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 The Million Dollar Kid
It isn’t a professional way to approach an interview, but before I meet Alex Tew I remind myself that I mustn’t like him. He is the 22-year-old who took the world wide web by storm last year with his Million Dollar Homepage. This simple idea, which saw Tew selling tiny slices of advertising space on a site that everyone suddenly wanted to visit, made him more than $1-million in less than four months, writes Steve Boggan. |
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R50bn looking for a home on the JSE
While there have been concerns raised about South African listed companies being gobbled up by international private equity firms, the good news is that should these take-outs go ahead, there will be a R50-billion cash injection into the JSE. On the back of an announcement of Consol’s delisting, it is estimated that there are a further four companies that are in negotiations with private equity firms. |
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Wireless in eThekwini
While customers in Tshwane are browsing and downloading to their hearts’ content, residents within the eThekwini municipality can expect a service that will offer broadband access and domestic voice calls for as little as R150 a month. The race to deliver cheaper broadband and telephony services to residents via municipal net works is alive and kicking. |
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Uranium red-hot on skyrocketing demand
The price of uranium has quietly, in a behind-the-scenes kind of way, soared elevenfold since 2000, having reached $63 a pound from about $7 previously, according to uranium industry watchers UX Consulting. Analysts believe it could reach $70 a pound next year. The metal is not traded on the open market and only spot prices are available. |
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 Uncle exorbitant
While all eyes are on the banking industry’s credit expansion, the mass market faces a far greater threat from credit extension by furniture retailers. According to LifePower, a company that provides financial literacy education to workers, furniture retailers that provide credit, including big brand names such as Joshua Doore and Ellerines, are largely responsible for the debt traps consumers find themselves in. |
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 Hey, big spenders
The latest figures from the annual Finscope survey by FinMark Trust show a positive picture for banking in South Africa. The number of people banked has increased from 46,6% last year to 51%, with the biggest increase among the lower-income earners. According to the survey, 800 000 people have entered the financial services arena and Mzansi (the low-income, low-cost bank account) has been hailed as a success. |
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World's richest 1% own 40% of wealth
The richest 1% of adults in the world own 40% of the planet’s wealth, according to the largest study yet of wealth distribution. The report also finds that those in financial services and the internet sectors predominate among the super-rich. Europe, the United States and some Asia Pacific nations account for most of the extremely wealthy. |
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 Bringing the suburbs to eKasi
Belinda Moleko muses, calmly determined: “We will change the face of townships. We will. We are more at home with our own.” Moleko’s company, Bella Casa, is the developer of Tembisa’s first cluster-home development. The Willows, a security estate of 25 free-standing homes, priced from R225 000 for 61 square metres, sold out within three weeks of its launch. |
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Firms face compulsory carbon quotas
Many of Britain’s big businesses -- including supermarkets, banks, universities, hotel chains, hospitals and government departments -- would be forced to sign up to a carbon trading scheme under proposals being drafted by ministers. The scheme has received an initial enthusiastic response from some of the companies. |
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Hurry, shopper, hurry
Food items such as your trusted brands of coffee and tea, maize meal and rice, as well as toiletries such as deodorants, lotions and bathing soaps could soon vanish from supermarket shelves. Food retail chains announced a national shortage in dry food goods and toiletries. A decline in the supply of these items was first experienced in November and the phenomenon is expected to continue into the new year. |
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Don't bet on gambling ban
A case in which online casino operators challenged a ban on internet gambling was thrown out of court last week. But experts question whether the judgement of the Pretoria High Court is enforceable. It has also emerged that the National Gambling Board, one of the defendants, has submitted a report to the minister of trade and industry recommending the legalisation and taxation of internet gambling. |
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Call that a knife?
Swiss Army knives are obviously good things to own. They’re standard equipment for Nasa’s astronauts and feature in the Museum of Modern Art in New York as an example of outstanding functional design. When Chris Bonnington headed a Himalayan expedition in 1970, he used every one of the blades in his Swiss Army knife except the fish scaler. |
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 The deals ain't over yet
Spare a thought for Russell Loubser this Christmas. If the buyouts of listed companies continue, the JSE’s CE may find himself presiding over a stock market that’s merely a shadow of its former self. Already, the private equity sharks are circling and have a number of kills under their belts. More are expected in the new year. |
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Number portability a non-event
Mobile Number Portability is a non-event, with operators experiencing a number of system problems and consumers reluctant to make the switch. MNP, which was introduced on November 10 after numerous delays, allows consumers to switch operators while keeping their number. |
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Street-corner mechanics don't like taxi recap
"This thing [the taxi recapitalisation programme] is going to kill our businesses once and for all. Where will we get customers if all taxis are new and are serviced in town?" asks mechanic and Soweto taxi owner Edward Singo. Singo is one of Gauteng’s vehicle mechanics in the informal minibus taxi support industry who is worried about the government’s taxi recapitalisation programme. |
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 Crime, credit and being CEO
Michael Jordaan, CEO of First National Bank, was in an upbeat mood when we met for lunch. The latest GDP figures had just been released and bode well for the economy. They also proved that the bank’s position on the economy was correct and that it had not been overly optimistic in its business plans. |
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 Governor Grinch's Xmas gift?
Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni’s Christmas present to South Africans will be money that costs more. Mboweni and the bank’s monetary policy committee meet on December 6 and 7 to decide on interest rates. Analysts say an interest rate hike of at least 50 basis points is a done deal, but retailers are gearing up for a record-breaking festive season. |
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 FNB is king of the cash register
FNB offers by far the most cost effective way for consumers to draw cash and is leaving other banks behind in a drive to deliver affordable cash options to the mass market. By drawing money from certain retail outfits, FNB customers can draw cash for a flat fee of R1,75, slashing ATM costs by two-thirds. |
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| Tito could show a little wiggle |
| Durex sales perk up |
| Google shares top $500 |
| You've been Voiped! |
| Carbon trading: will it work? |
| One million entrepreneurs or survivors? |
| Now you can pay as you expire |
| Good times roll for Barloworld |
| Thanks for the memory stick |
| All boomed out |
| Why SA is so energy inefficient |
| SAA's ticket to 'profitability' |
| Mister BEE |
| Meet SA's fifth-richest man |
| Rich nations 'blocking' cheap drugs |
| Uncle Sam no longer big in Asia |
