Today’s business update – and what you need to know about re-adjusted Level 3

1. South African lockdown measures have been relaxed as the country records its lowest number of daily infections since the start of December. In the past seven days, the daily average of new infections was around 5 500, compared to just over 10 000 infections in the previous seven days.

 2. This morning, Vodacom released a trading update for the three months to end December. In South Africa, service revenue (R14.3 billion) rose 5.4%, while revenue from other countries fell slightly to R5.5 billion. The number of people who now use its mobile money service M-Pesa rose by 8% to almost 16 million, and monthly M-Pesa transactions now come to $24.2 billion, up 58% from a year before. 

After both MTN and Telkom launched separate legal attacks on the key Icasa auction of spectrum, including for 5G, in SA, Vodacom said further delays to this process "will likely have a negative impact on consumers".

3. While new vehicle sales (of 34 784 units) in January were down 14% compared to the same month last year, SA saw a second consecutive month of strong vehicle exports. Exports rose to almost 23,000 units – up 40% compared to January 2020, according to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA.

4. In a trading update, parent company Brait said Virgin Active in South Africa had taken a hit from newly-tightened lockdown restrictions at the end of December, just as it was seeing a return to normality. But the gym chain is cashflow neutral in South Africa, and it has the cash to fund itself.

That is not true of operations in Europe and Asia Pacific. Gyms in Bangkok just opened again, but Brait is still talking about the need for financing there, plus in the United Kingdom and Italy, where lockdowns drag on.