Biz News

Telkom On Monday, Telkom released its astonishing Q3 performance results for the period ending 31 December 2024. Telkom reported a 21.6% increase in its mobile subscribers to 24 million significantly due to its fibre business. Telkom noted that it is on track to achieving its mid-term objectives. Revenue was closing in on R11 billion with a marginal improvement of 0.9%, with EBITA increasing by 28% to R3 billion. This is due to the higher demand for data, higher prepaid recharges, and mobile data revenue growth of 10.8%

Telkom reported that its overall mobile service revenue growth at 9.6% continued to gain value share, outperforming the local mobile market growth rates. Furthermore, the group revenue for the first three quarters increased by 1.6% to R32 377 million. Telkom's prepaid customers significantly by 25% to 21 million, despite the average user revenue (ARPU) declining to R61, a R5 decrease from Q3 of the prior year. The post paid subscriber base remained stable 3 million with an improved ARPU of R185, a R3 increased from Q3 of the prior year. The blended ARPU declined by R7 to R79 in Q3 of the current fiscal year. BMW The influx of inexpensive vehicles into South Africa has disrupted the automotive and consequently, BMW South Africa's CEO has announced a plan that aims to reduce BMW SA's cost of production, which will consequently reduce retail prices (something like cost-push inflation done in reverse) in attempt to curb this influx. The CEO, in his conversation with Business Live, said that local manufacturers plan to request that the government would grant them the permission to convert their unused import duties into cash. With this excess cash, they hope to reduce the cost of production of locally produced vehicles which will in turn reduce retail prices. In the midst of the cries for the playing field getting even more uneven for local manufacturers, reports show that local manufacturers' market share has decreased by 3% to 43% during the period of 2018 - 2023, whilst Indian and Chinese brands' market share has significantly increased from 18% to 37% in that very same period! Many speculations continue to be made regarding how these foreign manufacturers were able to achieve this enormous growth in such a relatively short period and as the market share battle intensified, the local manufacturers are calling for government intervention. Author's opinion on the automotive sector It is quite ironic that the "local manufacturers" are not actually local but European. I think this is an opportunity and a wake up call for South Africa to start demanding and funding local manufacturers who are ACTUALLY local and who own South African brands to start producing proudly South African goods. This is an indication that there is a clear need and demand for vehicles in South Africa as we can see with the influx of foreign brands. As a result, South Africa and her people need to start being innovative and funding proudly South African brands and products, especially in the South African Automotive Market.

Coins News

Update on Nvidia During our last discussion about Nvidia, the company had recently experienced a significant market value decline of $600bn, largely due to the remarkable growth of Deepseek. However, recent reports indicate a shift in investor sentiment as Nvidia's stock appears to be on an upward path. The stock is up approximately 86% over the past year, as per reports. According to TipRanks' reports, there's approximately 36% potential upside for Nvidia stock in the next 12 months, with an average target of $178.86 per share, with the highest price expected to be $220 per share and the lowest expected to be $135 per share. Markets

Gold

Gold is the focal point for this week's markets news. Last week, Gold increased significantly in value as investors increasingly added the precious metal to their portfolios as a safeguard against economic instability. This economic instability is due to the escalation in factors such as trade tensions and federal reserve policies increasing. This week, Gold commenced with a bullish sentiment, hovering over record-breaking highs. Although we saw a pull-back to the previous high on Wednesday, it commenced in a bullish sentiment this morning. This week is a pivotal week for traders, as they are waiting for Powell to deliver the Consumer Price Index (CPI) results. That is all for this week. Thank you for reading. Like, comment and share. I will see you next week.