Germany's Carl Zeiss Optronics, a unit of Carl Zeiss, has bought a 70% stake in state-owned weapons group Denel's optronics unit, the two companies said yesterday.

No financial details about the transaction were given but Denel and Carl Zeiss Optronics said they envisaged investment in the new business - to be renamed Carl Zeiss Optronics - of R60 million over three years.

Denel, the artillery, infantry and guided weapons manufacturer, has forecast a loss of R700m for the current financial year, which ends this month, and is busy with a restructuring programme.

Telkom and its takeover target Business Connexion have extended the date for meeting conditions for the acquisition from today to May 31.

Hearings over Telkom's planned R2.43 billion takeover of the IT outsourcing firm started at the Competition Tribunal on Monday and are due to last for a month.

Though manufacturers are still looking on the bright side, overall business confidence is at its lowest in two years, according to the latest Rand Merchant Bank/Bureau for Economic Research index.

The index, released yesterday, showed a decline from 83 points late last year to 81 in the first quarter of 2007.

Disinvestment in South Africa grew sevenfold last year to more than R34bn, exceeding the levels of inward investment, Business Day reported yesterday.

Ernst & Young's merger and acquisition review for last year, released yesterday, confirms more foreign money moved out of SA last year.

There was R18bn in inward investment by foreign companies last year, while the UN Conference on Trade and Development said inward investment in SA was R27bn, but either way, it is less than the R34.6bn in disinvestment.

With acknowledgement to Cape Argus.