Company News in Brief

Sibanye-Stillwater foregoes dividend payoutDiversified mining giant Sibanye-Stillwater resolved to forego a final dividend for the second year in a row after it reported a R5.7 billion for the year to end December, marking a significant narrowing from the R37.4 billion loss reported for 2023 when the group was hit by massive write-downs due to weaker platinum and nickel markets. The group, however, said it was making progress in its restructuring, while it also got a boost from its SA gold operations, which grew their adjusted core profit by 44% in its second half - and was 38% higher than what its local PGM operations delivered. This was the first six-month period since 2017 that adjusted core profit from the SA gold operations has exceeded the contribution from the SA PGM operations, it said.Dis-Chem revenues slow for first four months Pharmacy group Dis-Chem, SA's largest by dispensary market share, reported on Friday it saw a slowdown in revenue growth in the first four months of its second half, but some healthy trends as well. Group revenue rose 7.2% in the four months to end January, it said in a trading update, with retail revenue growing by 5.6% and external wholesale revenue by 18.8%. In its six months to end August, the group had reported group revenue growth of 9.6% — and operating profit growth of 17.5% — while its retail revenue had risen 7.1%. But the group said it did see a retail recovery in January, which has continued in February, driven by the availability of medical aid benefits. This helped counter weak November trade.Volvo to review SA dealership networkSwedish automaker Volvo Cars South Africa (VCSA) has announced plans to conduct a "review" of its local dealership network, raising concerns about the possibility of permanent dealership closures and potential job losses. Chinese car group Zhejiang Geely Holding is the majority owner of the car brand, having bought it from Ford in 2010. Other brands in the Geely group include Lotus, Geely Auto, Lynk & Co, Zeekr, and Polestar. VCSA is, however, not part of the Volvo Group Southern Africa, which includes Volvo Trucks or Volvo Bus. In a statement to News24 this week, a spokesperson for VCSA said while the plan has not been finalised, it "has been actively consulting with its independent licensed dealers. Any dealers affected by the review will independently evaluate their operational position and commercial strategy".-FIN24 UK's Competition Commission fines major banks Four major banks have been fined for breaching competition laws by sharing "sensitive" information on UK government bond trading in online chats, Britain's financial regulator said Friday. Citi, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada will pay a combined total of over £100 million (R2.3 billion) in fines for anti-competitive activities between 2009 and 2013, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said. Deutsche Bank, also subject to the probe, was spared a fine as it had alerted the regulator of its conduct. "The banks have agreed to pay fines for specific instances in which traders shared competitively sensitive information about aspects of the pricing of UK bonds," the regulator said. The information was shared by a small number of traders in private one-to-one Bloomberg chat rooms, it added. The watchdog said the size of the fines takes into account the length of time passed since the infringements and the "extensive compliance measures" that the banks have since put in place. - AFPJapanese group looks to invest in Tesla A high-level Japanese group that includes a former prime minister has drawn up plans for Tesla to invest in Nissan after the collapse of its merger talks with Honda, the Financial Times said on Friday. The group hopes Elon Musk's Tesla will become a strategic investor, believing the company is keen to acquire Nissan's plants in the US, according to the report. The proposal is being led by former Tesla board member Hiromichi Mizuno with support from ex-premier Yoshihide Suga and his former aide Hiroto Izumi, the newspaper said, citing unidentified sources. Suga's office said it was not aware of a plan to encourage Tesla to invest in Nissan. Suga stood down as prime minister in 2021 but remains a member of Japan's lower house, representing a constituency in Nissan's home prefecture of Kanagawa. Nissan declined to comment on the report, while Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters was not immediately able to contact Izumi and Mizuno. - ReutersAlibaba shares soar 14%Shares in e-commerce titan Alibaba soared more than 14% Friday, extending a blistering rally in Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index, after forecast-topping earnings added to a growing sense of optimism over Chinese tech firms. The Hangzhou-based company operates some of China's most widely used online shopping platforms, making its performance a bellwether for consumer sentiment. It announced on Thursday that sales rose 8% to 280 billion yuan (R705 billion) in the three months through December, exceeding the 277 billion yuan estimated by a Bloomberg pool of analysts. - AFPDeepSeek to release codes, data to public Chinese AI sensation DeepSeek plans to release key codes and data to the public starting next week, an unusual step to share more of its core technology than rivals such as OpenAI have done. The 20-month-old startup, which surprised Silicon Valley with the sophistication of its AI models last month, plans to make its code repositories available to all developers and researchers. That allows anyone to download and build on or improve the code behind the well-regarded R1 or other platforms, it said in a post on X. - Bloomberg

Company News in Brief

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