COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

MTN adds another 1.1 mln cellphone users MTN Group said its largest operating unit added a net 1.1 million new subscribers, taking its total active user base to 76.7 million Nigerians during the quarter ended March 2023. The rollout of improved communications infrastructure brought an additional 170 5G sites across the oil-producing nation, taking data coverage to 4% of the population of over 200 million strong people. The number of data users grew by 14.7%, taking the total number of subscribers to 41.2 million. "During the quarter, we focused on enhancing the capacity and coverage of our 4G and 5G networks, which supported rising data traffic," said Karl Toriola, chief executive of MTN Nigeria, at the release of the results. This had a positive and noticeable effect on its data usage, with total data usage traffic jumping 50.3% in the quarter. Toriola, however, lamented the shortages of petrol and cash in the African continent's largest exporter of petroleum fuels. Toriola said: The impacts of the ongoing global macroeconomic and geopolitical developments on energy, food and general inflation were exacerbated locally by petrol and cash shortages experienced during the period.Last year the Central Bank of Nigeria introduced new naira notes of 200, 500 and 1 000 denominations, and said the old notes would cease to be legal tender at the end of January 2023. But there was a limited availability of the new notes, resulting in cash shortages that limited the ability of cellphone users to physically buy data and airtime, according to Toriola.-Fin24Sapref cuts 350 jobs after 'severe' flood damageA year after halting operations indefinitely, Sapref has announced the conclusion of a retrenchment agreement with labour.The refinery, which is jointly owned by Shell and BP, halted operations in March last year after it announced it would freeze spending at the largest crude refining facility in the country.A month later, in April, the refinery was hit by extensive flood damage after Durban experienced severe flooding which resulted in Sapref being submerged in up to three meters of water.The state-owned Central Energy Fund was interested in acquiring the asset, but a deal became unviable as a result of the flood damage."The flooding resulted in severe damage to the refinery, requiring intensive capital investment of about three to five years duration for repair due to damage of long lead items [such as] process control room components and electrical substations," Sapref said in a statement.Given the three to five-year estimated duration for repairs and uncertainties on the future of the refinery, Sapref took the decision to right size the organisation and launched a consultation process with affected staff in October last year.The extensive engagement and consultation ended in January 2023 with 350 employees to be retrenched as compared to the 492 staff which were initially identified as being potentially affected.-Fin24Glencore's offer 'still stands' for Teck ResourcesSwiss commodities giant Glencore said that its takeover offer for Teck Resources "still stands" after the Canadian miner opted to rethink its spin-off plans.The two companies have for weeks been locked in a clash over the future of Canada's largest diversified mining company.A day after Teck decided to withdraw its plan to separate its steelmaking coal business, Glencore said in a statement that it took note of the decision.But the Swiss company, which is active in both commodity trading and mining, said it "confirms that its proposal still stands".The Vancouver-based company has twice rejected hostile takeover bids by Glencore in recent weeks, urging shareholders to instead support its restructuring plans.Chief executive Jonathan Price said Wednesday that Glencore's proposals "remain a non-starter" and vowed that Teck would continue pursuing an in-house solution.Glencore responded that it hoped the Teck board would "engage constructively in order to fully explore our proposal which has not been done to date".-Fin24

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