The country’s property prices rose 32,1% in 2004 from 21,5% in 2003, South African banking group Absa said on Wednesday. In December 2004, the monthly Absa house price index rose by 32,6% in nominal year-on-year terms and the November increase in the index was revised to 34,6%.
Global resources group BHP Billiton and United States aluminium group Alcoa on Tuesday announced that they have completed the sale of Integris Metals to Ryerson Tull for $644-million (about R3,7-billion). The $644-million will be made up of $410-million in cash plus assumption of Integris’s debt, which is about $234-million.
Spot gold has broken through the key $430 a troy ounce level in a very decisive fashion and the risk in the next few days and during the first part of January is for additional losses, analysts for investment bank JP Morgan wrote in a technical note on Tuesday. At 8.15am, gold was quoted at $429,38/oz.
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/ 23 December 2004
World number-six gold miner Harmony Gold on Thursday fell to a fresh three-year low as the rand touched another six-year best and the rand gold price fell below R80 000 per kilogram for the first time since August 11 2004. Harmony is also under pressure due to its hostile takeover bid for world number-four gold miner Gold Fields.
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/ 22 December 2004
South African banking group Nedcor on Wednesday announced the sale of the corporate law advisory and consultancy business of Edward Nathan & Friedland (ENF), acquired by the group in October 1999. ENF has been sold, with effect from October 31 2004, for a cash consideration of R50-million to Edward Nathan.
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/ 22 December 2004
Australian exploration company Hancock Prospecting is looking to start the development of the Aus$1,7-billion Hope Downs iron-ore project in Western Australia following the arbitration ruling in favour of the company, Hancock chairperson Gina Rinehart said in a statement.
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/ 21 December 2004
Following the merger of LNM Holdings, which has a 50% stake in steel group Ispat Iscor, with Ispat International to form Mittal Steel Company, Ispat Iscor will be renamed and rebranded Mittal Steel South Africa. The name change is, however, subject to Ispat Iscor shareholder approval.
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/ 14 December 2004
MD and CEO of Total South Africa Philip Jordan has been elected as the chairperson of the South African Petroleum Industry Association for 2005, the association said in a statement on Tuesday. Jordan succeeds Simphiwe Mehlomakulu, a general manager at PetroSA.
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/ 9 December 2004
The bid by Harmony for Gold Fields is not good for an empowerment company like Mvelaphanda Resources, Mvela chairperson Tokyo Sexwale said on Thursday. "The biggest losers are black people, black economic empowerment [BEE] players … because we don’t have the kind of chequebooks that old institutional investors have," he said.
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/ 8 December 2004
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) on Wednesday got its first foreign listing, following the relaxing of exchange controls announced earlier in 2004, when platinum-miner Aquarius Platinum listed on the bourse. However, by 10.10am Aquarius Platinum’s share on the JSE was untraded, with the share bid at R26.