Gold reef casino, Langebaan (Mykonos)

Cape Town - Empowerment giant Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) and gaming group Gold Reef Resorts got tongues wagging at the weekend by issuing cautionary notices on Friday evening.

While the cautionaries were issued separately (two minutes apart, to be precise) the fact that HCI already holds a 23% stake in Gold Reef led to immediate speculation that the empowerment company was set to pitch for a bigger stake, or outright control of the gaming group.

HCI last year bumped up its stake in Gold Reef by buying out certain of the company's empowerment shareholders.

HCI, however, was not the only major new shareholder to emerge at Gold Reef in 2009. In May last year one of Gold Reef's main shareholders, Casinos Austria International Holding GmbH, sold its 20.6% shareholding in the gaming group to "a leading South African fund manager". The fund manager was largely believed to be Allan Gray.

In 2008 Gold Reef was also subject of an aborted private equity bid, which lapsed as the global financial crisis gripped the markets.

HCI's main gaming focus lies in Tsogo Sun, which holds the Montecasino and SunCoast casinos as its flagship properties.

Gold Reef's main casinos is at Gold Reef City, but the company owns an array of smaller venues.

HCI has not made any official statement on its intentions at Gold Reef. But market talk has suggested HCI would want to take effective control of Golf Reef, perhaps by looking to initially bump its stake up to 34.9% by buying out other smaller shareholder groupings (including other BEE players).

In October last year HCI chairperson Johnny Copelyn told shareholders at an AGM that the situation at GRR was "a space worth watching".

A gaming sector analyst said the timing of the deal - if the cautionaries pointed to a transaction - was very interesting.

"The casino market is tough and Gold Reef, we know, has been battling in smaller venues like Mykonos."

He said a deal would either mean HCI was seeing enormous value in Gold Reef at current levels or that the empowerment giant was expecting the casino segment to start turning soon.

Perhaps more intriguing is the prospect of HCI taking full control of Gold Reef.

That would give HCI arguably the broadest spread of casino interests of any company is SA. Aside from the Montecasino and SunCoast venues, Tsogo - which is half-owned by SABMiller - also owns Hemingways in East London, the Ridge in Witbank, the Caledon Casino and Century Casino in Newcastle (KZN).

Gold Reef - aside from its flagship Gold Reef City casino - owns casinos in Pietermaritzburg (the Golden Horse), Langebaan (Mykonos), the Garden Route, Welkom, Muldersdrift (the Silverstar casino) and Queenstown.

- Fin24.com

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Shark Bay Development Langebaan

As many of you might know, the owner of Shark Bay has been trying to get approval for a development at Shark Bay for some years now.

There is a new Draft Environmental Impact Report available for comment.

The Draft will be available from 29 January at at the Public Library on the corner of Oostewal and Bree street in Langebaan as well as the Municipal offices in Bree street.

An Open House Meeting will be held on Friday 12 Feb from 15h00 till 20h00 at the Langebaan Auditorium which is located at the Library.

Click here to download the complete notification

You can register as an interested and effected part by sending your name, contact details and email address to lindsay@dougjeff.co.za – Click here to download the complete notification

source via email and on www.bokkom.co.za

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4 SF Regiment at Langebaan will probably receive boats.

South Africa' secretive Special Forces has acquired an undisclosed number of new boats in two classes to support its activities.
The website of the state arms acquisition agency, Armscor, shows the Special Forces in November placed an order worth R9 934 700 with the Parachute Industries of SA (PISA) for an unknown number of semi-rigid 7.53m Zodiac boats as part of an “ medium range air deliverable boat system.” The contract was placed on November 26. It follows an order, on October 8, for a number of same-sized inflatable boats, worth R333 740.

The boats will likely be delivered to the seaward-orientated 4 SF Regiment at Langebaan in the Western Cape.

Source http://www.defenceweb.co.za

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Canned fish production at the St Helena Bay

FRANCOIS Kuttel, the former boss of Irvin & Johnson, appears to have chosen a good time to jump ship to rival fishing group Oceana.

Indeed, Kuttel’s first few months at the helm of Oceana – he was appointed CEO in July last year – could not have been better.

