Classic Business

The unprecedented economic effects of Covid-19 have not escaped hospital operators, who had to grapple with a fall-off in patient volumes as people delayed non-essential surgeries, as well as additional pandemic-related health-and-safety costs.This was reflected in large parts in the second largest JSE listed private hospital operator Life Healthcare’s annual results. Revenue fell 1.1% to R25.4bn to end-September, while normalised earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) fell 24.1% to R4.34bn, including the effects of accounting changes. Life Healthcare has opted not to pay a final dividend, and also had held onto its interim dividend, the first time it has done so since listing on the JSE in 2010.

Michael Avery sat down with new CEO Peter Wharton-Hood, who took over the reins fairly recently in September from Shrey Virana who is emigrating to Australia. A qualified CA and a former head of operations for Deutsche Bank’s global markets division. He has also completed the Harvard Advanced Management Programme, Wharton-Hood shares his vision for the Group.

Jeremy Sampson, MD of Brand Finance Africa

Prof Adrian Puren, head of the Centre for HIV and STIs at NICD

Samantha Davidson, head of pension funds department at law firm Shepstone & Wylie

Anthea Gardner, MD Cartesian Capital

As the third SA Investment Conference dominated news flow last week, a key piece of the economic recovery puzzle is glaringly absent. SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy and, so far, the President’s promises to improve the ease of doing business have yielded little in the way of results. Michael Avery speaks to Pavlo Phitides, the co-founder and CEO of Aurik Business Accelerator, and entrepreneurs Karin Igesund, owner of Packtown & Brian Makwaiba, creator of the Vuleka platform, about how necessity helped them face and overcome the Covid crisis.

The third annual SA Investment Conference saw several pledges scaled back or put on hold because of the pandemic. The government says that this has affected only about one 10th of investment commitments and Trade, Industry, and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel says the conference was focused on “consolidating” the roughly R664bn in pledges made previously, as well as to ‘showcase new possibilities and opportunities’. Nigel Casey, British High Commissioner to SA responsible for trade and investment, shared the view with Michael Avery from one of the country’s key trading and investment partners. Specifically, what has been the UK's economic and investment stake in the conference.

CEO Stefano Marani

On the 17th of November the Western Cape High Court’s judgment in favour of Ma-Afrika Hotels and Stellenbosch Kitchen against Santam, came as a resounding victory for all tourism and hospitality businesses. Santam was ordered to pay Ma-Afrika claims in full (18 months) plus cost. The saga has been going on since June when businesses in the sector who thought they were covered for losses caused by Covid and the ensuing government lockdown which was caused by Covid, were covered by their business interruption insurance. Michael Avery speaks to Ryan Woolley, CEO of ICA, the public loss adjustment company that is representing over 750 businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector in their battle to get large insurers to pay out on these claims.

Understandably investment news was in bull territory as the third investment conference got into full swing last week. And one the of the major eye catching announcements, not because of its size but because of its potential impact, was Naspers reaffirming its commitment to driving increased growth in South Africa’s tech sector through a R45 million investment in the online learning platform, The Student Hub. Michael Avery spoke to Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa: South Africa CEO of Naspers, and Fabian Whate: Head of Naspers Foundry, about the deal and how Naspers in SA has adapted to this new environment.

The latest investment from Naspers Foundry, Naspers’s R1.4 billion early-stage tech investment vehicle, marks its fourth deal, bringing the total investments to approximately R200 million since it launched in 2019. So still lots of dry powder for further deal-making opportunities lie ahead.