South African media and entertainment group Primedia on Tuesday reported a 195,7% rise in headline earnings per share to 68 cents for the 12 months ended June 30 2004, from 23 cents a year ago. Commenting on the group’s performance, Primedia CEO William Kirsh said: "Primedia has had a very good year."
A robust performance, combined with strong organic growth and increased efficiencies across all its businesses, saw health and life group Discovery lift operating profits by a whopping 102% to R708-million for the year ended June 30. Discovery Life increased profits by 138% to R27-million.
South Africa’s real gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices on a quarter-on-quarter (q/q) seasonally annualised and adjusted basis rose by 3,9% in the second quarter of 2004 from a revised 3,6% increase in the first quarter of 2004. Dawie Roodt, chief economist at the Efficient Group, said: "The number is a bit better than we expected."
Arms manufacturer Denel on Tuesday reported a R377,5-million net loss for the year ended March 31 2004, from gross revenues of R4,442-billion. Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin, speaking at the release of Denel’s year-end results, said Denel will remain a state-owned enterprise.
South Africa is considering a request by Equatorial Guinea to question Mark Thatcher about his alleged involvement in a foiled coup plot in the oil-rich west African nation, a spokesperson for the Justice Department said on Monday. South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs received Equatorial Guinea’s request to question Thatcher on Friday and conveyed it to the Justice Department on Monday.
When Tony Cooper and Lisa Kingscott left their four-seater light plane parked in a field to have lunch with friends nearby, they paid little attention to the cows quietly grazing nearby. When they returned, they were astonished to find that the herd had developed an unlikely taste for its fuselage and were munching their way through a large section.
As he comes to the screen as King Arthur, Clive Owen denies he will be the next James Bond. He wants to keep it ”diverse and fresh”, writes Paul Fischer in Hollywood.
Passengers at Paris’s main airport who wander into the basement shopping section of terminal one may spot a gaunt, moustachioed figure sitting amid a pile of boxes and scribbling fervently on a note pad. If there is an air of permanence about him, that is not surprising. For Merhan Karimi Nasseri has been in the same spot for no less than 16 years.
Who hacked to death 59-year-old widow Elma Bredenhann and her elderly mother Albertina when they lay asleep in their beds at their suburban home? Was it Elma’s soft-spoken daughter Madeleen (29) who is now on trial in the Pretoria High Court for the gruesome killings?
Two French journalists being held hostage in Iraq on Monday night warned that they faced death if France refused to yield to their kidnappers’ demands to repeal legislation which will ban Islamic headscarves in schools. Their captors extended the deadline for the government to overturn the law by a further 24 hours.