated in the 10 months to end April, with a focus on its efficiencies as well as demand from a recovering tourism industry helping to offset unprecedented load shedding and pressure on consumers.

The group, whose business interests include freight services, energy, financial services, branded goods and vehicles, said in a voluntary update that its performance over the 10 months was similar to the double-digit growth it saw at its half-year.

Despite pressure on consumers, the company said it was boosted by the current buoyancy in agriculture, mining, renewable energy and the travel and tourism industries. The Brian Joffe-founded group said that with a "strong" balance sheet, there were "several possible corporate action opportunities," both locally and offshore, at various stages.

The latest trading update comes after a strong first half, which ended in December 2022. After reporting that revenue and trading profit both grew about 14%, its share price soared by almost 15%.-Fin24

TSMC has high hopes

Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC said its production of ever-smaller microchips will remain on the island, hopeful that the critical industry will have a "stabilising effect on global geopolitical conflicts".

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company — whose clients include Apple and Intel — controls more than half the world's output of silicon wafers, used in everything from smartphones to cars and missiles.

Recent years have seen it navigating geopolitical tussles between the United States and China, with the countries facing off over a range of issues including technology, trade, and Taiwan — the primary manufacturing base of the world's semiconductors.

Alarm has spiked in recent months over the future of the semiconductor industry — the lifeblood of the global economy — if Taiwan were to be invaded by China, which considers the self-ruled island its own territory.

"I can assure everyone that for the three-nanometre, two-nanometre (chips), we will manufacture here in Taiwan," said TSMC CEO CC Wei during a shareholder meeting in the northern city of Hsinchu.-Fin24

TFG's Jet U-turn scores market share win

The Foschini Group's turnaround of South African discount clothing chain Jet is grabbing the attention of a larger rival as competition for the lower end of the market intensifies.

TFG, which acquired Jet three years ago, has refurbished the stores, revitalised the chain’s supply base and added its home-furnishing brand — Jet Home — to 78 of the almost 464 outlets across the country.

Jet’s former owners Edcon were teetering on bankruptcy and didn’t spend on expansion, said TFG CEO Anthony Thunström.

"It was starved for close to ten years, so they weren’t great shopping experiences," Thunström said in an interview at the company’s head office in Cape Town’s industrial area of Parow. "There was almost no intact supply base. As people didn’t get paid, they stopped supplying."

South Africa’s energy crisis and accelerating food inflation is prompting consumers to shop at discount stores. Rising demand may help the retailer more than double TFG’s revenue from the so-called value segment, which also include brands such as Exact, RFO and The Fix to R20 billion in the next five years, according to Thunström.-Fin24