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PROPERTY
DEVELOPMENT, ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION
Office
vacancies near rock bottom
It could be too late to offload office holdings to dilute the underperformance
of this part of your property portfolio. The latest vacancy figures
produced by the SA Property Owners' Association (Sapoa) show office
vacancies were static in the three months ended December, compared
with major declines recorded in the previous quarters. It could
be that deteriorating occupation levels are nearing rock bottom,
says property economist Francois Viruly.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Shops
for Africa in deals to expand
Property loan stock company Shops for Africa is working on acquisition
deals that will more than double the value of its retail-focused
property portfolio to R650m. This is in line with the group's medium-term
objective of creating a R1bn portfolio from R320m at the time of
listing in July last year.
(©www.bday.co.za)
A
silver slice of solitude
See a sangoma, swim with dolphins, spot rare birds, and escape the
crush in Maputaland.
(©www.financialmail.co.za)
The
chill factor
The top end of the SA letting market has not proved immune to a
worldwide slump in the demand for executive homes. This is even
though the mainstream residential market continues to boom.
(©www.financialmail.co.za)
Success
by a different route
Listed property loan stock (PLS) company Richway, which tried for
more than a year to become a retail giant and failed, has given
its shareholders great results anyway. It is paying at least 600c/linked
unit out of proceeds from the sale of its portfolio to Primegro,
another retail PLS .
(©www.financialmail.co.za)
Giant
landlord gets down to business
It's the biggest property portfolio in the southern hemisphere,
with 250 000 properties worth R120bn. Amassed by the previous SA
government and neglected for two decades, government property is
at last getting the attention it deserves.
(©www.financialmail.co.za)
Loads
of evidence in LeisureNet case
Four large cartons containing all business documents of former LeisureNet
executives have been brought before the commission of inquiry into
the group's collapse.
(©news.24.com)
Timing
of SARS tender challenged
The property industry is up in arms about what it calls irregularities
in the handling of a multimillionrand property development tender
issued by the SA Revenue Service (SARS). Through the SA Property
Owners' Association (Sapoa), the industry has challenged the timing
of the tender to refurbish revenue service buildings and develop
a new one.
(©www.bday.co.za)
New
toll road will link Maputo, Walvis Bay
More than R3bn will be injected into the economy and about 3000
jobs created with the construction of SA's third big toll road,
the Platinum Toll Highway, says Transport Minister Dullah Omar.
At the launch of the R3,2bn Platinum Toll Highway in North West
yesterday, Omar said the new toll road would link Maputo Harbour
in Mozambique with Walvis Bay in Namibia.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Road
from Gauteng to KZN smoothed
Travelling by road from Gauteng to Kwazulu-Natal on the N3 highway
may now be R17 more expensive, but the infamous single carriageway
between Heidelberg and Villiers no longer exists.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Decision
time for sugar-beet project
A final decision on whether or not a multimillion- rand sugar-beet
project in the Eastern Cape will go ahead is expected next month,
a senior Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) official tells
Engineering News.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Share
price plunge baffles Group Five
The share price of construction company Group Five fell 13,51% to
R320 yesterday, leaving the company's management and some analysts
searching for a reason for the fall. Group Five executive director
Howard Turner said the most likely explanation was that there was
anxiety in the market that the group's wholly owned subsidiary,
Everite, was being targeted in a R7m lawsuit by a victim of asbestosis.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Dorbyl
divisions seek buyout
The managers of three divisions of diversified engineering group
Dorbyl were seeking to buy out their businesses from the holding
company, industry sources said yesterday. Dorbyl's divisions cover
automotive manufacturing, automotive parts distribution, building
products, engineering and metals trading. Dorbyl issued a cautionary
notice on Monday, saying it was engaged in a negotiation of some
sort, but it would not elaborate.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Golf
club gambles on equity format
Developers of Pezula Private Estate, a multimillion-rand development
linked to Sparrebosch Golf Estate in Knysna, are introducing a golf
club structure that makes membership a tradable equity. Popular
in Europe and the US, this format gives the golf club some characteristics
of an investment asset. As a tradable entity, membership is rentable
and can appreciate in value. "This makes the concept very different
from that of conventional club membership, where you never again
see the money you paid to join the club," say developers Keith
Stewart and Clive Venning.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Enviro
studies complete for R1,4bn Knysna project
Earthworks on a 612 ha site will begin by the middle of the year
at the exclusive R1,4-billion Pezula Estate development near Knysna,
Western Cape. Independent project manager Peter Rimbault tells Engineering
News that all necessary environmental-impact studies have been completed,
and that the developer – Pezula Investments – is now awaiting
the relevant authorisation by local and provincial government.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Findings
on Injaka collapse by April
The Department of Labour’s (DoL) inquiry into the tragic collapse
of the Injaka bridge in Mpumalanga in 1998, is expected to come
to an end in April.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Jhb
gas utility awaits arrival of Moz gas
South Africa's first gas sector utility privatisation is bearing
fruit, reports Egoli Gas CEO, and Cinergy Global Power business
development director for Africa Kevin Chapman.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Steel
maker Columbus has turned the corner
Stainless steel producer Columbus, 64% of which was
sold to a Spanish firm earlier this month, appears to have turned
the corner and has been making a sustained profit for the past few
months, say steel industry sources. Columbus was developed as a
joint venture between Samancor, Highveld Steel and the Industrial
Development Corporation (IDC), each of whom have retained an interest
of just more than 11% in the venture since its sale to Acerinox
of Spain for à 232m.
