[Sunday Update] A busy week with MTN and election news

I am very happy with the outcome of the South African local elections. Not because I am a staunch supporter of any party but because it was the most competitive election in South Africa's short democratic history. I wrote about needing more than one strong party in South Africa here. It looks like we are on this path which I think is great for the country.

On the investing front, MTN declared interim results. The dividend was cut to R2.50 from R4.80 a year ago. The infamous MTN fine has been finalised. The end figure was one-third of the original fine. Even the reduced fine ($1.05bn) had a significant impact on earnings and the dividend. The good news is that management believe they may be able to exceed the forecast R7 per share full year dividend. A R7 per share DPS means that MTN is trading on a 5.4% forward yield. For those who want to read up more on the MTN results, here is the SENS announcement.

As always here is this week's table: