Company news in brief

Standard Bank to launch secondary listingSouth African lender Standard Bank will be floating its shares in a secondary listing on the A2X markets stock exchange in Johannesburg next week, the lender said on Thursday.The A2X bourse will have thirteen listed companies so far since launching in October 2017 after the bank and consumer goods firm AVI float next week.The exchange provides free secondary-listing for companies, offering them more exposure in addition to their primary listing.“We have listened to our institutional investors, who have called for this secondary listing, which will offer enhanced choice to investors to trade through A2X’s platform,” the bank’s Financial Director, Arno Daehnke, said in a statement.Standard Bank — South Africa’s largest lender by assets — will be the biggest company by market capitalisation when its listing commences on November 15, based on Reuters data.The lender will join South Africa’s biggest insurer Sanlam and other firms listed on the A2X bourse.-Nampa/ReutersDisney profit boosted by fans flocking to parks, moviesWalt Disney Co results beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday thanks to summer crowds that swarmed into its theme parks and filled theaters showing Marvel movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”The family entertainment company also revealed plans for a new “Star Wars” video series for its forthcoming streaming service, that it has named Disney+ and plans to launch late next year, aiming to make up for the continuing loss of subscribers from ESPN and other cable networks.Disney is trying to transform itself into a broad-based digital entertainment company as audiences move to Netflix Inc , Alphabet Inc’s YouTube and other digital options. It is on the verge of gaining new film and television properties in a US$71.3 billion purchase of assets from Twenty-First Century Fox Inc.Overall revenue in the quarter rose 12% to US$14.3 billion, above analysts’ average estimate of US$13.73 billion. Net income climbed 33% to US$2.3 billion and adjusted earnings per share of US$1.48 for beat analysts’ consensus of US$1.34, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.Google hears protestersAlphabet Inc’s Google said on Thursday it would change the way it handles sexual harassment claims, a week after 20 000 of its workers around the world walked off their jobs to protest its response to such issues.Arbitration will become optional for individual sexual harassment and sexual assault claims, Google said, enabling lawsuits on those matters. It also said employees who fail to complete mandatory sexual harassment training will be docked in performance reviews."We recognize that we have not always gotten everything right in the past and we are sincerely sorry for that," Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said in a note addressed to employees. "It's clear we need to make some changes."Pichai’s actions respond to a couple of the five major requests made by employees during last week’s protests. They had called on Alphabet to add an employee to its board and share gender-related pay data, neither of which Pichai addressed.Walkout organisers applauded the progress on sexual harassment but said they would not let up on the other issues.“They all have the same root cause, which is a concentration of power and a lack of accountability at the top,” organiser and Google employee Stephanie Parker said in a press release.-Nampa/ReutersCoca-Cola clashes Monster BeverageCoca-Cola Co is planning to launch a range of energy drinks for the first time on its own brand name as it intensifies efforts to break away from its traditional fizzy sodas and shift to health-focused trends.The company on Thursday told Reuters it was working on plans to launch new drinks which would be branded “Coca-Cola Energy” and “Coca-Cola Energy No Sugar” and made with naturally-derived caffeine and guarana extract.Coke has previously taken a cautious approach to energy drinks as they are wrought with controversy in both the United States and international markets after some drinks were linked to deaths in young people.-Nampa/ReutersSamsung gives first glimpse of foldable phoneSamsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its much-anticipated foldable phone in San Francisco on Wednesday, urging Android developers to start writing apps for it.The South Korean tech company needs to get the foldable phone right to reverse steep declines in profit for its mobile division and restore some of the cachet its brand has lost to Apple Inc.Foldable phones promise the screen of a small tablet in a pocket-sized device.Justin Denison, a senior vice president of mobile product marketing, showed a prototype with a screen he said measured 7.3 inches (18.5 cm) diagonally.-Nampa/Reuters

Company news in brief

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