(©www.bday.co.za)
SA
steel giant now 20% foreign owned
Shares in South African steel firm Iscor rocketed to fresh highs
after news that UK-based LNM Holdings had upped its stake added
fuel to a week-long rally and raised speculation that LNM plans
a takeover.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Iscor
split pays off splendidly
When JP Morgan publicly stated that the share prices of Kumba and
Iscor ought to be worth R52, the figure was widely derided. Well,
guess what? The combined price of the groups was almost R51 yesterday.
Before the "I told you so" becomes deafening, it might
be worth asking what all of this proves.
(©www.bday.co.za)
SA
steel firm optimistic of US steel deal
South Africa's leading steel manufacturer Iscor is cautiously optimistic
that the country will receive a special steel dispensation into
the highly-lucrative US market when President George W Bush makes
known the implications of the 201 trade investigation currently
under way.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)
Anglo
and BHP sniff at dissolution speculation
Anglo-American and mining company BHP Billiton would not comment
on market speculation yesterday that Anglo was looking to sell its
stake in Samancor, the SA chrome and manganese joint venture operated
by the two companies.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Saldanha
Steel now back in black
Saldanha Steel had finally turned the corner and made its first
operating profit in December, Iscor CE Louis van Niekerk said yesterday
at the release of Iscor's interim results for the six months to
December. The results showed a 137% jump in the steel group's operating
profit to R738m, a 23% rise in revenue to R6,4bn and a turnaround
in headline earnings to 38,8c a share, compared with a headline
loss of 37,6c a share in the six months to December 2000.
(©www.bday.co.za)
HOUSING NEWS AND LAND ISSUES
More
money needed for land claims
The Land Claims Commission will need to double its R242m budget
for next year to deal effectively with claims, says chief land claims
commissioner Wallace Mgoqi. Speaking at the weekend, Mgoqi said
that in the current financial year the commission had a budget allocation
of R136m for "capital expenditure alone and by October last
year this had all been expended".
(©www.bday.co.za)
Wiese
'forces workers off land'
Cape Town - Farm workers living on a wine estate apparently owned
by Pepkor non-executive chairperson and multimillionaire Christo
Wiese on Friday protested against the property's managers, e.tv
reported.
(©news.24.com)
| PRETORIA INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS - CPD COURSE
- 22 FEBRUARY 2002 |
| Are
you equipped to handle the changing challenges of practice?
Join the team as, together, we learn to:
§ Confront and deal with the 'Work at
Risk' phenomenon
§ Structure an efficient professional team
§ Aim at maximising profit in a fee reduction environment
§ Focus on a positive cash flow and reduce bad debts
§ Deal with threats from a contractor to stop work
§ Deal with defective design by a selected sub-contractor
§ Handle and evaluate claims for extension of time
§ Respond to claims for professional negligence
This crash course is presented by Eyvind
Finsen and Eugene Barnard.
|
COST
TO PIA & SAIA MEMBERS ONLY (incl. Documentation) R 250.00
+ vat R 35.00 = R 285.00 *
COST TO NON-MEMBERS OF PIA & SAIA (incl.
