Company news

Starbucks aims to triple China revenueStarbucks Corp is looking to more than triple its revenue and almost double its store count in China over the next five years, doubling down on the market as traffic growth comes under pressure in the United States.The US coffee chain, which recently raised US$7.15 billion in a deal with Nestle SA , aims to have 6 000 stores in the country by the end of 2022, it said in a statement. It has around 3 300 stores in 141 cities in China currently.Starbucks dominates China’s coffee scene, although it is seeing more competition from smaller rivals, similar to how it is coming under pressure from a “third wave” of boutique coffee sellers and cheaper rivals in the United States.-Nampa/ReutersNovartis ditches lawyerNovartis general counsel Felix Ehrat will leave the Swiss drugmaker over his role in a US$1.2 million contract it struck with the lawyer for US President Donald Trump, saying on Wednesday the pact was legal but an error.The US$100 000-per-month contract with Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s Essential Consultants, the same firm used to pay porn star Stormy Daniels US$130 000 to hush up an alleged affair with Trump, has distracted Novartis’s efforts to improve its image after a series of bribery scandals.Trump has denied the affair. Novartis ended the contract this year.-Nampa/ReutersSibanye-Stillwater to close output at LonminSibanye-Stillwater plans to shut loss-making production at Lonmin when it takes over the platinum miner, the chief financial officer of Sibanye’s US region said.“We will not cross-subsidise loss-making production across the portfolio,” Justin Froneman said at the Bloomberg Intelligence Precious Metals Forum in London.“If we’ve got ounces that aren’t covering their costs they will be taken out... we have to do that. We can’t let our shareholders absorb those kind of expenses.”-Nampa/ReutersICBC targets visitors to Kenya with new credit cardThe Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has launched a credit card in partnership with Kenya’s Stanbic Bank to tap a growing pool of Chinese tourists visiting the East African nation.Some 53 485 Chinese visitors came to Kenya last year and ICBC, which owns a stake in Stanbic Kenya’s parent, South Africa’s Standard Bank, expects the number to rise to 60 000 this year, doubling from 2015 levels.Gang Sun, deputy chief executive of ICBC Africa, said users of the card will be able to pay for hotels and other services while visiting Kenya.-Nampa/ReutersVodacom cuts dividend payoutSouth African mobile phone operator Vodacom Group disappointed investors with lower than expected full-year earnings and a cut in its dividend payout on Monday.The company, owned by Britain’s Vodafone, blamed a one-off hit from its purchase of a stake in Kenya’s Safaricom for the disappointing earnings, which missed analysts’ estimates and sent its shares down nearly 4% in Johannesburg.Vodacom acquired a 35% stake in Safaricom last year as part of a move by its British parent to consolidate two of its African interests.-Nampa/Reuters

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