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In a somewhat slow day for corporate news, condiments group AH-Vest reported a jump in profits after getting some relief from its energy woes. In international news, Apple has given back the top smartphone spot to Samsung, while Tesla is cutting jobs.
Micro-cap food group AH-Vest, which manufactures sauces and condiments under the All Joy brand, reported that profit after tax picked up 35% to R2.7 million in its six months to end-December, with the group saying that operating costs fell amid some relief from fuel costs. During the period, there was a significant improvement in collection of accounts receivable and this resulted in a R3.2 million reversal of the expected credit loss provision. Load shedding was an ongoing issue during the period under review, but in the last quarter of 2023, the company invested in backup generation capacity, which is now operational. Shares in the group, valued at just over R2 million on the JSE, were unchanged.
Nedbank has been referred to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) by the Airports Company SA (ACSA) and may also face legal action from Transnet. SA's fifth-largest bank by market value may soon be at legal loggerheads with ACSA and Transnet over interest rate swap transactions concluded with the state-owned entities (SOEs), based on the advice of Gupta-linked Regiments Capital. Regiments acted as financial advisor to ACSA and Transnet and pocketed huge fees from brokering funding arrangements for the SOEs, which included a series of multibillion-rand interest rate swap transactions with Nedbank. Nedbank said it was not aware that ACSA had referred it to the SIU but added that it "continues to fully cooperate with any investigations." Nedbank closed 0.9% lower on Monday, when most of its sector peers fared better.
