COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF
RMB Namibia Implements Innovative Funding Solution for EntrepoRMB Namibia acted as the trusted advisor for Entrepo Holdings, a government employee lending institution and long-term insurer, and provided a N$900 million debt funding solution.
Entrepo, having matured from a start-up to a highly successful business, required a scalable debt funding solution aligned with its growth ambitions. Diversifying its lender base is a crucial step in this regard.
RMB arranged and implemented a scalable debt funding solution that allows lenders to provide funding under a common terms agreement. This arrangement maintains flexibility on commercial terms being offered
to Entrepo. RMB also extended significant funding under this arrangement to the client. Strategically this deal aligns with RMB’s goal of supporting African businesses within its institutional client group.
“For RMB, our support for entities such as Entrepo, which aim to provide term funding and long-term insurance products to government employees, resonates with our commitment of enabling Namibians to participate in the country’s economic activity.” said Steffen Müseler, transactor at RMB Namibia.
-MARKETWATCH-
MTC opens Otjinene office
The populace of Otjinene has waved goodbye to days of traveling long distances to seek MTC services. This comes when the Mobile Telecommunications (MTC) officially opened a new MTC dealer shop in the town.
Previously, MTC used to serve its customers through Nampost which provided limited services. Such services included only the sale and replacement of sim cards. However, with the new dealer shop, customers will now have access to a range of MTC services such as contract applications, account payments and renewals, SIM replacement, data and device set-up and recharge vouchers among others.
“This is a customer-oriented move to bring services closer to the people because we believe that everyone should have easy access to our services. Before this new dealer shop, people of Otjinene and other adjacent constituencies use to travel hundreds of kilometres to Gobabis or Grootfontein to [for instance] open a contract account. We are thus glad that this will not be the case anymore. Additionally, while this is an act of decentralising our services, the dealership concept also provides income for our dealers to earn a commission from serving our clientele especially in remote areas," said John Ekongo, corporate affairs manager at MTC.
-MARKETWATCH-
AirlinePros International Announced as GSA for Precision Air in Four Key African Markets
AirlinePros International is excited to announce its appointment as the General Sales Agent (GSA) for Precision Air in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Namibia. This new partnership will enhance Precision Air’s sales and customer service support in these significant Southern African markets.
Shreyas Nanavati, CEO of AirlinePros International, expressed enthusiasm about the new partnership. “We are thrilled to represent Precision Air in these four strategic markets,” Shreyas said. “Our team is committed to harnessing our expertise in African markets and our in-depth knowledge of the region to promote Precision Air’s unique offerings and strengthen their position in these markets.”
As part of this collaboration, AirlinePros International will provide comprehensive sales, marketing, promotional, and customer support services to boost Precision Air’s presence in these countries. The partnership aims to facilitate ticket sales campaigns and other support to local travel agencies and partners. “We are happy to extend our cooperation with AirlinePros across
four new markets in Africa”, said Patrick Mwanri, Group Managing Director and CEO of Precision Air.
“This partnership will support our commitment to expanding our reach and providing seamless travel experiences to our customers. We look forward to leveraging AirlinePros’ expertise to enhance our services and
strengthen our presence in these key markets.”
-MARKETWATCH-
Standard Bank denies systems breach as clients report stolen funds
Standard Bank has denied that it suffered a systems breach despite a raft of complaints on social media platform X about an alleged "massive security breach" with several clients reporting fraudulent transactions or money being missing from their accounts.
"Standard Bank can confirm that there has been no breach of its system," the lender told News24 in response to questions on Tuesday after its X handle (@StandardBankZA) lit up on Tuesday morning with clients complaining that their bank accounts had allegedly been compromised, with many saying they were unable to block their cards or accounts due to the long wait in the bank’s call centre queue.
"Standard Bank would, however, like to apologise to customers for delayed responses when calling the call centre," the bank added. "This is due to a spike in month-end transactions. The bank has multiple security and authentication layers that it has made available to its customers."
News24 asked a long-standing member of Standard Bank's communications team whether there had been a sudden increase in fraud attempts, but the individual was unable to immediately provide an answer, nor to clarify why there had been a spike in social media reports of alleged fraud on client accounts. The bank, however, pledged to revert with an answer.
Standard Bank's status page (Standard Bank Status) showed that all its systems were operational.
-NEWS24-
Qatar Airways posts 39% jump in annual profit to record $1.67 billion
Qatar Airways posted a 39% jump in annual net profit to a record 6.1 billion Qatari riyals ($1.67 billion) on Tuesday.
Revenue grew by 6% to 81 billion riyals in the year ended March 31, the government-owned airline said.
It carried more than 40 million passengers and recorded a load factor of 83%.
"Our continued focus on profitability, efficiency and customer experience have been underpinned by a strategic programme of network growth and fleet expansion, resulting in the highest revenues and profit margins in the history of the airline", CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer was quoted as saying in a statement from the airline.
Demand for air travel has rebounded since the pandemic, but airlines have been constrained as planemakers struggle to get back to previous production levels due to disrupted supply chains and a safety crisis at Boeing.
In May, Al-Meer said aircraft manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing needed to put more pressure on their suppliers to reduce delivery delays.
The airline last month announced it was in talks with the two planemakers regarding a major wide-body order.
The carrier is also in talks to buy a stake of up to 20% in Bain Capital-owned Virgin Australia, according to a report last week.
-REUTERS-