On a slow day for corporate news, chemical and energy giant Sasol warned of writedowns as it grapples with pressure from oil prices and Eskom. International news reports that OpenAI founder Sam Altman is seeking to raise trillions of dollars to fund new technology.
Chemical and Energy Group Sasol The company warned shareholders that its headline earnings per share are expected to fall between 28% and 42% in the six months to the end of December, with adjusted core profit expected to fall by as much as 18% to R26.2 billion. The group said it remains plagued by a volatile macroeconomic environment, including falling oil and petrochemical prices, volatile product demand and continued inflationary cost pressures. Despite some improvement in operations in South Africa, continued poor performance of state-owned enterprises involved in Sasol's value chain and weakening global growth prospects continued to hurt Sasol's business. It also warned of a R3.9 billion write-down related to the cash generating unit (CGU) at the Secunda liquid fuel refinery. Although the liquid fuel portion of the Secunda refinery was fully operational in the year to the end of June, the company announced on Friday that its value-in-use had been further adversely affected by anticipated Eskom electricity tariff increases and near-term low oil prices. price. Sasol shares fell 4% on Friday, having almost halved in the past year.
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