WOOLWORTHS Holdings Limited announced on Wednesday that it intends to acquire a strategic 13,5% stake in Netactive Limited, an internet service provider which listed on the JSE on Wednesday. It has been agreed in principle that Netactive will issue for cash 6,667 million ordinary shares to Woolworths, for a total consideration of R8-million. Commenting on the deal, Woolworths chairman, Syd Muller, said that the acquisition of the stake was a major step in Woolworths’ e-commerce strategy.
TAX STANDOFF THREATENS TOBACCO TRADE
ZIMBABWE’S multi-million dollar tobacco industry began this year’s trading on Wednesday amid a tax stalemate which threatens to hit both farmers and the country’s precarious foreign exchange situation. The growers and the government are deadlocked over a 10% government levy which poses serious viability threats to Zimbabwe’s top foreign exchange earner, accounting for between 30% and 40% of revenue. The farmers who had hoped for removal of the unpopular levy were told on Tuesday by Finance and Economy Minister Herbert Murerwa that the levy will only be reviewed in his “next budget statement in October”.
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