Company news in brief

Eskom: Plan to restructure debt due in 2019South Africa's government is discussing restructuring the debt of ailing power utility Eskom but will only give details of what it plans to do next year, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said.The cash-strapped firm said last week it wants the government to take on R100 billion of its debts, about a quarter of its total borrowings. It is also eyeing a steep hike in tariffs in 2019 from the energy regulator."That's an issue that is being discussed in government and sometime in the new year government as a whole will give you some idea of where we are going," Gordhan told reporters referring to the firm's debt of over R400 billion.The idea of moving Eskom's debt on to government's balance sheet has unnerved investors as it puts even more pressure on South Africa's sovereign credit ratings, already rated subinvestment by two of the top three agencies.Gordhan said there was "no possibility of haircuts on Eskom debt”. – Nampa/ReutersShell reviews deals involving ex-executiveRoyal Dutch Shell has concluded that a Nigerian oilfield sale where it suspects an executive took bribes was not linked to a separate court case in which he and Shell face corruption charges over a US$1.1 billion offshore acquisition.The Anglo-Dutch company filed a criminal complaint in March against Peter Robinson, a former vice president for Sub-Saharan Africa, saying he took bribes in the US$390 million sale of onshore Oil Mining Lease (OML) 42 to a Nigerian firm.Robinson is also one of several former Shell employees involved in a trial in Milan, in which Shell and Italy's Eni are accused of corruption related to the US$1.1 billion purchase of a giant Nigerian offshore field, Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245. Both the OML 42 and OPL 245 deals were signed in 2011.Shell, the largest foreign investor in Nigeria, said that it had completed an internal review of the OML 42 sale process and other deals Robinson was involved in, and it concluded his only violation was related to OML 42.Shell, Eni and Robinson deny any wrongdoing in the OPL 245 case. Robinson also denies any wrongdoing in the OML 42 sale. – Nampa/ReutersJuventus shares to be added to FTSE-MibItalian soccer champions Juventus, challenging for an eighth consecutive title with superstar Cristiano Ronaldo onboard, will be included in the benchmark FTSE-Mib stock index later this month, the Milan stock exchange said.Rumours about the move pushed Serie A champions Juventus up by around 10% on Wednesday before the bourse announcement was made in the late evening.The stock will be included in the index, which groups 40 top shares in all, from December 27, it said.Juventus first listed in December 2001 and remained little traded until the arrival of Ronaldo from Real Madrid for this season.The shares were around 0.64 euro mid-year and jumped as high as 1.80 in September only to fall back. – Nampa/AFPDeutsche Bank hit by new laundering reportDeutsche Bank defended its record in fighting money laundering on Thursday after the Financial Times reported it had processed 31 billion euro (US$35 billion) more in questionable funds for Danske Bank than previously thought.A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment on the FT article. He said, however, that it was not Deutsche's responsibility to vet Danske Bank's customers and that business ties with the Danish bank had been cut in 2015.The sum came on top of US$150 billion Deutsche cleared for Danske's Estonian branch from 2007-15, meaning it handled four-fifths of the flows from the Danish bank's clients in Russia and the former Soviet Union, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter."We have continuously intensified our efforts over the past years against money laundering and tax evasion," Deutsche's chief financial o fficer, James von Moltke, said in a statement.The bank is also under investigation in a separate German case linked to the so-called Panama Papers, a trove of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that was leaked to the media in April 2016. – Nampa/ReutersOil margin put pressure on Trafigura's annual profitsGlobal commodity trader Trafigura Group reported its lowest annual net profit in eight years on Monday as a drop in oil trading margins offset a strong performance by its metals and minerals division.Traded volumes at its metals division increased by 37% in the financial year that ended on Sept. 30, mainly in coal, which had a "surprisingly strong" year, the company said.Trafigura's total earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the financial year rose 8% to US$1.7 billion, from 1.6 billion. Gross profit increased to US$2.4 billion, from US$2.2 billion a year earlier.Net profit fell slightly to US$873 million from a lacklustre US$887 million in 2017 due to low oil volatility, already its lowest since 2010.Revenues rose to US$180.7 billion, from US$136.7 billion in its 2017 financial year. – Nampa/Reuters

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