Author: Laurence Sithole

The company is part of the JSE listed industrial mining and metals sector which is collectively worth ZAR 5.46 trillion or (US$ 360.11 billion). It is the fifth-largest company in that sector. The company produces iron ore from two mines namely Sishen and Kolomela in South Africa.

Kumba Iron Ore’s finances during 2021 were premised on 3 things namely what the company described as “disciplined capital allocation” which involved the cash payouts to shareholders on the back of the improved return on capital ratios. The second aspect that drove the company’s financials was what it called “value-focused growth”. The company enjoyed a higher-than-average price for its ores.

It reportedly earned an average forward on board (FOB) export price of at least US$ 161 per ton which was 18% higher than the benchmark during 2021.

The services Zimbabwe paid for range from software, to professional and technical services like mining exploration, servicing of complex machinery, expatriate medical aid schemes and so on.

If the country was able to develop the capability to provide these services, it would not only save on the expenditure of foreign exchange it would also earn foreign exchange.

There are 16 countries that make up the Southern African Development Community of which Zimbabwe is a part. All these countries use and pay for the same services that Zimbabwe is paying for. If Zimbabwe were to become an exporter of services to all these countries in the SADC region alone and they spent on services roughly what Zimbabwe spends on services.

The country could potentially earn (15 member states multiplied by US$ 636 million) US$ 9.5 billion annually. Adding this figure to the foreign exchange earnings reported in the monetary policy statement gives a perspective of potential Zimbabwe could realize. Developing the services sector requires substantial investment in education, tourism, information technology, and healthcare. All of these are in a sad state presently.

The financial results of the company began with a report of the company’s ESG performance. What stood out the most from the company’s report is that the company achieved zero fatalities during its operations in 2021. This is most exceptional given the nature of mining operations which are for the most part dangerous.

Most if not all Anglo-Plat’s peers have reported reduced or reduced fatalities in their operations but not always a zero-fatality rate. This was attributable to what the company calls their Elimination of Fatalities (EoF) strategy. The strategy focuses on the most common causes of fatalities across Anglo American.

Its purpose is to use what the company calls “accumulated learnings from a wide range of fatalities” and use that data to take a more proactive approach to prevent incidents that result in the loss of life. The strategy has paid off resulting in an outlier performance of zero fatalities in 2021.

The global economy has come back strongly. So has inflation. Commodity prices are also making a strong comeback; however, their resurgence is causing stress in other economies. Rising demand has pushed oil prices to a rising trend which may, in the long run, prove to be unsustainable. Food price inflation has reportedly reached the highest level since 2011. Further compounding the problem for households and businesses is the fact that in the United States consumer inflation has reached 5.5 per cent annually which is the highest it has been in 31 years. Companies operating in Africa and the rest of…

Adding debt of leverage to the capital structure of a company, also in the right instances can increase the return on equity and/or return on investment for shareholders. Chief executives of listed companies and their chief finance officers tend to wax lyrical about these metrics.

They do so for good reason because they are judged to either be doing a good job or poor job depending on whatever these numbers read. The better this metric looks the more likely a company executive can look forward to a fat bonus and pay package! In addition to being a tax shield for a company’s profits, debt can enhance the returns a company generates for its shareholders.

Take the following scenarios that take place under the exact same set of circumstances.

Strive Masiyiwa, the executive chairman of Econet Wireless International has attained an almost mythical status in Zimbabwean and African corporate lore. Fortune Magazine describes him this way: “Masiyiwa’s entrepreneurship has had a major impact in Zimbabwe, his home nation, and on the African economy more generally. Econet, the telecommunications firm he launched in the 1990s, helped pioneer mobile loans and cashless payments on the continent, sparking a wave of adoption that has expanded economic well-being for millions of unbanked people in Africa—while also helping Masiyiwa become a billionaire. Now based in London, Masiyiwa is a board member at Unilever and…

There is a lot of hype around the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE). For instance, it is said to have had the best performance of African stock market indices over the first nine months of 2020, according to a consolidated report by the African Markets platform. During that period the Zimbabwe All-Share Index, the main index of this financial market, grew by 612 per cent. This was when values were calculated using local currency. When the values are calculated using US$ and Euros the market still posted some very impressive returns of 46.6 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. This…

UNCTAD World Investment Report 2021 specifically states that “Greenfield investments in industry and new infrastructure investment projects in developing countries were hit especially hard.”

These financial flows of investment dollars have deep-rooted implications for Africa in the sense that they are vital for sustainable development in less developed and poorer countries.

The decline in investment flows was disproportionately skewed towards developed countries where FDI fell by 58 per cent according to UNCTAD. Investment flows in developing economies fell by a moderate 8 per cent mainly because of resilient flows in Asia.

Enock Godongwana, South Africa’s finance minister appeared at ease for a man delivering his maiden budget speech. A speech whose pronouncements can send the markets soaring or sinking. A lot was riding on this, but the man seemed casual and affable during the delivery of his address he occasionally addressed the members of parliament by name and spoke in his native Xhosa language. A lot was indeed riding on his presentation today the 23rd of February 2022. The primary expectations of the speech from stakeholders are whether the treasury chief’s plan for 2022 will stimulate economic growth and foreign direct…

The company has managed to make a strong comeback from when it faced an existential threat when prices of commodities slowed down in 2014. Prior to that period, mining company shares were hot because of China’s urbanization. It drove prices of commodities through the roof taking the shares of resource companies with them.

When China’s economic growth slowed down the miners also felt the pinch. The pinch was felt especially at Gold Fields which had to restructure its business and retrench at least 1,300 workers mainly from Ghana to ensure the long term sustainability of the company. The restructuring produced desirable results characterized by net cash inflow of US$ 235 million. In that same year, its Australian operations produced 1 million ounces of gold.

The company’s operations are massive and span 3 continents.