Documentation) R 500.00 + vat R 70.00 = R 570.00 *
CLOSING DATE FOR REGISTRATION : 14 FEBRUARY
2002 / Cancellations received after this date will be non-refundable.
DELEGATES WHO REGISTER BEFORE 14-2-2002 WILL RECEIVE CPD CERTIFICATES
OF ATTENDANCE ON THE DAY
For more information phone :
Michèle - PIA office (012-347-0680 tel. am)
or e-mail admin.pia@saia.org.za
|
NEWS
FROM AFRICA
Protect
SA property in Zim: DA
Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance will petition the government
to intervene to protect property owned by South African citizens
in Zimbabwe, says Free State leader Andries Botha.
(©news.24.com)
Gold-mining
venture identifies new resource
A gold-mining venture in Botswana says it has identified
a resource of more than a million ounces.
Gallery Gold is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in Perth
and on the Botswana Stock Exchange in Gaborone. The company said
in April last year that it would accelerate development of a mine
at Mupane, 30km southeast of Francistown.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Financier
considers 20 African projects
As one of the oldest development-finance institutions in the world,
the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa has
financed well over a billion-rands-worth of mining projects in Southern
Africa since restructuring in 1999 into focused special business
units, head of Mining Minerals and Energy Sipho Mkhize reports.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)
Kumba
plans to redevelop Congo mine
Resources has signed a joint venture agreement with
American Mineral Fields, which will see the company working to redevelop
the Kipushi zinc and copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Redevelopment at Kipushi, which was mothballed in 1993, could lead
to small-scale production starting again at the mine by 2004. The
agreement between Kumba's base metals business, Zinc Corporation
of SA (Zincor) and Canadian-listed American Mineral Fields (AMZ),
formalises the option agreement between the two companies set up
two years ago.
(©www.bday.co.za)
World
Bank comes to Zambia's rescue
The World Bank and the Zambian government have underlined their
commitment to keep Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines open, with the
possibility that funds earmarked for other Zambian development programmes
may be used to keep Konkola in business.
(©www.bday.co.za)
MINING
NEWS
De
Beers, Mvelaphanda in joint venture
Newly listed empowerment mining house Mvelaphanda
Resources and diamond giant De Beers have concluded an historic
agreement that will see the two firms jointly search for new kimberlites
or primary sources of diamonds.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Record
high hard to justify
Investors in mining companies must, by now, be asking themselves
a horrible question; how far can I push my luck? Looking at the
share prices in SA brings the rand into the equation, which makes
for a very distorted view. But consider this: Anglo American, to
take just one example, has risen from pre-September 11 levels on
the London Stock Exchange by more than 25%. To South Africans it
has been all too obvious that Anglo is trading at close to a record
high on the JSE Securities Exchange SA. What may be less clear is
that Anglo is in sight of its London high too.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Rareco
finally free of court wrangle two years later
A two-year-long series of court cases that contributed to delaying
the development of Rareco's West Coast rare minerals mine brought
by a minority shareholder was withdrawn on Friday, said the company.
Rareco is a venture-capital listed company that owns the rights
to develop a rare earth chloride plant near Vanrhynsdorp, Western
Cape.
(©www.bday.co.za)
Kloof
– Africa's hydropower power house
It has been suggested that technology development and implementation
in the underground tabular orebody mining industry over the past
20 years has produced a remarkable lack of tangible or meaningful
technical progress.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)
Gem
exploration pact signed
Diamond giant De Beers has signed heads of agreements on a joint
venture with black-economic empowerment company, Mvelephanda, to
undertake exploration work for new world-class diamond deposits
in South Africa.
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)
Rare-earth
mine construction by April
Construction of Africa’s first rare-earth mine will start in
April in the Western Cape after a minority shareholder withdrew
her case against the Rare Earth Company (Rareco).
(©www.miningweekly.co.za)
Anglo
lifts Columbian mining stake
Anglo American, in partnership with BHP Billiton and Glencore, is
to increase its stake in Cerrejon Zona Norte (CZN) Columbia's largest
producer and exporter of steam coal to 100%, in a deal that will
see it buying International Colombia Resources Corporation (Intercor),
the Exxon Mobil subsidiary.
(©www.bday.co.za)
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At one time
or another every project will fall behind schedule and utilize overtime
to recover. This article examines an equitable solution to the problem.