Oceana recently reported that revenue for the year to end September 2009 was up 10% R3.3 billion while operating profit shot up 29% to R411 million.

The star turn for Oceana was the inshore fishing division, which turned an encouraging profit of R948 million (previous year: R700 million) from turnover of R2.1 billion.

Trading margins in the inshore division – no doubt to Kuttel’s delight – improved from 37% to over 45%.

The 2009 Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for pilchard was 90 000 tons (2008: 90 776 tons). Kuttel reports that the size and quality of fish landed was good, resulting in improved canning yields.

He says canned fish production at the St Helena Bay cannery was better than the previous year.

The Namibian pilchard TAC was pegged at 15 000 tons. But Kuttel says production at the Etosha Fishing cannery was lower due to a re-alignment of quota-holders who provide fish to the company.

Kuttel says sales of canned pilchards locally – undertaken mainly under the Lucky Star brand - increased in volume terms. But he notes insufficient product is available to fully meet demand, which means additional supplies were imported to help meet market demand.

Kuttel says anchovy catches were not good, and that by the end of the season Oceana had landed less than half the quota available.

Fish meal production volumes were also lower but Kuttel says higher selling prices on the local and export markets saw improved profitability.

Oceana landed its full quota of west coast lobster (348 tons) thanks mainly to improved catch rates at the end of the season.

Kuttel points out that export prices of lobster were lower in foreign currency terms, which – coupled with the stronger rand - resulted in lower turnover and lower profits.

As regards the midwater and deep sea fishing activities, Kuttel says catches for SA and Namibian horse mackerel were “very good with excellent catch rates per trip and an improved mix of larger fish”.

Namibian volumes were significantly up on the previous year after a third midwater trawler was put to work in August.

Unfortunately for this division the higher turnover from Oceana’s own vessels was offset by a large decline in the trading of fish purchased from foreign fleets operating in Mauritania and the Pacific. This restricted the turnover gain to just 8%.

Kuttel, however, reports that operating profit was “significantly better” due to the improved fishing performance, higher prices and improved margins.

Looking ahead Kuttel believes Oceana is well placed to take advantage of an improvement in global economic conditions.

He stresses fishing conditions in the southern African region remain reasonably stable and the group has opportunities for further organic growth.

CBN cannot help but notice that Oceana’s cash pile is still sitting around R150 million, and wonders whether Kuttel will follow through on his predecessor Andrew Marshall’s suggestion that the company could be ready to make selected acquisitions.

Tough trading conditions are probably putting the squeeze on fishing enterprises that perhaps don’t have the diversity of Oceana. Any distressed companies will probably be glad to settle under Oceana’s solid bow.

Source http://wap.cbn.co.za

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South Africa Slalom Nationals Langebaan

Ben Van Der Steen NED 57 / South Africa Slalom Nationals

Monday, January 25, 2010

By admin

The race director set up a 6 leg downwind slalom course, each leg about 1.5km, starting and finishing at our two favourite islands… The start line was set just before Skaap Eiland in front of Langebaan main beach, the finish in the bay in front of Friday Island. The fastest guys finished the course in about 8mins, with close battles all the way to the finish. A total of 21 riders entered for the last days action, which, despite the long course, still resulted in fierce battles on the start line and on the gybe marks (with one-or-two crashes along the way).

The untouchable Benny van der Steen was “lit like a firecracker” on his new JP/Neil Pryde gear. Most people learnt this hard way and left the likes of Hennie to contemplate the meaning of life when they realised they weren’t the fastest in a straight line any more. The only man to topple the other pro racer, Tom Malina, was RSA-1 Pete Lumley on his new Starboard 101, but only in the last race… nice work any way!! James Moore made a massive comeback after a bout of the flu on the first day, but had continued trips to the bathroom between races… for sure the toughest cookie out there! Other great performances came from young Daniel Domancie on his new North quiver… great to hear he’s finally on comfortable gear as further seen by his excellent starts. I think he learnt a lot about his setup this weekend and in a few more years/months for sure he’ll be battling for the lead.

