A good week
After more years in the wilderness than we can count, ArcelorMittal SA has risen, Lazarus-like, with a cracker set of results for the year ended December. The steelmaker — which has skirted financial ruin innumerable times this past decade — expects to produce headline earnings of up to R6.30 a share, from losses of R1.90 a year ago. That’s some rebound and means that the company, after an incredible 788% share rally in 2021, still trades on a forward p:e of less than 2. CEO Kobus Verster — and his main shareholder Lakshmi Mittal — must be very relieved indeed.
A bad week
This week’s report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is a damning indictment of the failings of the SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) — and its CEO, Poppy Khoza, who is only too quick to withdraw airworthiness certificates in other firms, while remaining blind to the the fatal flaws in her own backyard. The flight inspection aircraft that crashed, killing three pilots two years ago, was not maintained as it should have been, and not inspected by Sacaa’s own unit as it should have been. No surprises that this catastrophic entity falls under Fikile Mbalula’s department, which has sat on the report since November.