FRIDAY, 11.30AM
MEDIA group Nasionale Pers on Thursday announced it had finalised a R110-million deal for the sale of its City Press Sunday newspaper to City Press Media, a newly formed company 40% owned by three black investment groups.
Naspers chairman Ton Vosloo said City Press “has the potential to become the first newspaper in South Africa to sell more than 1-million copies”. He added, however, that the newspaper’s growth is being hampered by lack of printing capacity, and that plans are under way to increase capacity “through extensive investment in new plant”.
Apart from the black investors’ 40% stake, City Press Media is 49% held by Naspers, with 6% owned by distributors and 5% by City Press staff.
BUSINESS BRIEFS
POWER FROM OLD MINES? ELECTRICITY supply parastatal Eskom is studying the possibility of using disued mine shafts for hydro-electric power generation. The plan would involve using falling watere to generate power during peak periods, while using excess capacity in off-peak periods to pump the water back to ground level storage tanks.
TELECOM 98 FOR SA SOUTH Africa is to host the Telecom 98 conference. Africa Telecom 98 will be the first major International Telecommunications Union activity in SA since it readmission to the union in 1994.
JCI OPTIMISTIC JOHANNESBURG Consolidated Investments has expressed optimisim that outstanding issues related to the retrenchment of 4 100 workers at its Randfontein Estates gold mine will be resolved. A major sticking point in talks between JCI and the National Union of Mineworkers is the size of severance packages.