COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Lucky Star-owner Oceana lifts dividends 136%Oceana has hiked its interim dividend 136% as profits surged by more than half thanks to higher canned fish opening inventory levels and strong demand for products such as its Lucky Star brand.The JSE-listed diversified fishing group, which reported half-year results for the six months to end March, also reported price improvements for most of its products, in particular fish oil.It said its strong performance underscored the benefit of being a diversified company "across species, geographies and currencies", adding its results were achieved in an environment where consumers were coming under pressure from higher interest rates, inflation and rampant load shedding.The company reported a 47.8% increase in revenue from continuing operations to R4.5 billion, saying this was driven by "good stock availability and strong demand for affordable protein driving consumption across the product range".Revenue also benefitted from improved pricing, particularly for fish oil, driven by constrained global supply and the effect of the weaker rand exchange rate on export and US-dollar translated revenue.The group's Lucky Star brand saw sales rise just over a fifth to a "record five-million cartons". It said it would pay an interim dividend of 130c, compared with the 55c paid in the same period last year, while headline earnings per share rose 123% to 313.5c. Profit before tax more than doubled to R552 million.-Fin24Layoff of Facebook moderators in Kenya haltedA Kenyan court on Friday ordered the suspension of the mass sacking of scores of content moderators by a subcontractor for Facebook's parent company Meta and directed the social media giant to provide counselling to the employees.A total of 184 moderators employed in Nairobi by Sama, an outsourcing firm for Meta, filed a lawsuit in March, claiming their dismissal was "unlawful".In a 142-page ruling, labour court judge Byram Ongaya said Meta and Sama were "restrained from terminating the contracts" pending the determination of the lawsuit challenging the legality of the dismissal."An interim order is hereby issued that any contracts that were to lapse before the determination of the petition be extended" until the case is settled, the judge added.Ongaya also barred Facebook's new outsourcing firm, Luxembourg-headquartered Majorel, from blacklisting the moderators from applying for the same roles.Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp was also ordered to "provide proper medical, psychiatric and psychological care for the petitioners and other Facebook content moderators". The company told the court of its intention to appeal the ruling.-Fin24Pepco experiences margin pressurePepco, the pan-European discount retailer that is more than 70% owned by Steinhoff, saw its interim gross margins come under pressure as it battled a high inflation environment, but said it was hopeful of some input cost relief in its second half.The owner of retail brands PEPCO, Poundland and Dealz, along with other European companies, has been contending with record inflation in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted trade and sent energy and other costs spiraling.The company reported a gross profit margin of 40.1% for the six months to end March, down from 41% in the same period last year, even as its underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) rose 11% to €377 million on a constant currency basis. Revenue rose by more than a fifth to €2.839 billion.The group, which has a footprint of 4 000 stores in 19 territories, also pressed ahead with its store investment and expansion strategy even as it battled inflation headwinds. As a result, its profit before tax dipped 5.7% to €134 million.Pepco CEO Trevor Masters said the group was well positioned to see gross margins trending upwards in the second half as it benefited from "tailwinds on certain input costs, including commodity and freight".-Fin24Tencent-backed Helium Health raises R560mHelium Health, West Africa's largest electronic medical records provider, has raised US$30 million (R560 million) in new funding to scale up operations and expand credit in Africa's healthcare sector, it said on Monday.Investment managers AXA IM Alts co-led the Series B funding round, with participation from Capria Ventures, Angaza Capital and US based Flatworld Partners. The Lagos-based startup also received investment from existing Chinese investor Tencent.Helium said it would start giving credit to the healthcare sector in Kenya this year, aiming to increase its lending portfolio to 1 000 healthcare facilities by 2024 in partnership with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.Africa's healthcare sector is heavily undercapitalised and has one of the lowest health worker-to-patient ratios in the world. At 1.55 health workers per 1000 people, it is below the recommended World Health Organization threshold of 4.45 workers."We believe in a future where good healthcare is a reality for all Africans, not just the few," said Adegoke Olubusi, Helium Health CEO and co-founder.-Fin24Mondi Syktyvkar sale falls throughJSE-listed packaging and paper producer Mondi said on Monday the sale of its most significant facility in Russia, Mondi Syktyvkar, had fallen through due to a failure to secure regulatory approvals in the country.In August the group entered into an agreement to sell Mondi Syktyvkar and two affiliated assets for €1.2 billion (almost R25 billion) to Augment Investments. The sale included an integrated pulp, packaging paper, and uncoated fine paper mill located in Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic, which is about 1 000km northeast of Moscow.The transaction included the remittance of a dividend for Mondi, which required approval of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, and a long-stop date of 12 May had been set, its annual report reads.The group said amid the lack of progress in gaining the necessary approvals, Mondi said it was withdrawing from the agreement, but it remains committed to divestment.The withdrawal does not affect the €20 million sale of three Russian packaging converting operations to Gotek Group, announced in December, the group said. Mondi announced in May 2022 that it planned to divest from Russia - which accounted for about a fifth of its core profit - a move which followed in the wake of that country's invasion of neighbour Ukraine.-Fin24

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