COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Standard Chartered admits to rand manipulationBritish multi-national bank Standard Chartered has admitted to its role in manipulating the dollar-rand exchange rate and has agreed to pay an administrative penalty of R42.7 million, ending roughly eight years of litigation with South Africa's competition authorities.This comes after the London-headquartered lender reached a settlement with the Competition Commission and admitted its role in fixing bid, offers, bid-offer spreads as well as other activities aimed at manipulating the dollar-rand exchange rate.The Competition Commission said in a statement on Wednesday that Standard Chartered had also participated in dividing markets by allocating customers in terms of which one trader withholds or pulls an existing bid or offer from the market to allow another trader to execute and complete a separate trade.This contravenes the Competition Act, prompting local competition authorities to open cases against affected banks as far back as 2017."The commission welcomes [Standard Chartered’s] decision to reach a settlement on this matter and encourages other respondent banks to consider settling the complaint against them," Competition Commissioner Doris Tshepe said in the statement.-Fin24Sasol chair quit over link to Australian companySipho Nkosi resigned as Sasol chairman to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest arising from an investment in an Australian gas explorer that could potentially supply the fuel and chemical manufacturer’s South African hub.Nkosi stepped down on November 10 because "he was concerned that some of his business interests may be perceived to place him in conflict with the interests of Sasol," even though he was confident of meeting compliance, the company said.Sasol confirmed the issue referred to Perth-based Kinetiko Energy. "There is no formal commercial arrangement in place between Sasol and Kinetiko, and it was agreed that for as long as that remains, any potential conflict could have been managed effectively through disclosure and recusal," it said in a reply to questions.Kinetiko secured A$6.5 million (R75 million) in funding from investment company Talent10, according to a September 4 announcement. Nkosi is Talent10’s chairman.The Australian gas explorer, which focuses on coal bed methane, has a block located on the border of Sasol’s Secunda facility and flagged the "potential to supply that plant via pipeline from the fields in that block," it said in its latest annual report.-Fin24Virgin SA members grow to 606 000Virgin Active is still seeing high rates of membership terminations in South Africa, which has resulted in a change of its sales commission structure. As it refurbishes key local clubs, it will also receive a large capital investment to help drive growth.Private equity firm Brait says shareholders are looking to inject £60 million (R1.4 billion) in the form of convertible preference shares into the gym group.Virgin Active, which accounts for about 65% of Brait's about R15.2 billion in total assets, saw its active membership increase 10% to 972 000 over the past twelve months, Brait said on Wednesday when it released its interim results. The gym chain, whose major operations span SA, the UK, Italy and Australia, is still recovering from the impact of the worldwide Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, which were only finally lifted in September 2022.South Africa still remains Virgin Active's most important geography, accounting for more than 60% of its membership.While the group sold 170 000 memberships in the nine months to end-September, after cancellations, its net membership grew by only 31 000. It now has 606 000 members in South Africa. The group hopes the restructuring of its Cape Town head office, which will involve retrenchments, will result in "significant" central cost savings.-Fin24Tencent results beat expectationsChinese internet giant Tencent announced on Wednesday a nine percent year-on-year dip in third-quarter net income, even as it posted growth in revenue over the same period.The Shenzhen-based firm, which operates China's ubiquitous "super-app" WeChat, reported net income for the three-month period ending September 30 of 36.2 billion yuan (R91 billion) in results published at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.But the slide in profits still beat expectations, according to Bloomberg, in a positive sign for domestic consumption in the entertainment sector.Shares in Naspers, which owns a stake of around 26% in Tencent, rallied by more than 6% and traded at R3 471.09 just after lunchtime on Wednesday. Total third-quarter revenue for the tech giant stood at 154.6 billion yuan (R386 billion), up 10 percent year-on-year and up four percent from the second quarter.-fin24

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