Company news in brief

Pepkor expects profits to fall

Retailer Pepkor Holdings Ltd, previously known as Steinhoff Africa Retail (STAR), said on Tuesday its full-year earnings are expected to fall as much as 42% mainly due to a provision, sending its shares more than 11% lower.

The clothing and furniture retailer said in May its earnings would be affected after it made a provision of 500 million rand (US$36 million) to cover a third-party debt acquired through using its Steinhoff International’s shares as collateral.

An accounting scandal at Steinhoff that came to light in December last year wiped more than 90% off the company’s market value and forced it to sell assets.

Pepkor said headline earnings per share for the year ended Sept. 30 are expected to be between 77.8 cents per share and 91.2 cents per share compared with 133.6 cents per share in the same period a year ago.

Shares in Pepkor were down 5.87% to 17.33 rand

-Nampa/Reuters

eBay polishes plans for online second-hand luxury watch market

Buying a second-hand luxury watch on eBay should get easier next year as the company gets better at checking that only genuine timepieces are sold on the online platform.

“By the end of 2019, we look to have an entire suite of services available to all luxury watch sellers and buyers on the platform,” James Hendy, in charge of eBay’s authentication service for luxury goods, told Reuters in a recent interview.

While new watch sales have grown more slowly, the used market has been boosted by younger consumers happy to buy online, prompting Cartier owner Richemont (CFR.S) to buy second-hand platform Watchfinder.co.uk.

Hendy said eBay’s transaction volume of second-hand luxury watches would exceed US$1 billion in 2018. This compares to volumes of around 1.3 billion euros expected at German rival Chrono24 by its co-CEO and founder Tim Stracke.

eBay allowed approved professional sellers, like Watchbox, to list timepieces on eBay with an “authenticity verified” tag in September by extending its eBay Authenticate program from handbags to luxury watches.

-Nampa/Reuters

The Italian plot to weaken Nutella

Chocolate spread Nutella has long had pride of place on supermarket shelves but faces imminent attack from an Italian rival usually found in the pasta section.

Italy’s Barilla, known internationally for its spaghetti and maccheroni packaged in blue boxes, is preparing to launch a chocolate spread next year in a major challenge to the brand that became a global phenomenon in the 1980s, sources said.

Nutella, invented by family-owned firm Ferrero, is a favorite among sweet-toothed youngsters at home and abroad and generates annual sales of more than 2 billion euros (US$2.3 billion).

With 54% of the global market for chocolate spreads, Nutella is the leader and faces virtually no major competition as a mass-marketed brand.

Cokokrem of Turkey’s Yildiz Holding is the second most popular spread with a share of only 2 percent, according to market research provider Euromonitor International.

But two sources familiar with Barilla’s plan say its new spread, Crema Pan di Stelle, seeks to exploit a perceived weakness of Nutella: its use of palm oil.

-Nampa/Reuters

Momentum to pay out death benefit to widow

After strong public backlash, insurance provider Momentum announced on Tuesday afternoon that it would pay out the death benefit to Natalie Ganas, the widow of a slain policy holder Nathan Ganas.

This comes after Momentum CEO Johann le Roux previously insisted that the company was right to reject the claim, due to the non-disclosure of a pre-existing health condition by Ganas.

Momentum, in a statement published on Tuesday on its website, said the way in which the news of Natalie Ganas’ claim was received by the public "created the impression" that life insurers were looking for reasons to avoid payout.

Ganas died from gunshot wounds in March 2017 when he was hijacked in his driveway. But the insurance firm initially refused to pay his R2.4 million policy claim after it was discovered that he suffered from high blood sugar levels.

-Fin24

Bombardier leads bids for 999-car New Jersey rail deal

Canada’s Bombardier Inc is the front-runner to win a New Jersey Transit (NJT) rail car contract, two sources familiar with the matter said, in a boost for the plane-and-train-maker’s North American business which has wrestled with delivery delays and has lost orders to rivals.

The order for up to 999 multilevel passenger cars, including options, would be one of the largest contracts in years if most of the options are exercised, one of the sources said.

Chinese state rail company CRRC Corp (601766.SS) was also vying for the contract. NJT ruled out the competing bid from the Chinese company, the sources said, although it was not immediately clear why.

-Nampa/Reuters