Company News in Brief

South African pharma company Aspen's shares plunge day after profit warningShares in South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare dropped more than 30% on Wednesday, a day after the company issued a profit warning over what it called a "material contractual dispute".Aspen alerted shareholders to the dispute after the close of the local stock market on Tuesday.It said it related to a manufacturing and technology agreement with a contract manufacturing customer for mRNA products, saying details were subject to contractual confidentiality.Normalised earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from its manufacturing business could be 2 billion rand ($107.28 million) lower than last guided in its full-year results, it added.On a Wednesday call, Aspen said the dispute had come "from left field" and management was not aware of it at the time of the company's interim results presentation in March.It said the dispute could have a direct impact on its French sterile manufacturing site, the driver of profitability in its manufacturing segment in its half-year earnings.-REUTERS Tesla’s cure for Musk’s missteps is ... more MuskTesla reported abysmal numbers for the first quarter on Tuesday evening. Naturally, CEO Elon Musk kicked off the call with a discussion on why he must fix America’s finances, facing down an army of alleged moochers.For any other company’s stock, the combination of these results with Musk’s political priorities would spell doom. The closely watched metric of Tesla’s automotive gross margin, after stripping out sales of regulatory credits, slumped to 12.5%; the lowest, according to Morgan Stanley, in over a decade, when Tesla was still more of a start-up. Adjusted earnings came in almost 40% below a consensus forecast that had been nosediving anyway. Tesla eked out positive free cash flow, but only through a combination of favourable moves in accounts payables and receivables, and by slashing capital expenditure almost in half.To cap it all off, the electric vehicle maker suspended guidance due to the recent “shifting global trade policy” that you may have heard about. There is a double irony here. First, Musk has had a fairly tight relationship with the US president doing much of that shifting. Second, Tesla’s guidance was hardly the brightest of beacons, somehow marrying volatility and vagueness in recent quarters. -BLOOMBERG Zila Tech moves to help Africa harness GeminiWith the recent inclusion of Gemini AI in Google Workspace bundles, Digicloud Africa partner Zila Tech is stepping up its efforts to lower barriers to entry and drive adoption of Google Workspace and Google Education solutions in English-speaking African countries, helping customers to achieve the productivity gains AI offers.Gemini, described as an “always-on AI assistant”, was previously available as an add-on product. It has now been incorporated into the various Google Workspace products, giving users AI assistants in apps such as Gmail, Docs, Meet, Sheets and Chat.Gemini also powers NotebookLM, a powerful note-taking and summary research tool that allows users to upload PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs or Google Slides to be summarised and explained.Fredrick Barasa Oundo, customer success engineer at Zila Tech, a Digicloud Africa partner, said the Kenya-based Google Workspace reseller is actively working to raise awareness of the benefits of Gemini in the Google Workspace product suite.Zila Tech sells and supports Google Workspace and Google Workspace for Education as well as Chrome OS and Chromebooks, largely in the education, SME and start-up sectors.Barasa Oundo said AI uptake has been fairly slow in his region in the past because the market is price sensitive. However, the inclusion of Gemini in Workspace is expected to drive uptake- TECHCENTRAL Gold Fields gets one-year extension at Damang mine in GhanaGold Fields said it will be given a 12-month lease to continue operating the Damang mine in Ghana, after the government initially rejected its application to extend the rights.The Johannesburg-listed firm will “take all reasonable steps” to restart open pit mining at Damang, which it halted in 2023, Gold Fields said in a statement on Thursday. The subsidiary that owns the asset will be allowed to resume the processing of surface stockpiles, it said.Ghana’s government – led by President John Mahama since January – took the unusual step of refusing to renew the lease, saying Gold Fields’ application had failed to declare mineral reserves, outline future plans or allocate any exploration budget for Damang. That reflected the new administration’s “shift away from the neo-colonial posturing of automatic renewals of licenses,” the land and natural resources ministry said April 15, three days before the permit lapsed.The resolution, first announced by the presidency on Wednesday, will see Gold Fields complete studies on extending Damang’s life by the end of the year. The miner and government will also establish a joint team “to ensure the successful transition of the asset to ownership by the people of Ghana,” the company said.-MONEYWEB

Company News in Brief

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