With the poor wind forecast for today the prize giving was held last night. Ben van der Steen, Tom Malina and local boy Pete Lumley took the top 3 spots in Slalom. No wave result left us without a wave podium. So in terms of the WSA Tour this makes James Moore the 09/10 National Slalom Champ and Eugene van Niekerk the National Wave Champ. Those results will follow a little later, but there’s still a speed contest to complete, so the Overall National title is still up for grabs.

A special thanks must go to all our sponsors: The Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, BulkSMS, Long Ocean, Ballistic Eyewear, Kenings Car Hire, Kargo National and Oxbow Surfwear.

…as well as all the volunteers: Di Hutton-Squire, Vince Domancie, Daniel Domancie, Rob Beamish, Ivan Newmark, Piet Streicher and Mark Derman.

our awesome photographs (and photographer) Liz Metclfe/Cape Sessions which are being uploaded to the gallery

and of course our spectacular hosts, Friday Island, who have welcomed us with all our gear and mess… a great venue.

source: http://www.windsurfingafrica.org/

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Wind farm at St Helena Bay on the West Coast

Green energy gaining power

The search for alternatives to traditional power sources is gaining currency in SA, writes Steven van Hemert

Jan 25, 2010 11:42 PM | By Steven van Hemert

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The Western Cape government is leading the country in exploring alternative sources for power generation. After the region was identified as being highly susceptible to the negative effects of climate change an action plan to mitigate these effects was launched.

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THE ANSWER, MY FRIEND: Wind turbines at Eskom's experimental facility at Klipheuwel in the Western Cape Picture: WARRENSKI

Key to the strategy is minimising the carbon foot-print of the province, with a plan to produce 1172MW of new renewable energy capacity by 2014, mainly from wind.

Eskom's grand plan for generating extra capacity currently focuses on two new coal-powered plants in the north of the country, at a substantial cost to consumers and the environment. While the National Energy Regulator of SA deliberates over how exactly to fund these new base-load developments, independent power producers (IPPs) are gearing up to provide a cleaner and more environmentally and economically friendly alternative.

Nersa's Renewable Energy Feed-In Programme (Refit), announced late last year, offers generous tariffs for green IPPs to feed power into the national grid. The tariffs have pleased potential investors and environmental campaigners. IPPs can now sign power purchase agreements for a period of 20 years, with wind power producers receiving an initial sum of R1.25 per kilowatt hour. Power will be purchased by the Renewable Energy Purchasing Agency, which falls under the authority of Eskom.

Investors such as the Mainstream Genesis Eco-Energy joint venture have said they would aim to add about 500MW of capacity by 2014, with wind farms located in Jeffreys Bay, Colesberg and on the West Coast. There is also scope for IPPs to sell renewable energy directly to independent entities.

One project likely to benefit from Refit is the proposed wind farm at St Helena Bay on the West Coast. A joint initiative between the Western Cape department of environmental affairs, Oxfam UK, the Saldanha municipality and the Seeland Development Trust, the wind farm will be built on 926ha of land owned by about 200 members of the local community.

Power will be sold directly to the municipality, with revenues being used to fund community projects.

News from http://www.timeslive.co.za

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Langebaan Resolution Downwind Dash 2010

Registered participants for the annual Resolution Downwind Dash have been glued to weather forecasts in the hope for a promising change to the predicted fluky south westerly. The windsurfing Nationals commenced on the 21st January at 17:00 in a light breeze off the Cape Sports Centre in the Langebaan Lagoon, and the high of 17kts at 17:00 today will mean they will get in some sailing later this afternoon.

The status of the forecasts for Langebaan for Saturday 23rd is as such;

14:00 12kts

17:00 14kts

20:00 11kts

Given the size of the expected fleet of 400 participants and their varying range of skill level, the race director, safety crew, professional sailors, the sponsors and local schools have discussed the forecast and decided to postpone the race to the holdover weekend, as advertised for the 5/6th Feb 2010. The Resolution Downwind Dash is both a professional and a family event, and the organisers as well as the sponsors, want to see all the participants cruise in to Saldanha after the 20km course, and not struggle with light, and maybe non-existent wind, especially in the Saldanha area.

The pre-registration party at Lagoon Sports as well as the prize giving and after party, will be postponed along with the race.

Note that the some process of notification will be followed based on the wind forecast for the weekend of the 5/6th February 2010.

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