Company news in brief

Dangote Cement says London listing likely to be 2020 Nigeria's biggest listed firm Dangote Cement said on Friday it has been in talks with several banks over a long-planned secondary stock market listing in London which it now thinks likely to happen in 2020.The cement company, owned by Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote, said the banks had not yet been selected.In October 2018, Dangote said the listing would go ahead this year after Nigerian elections, but couldn't say when exactly. It said at the time that Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Standard Chartered could be among the banks to organise the listing.On Wednesday, Dangote Cement posted an after-tax profit of 390 billion naira (US$1.3 billion) for 2018, its highest ever, boosted by a 134 billion naira tax reversal, sending its shares listedon the Lagos bourse higher.The company, which makes up around a third of market capitalisation on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, operates across 10 African countries with annual production capacity of about 45 million tonnes. It has been seeking to double that capacity. – Nampa/ReutersVale's CEO to step down after Brazil dam burstBrazilian iron ore miner Vale SA chief executive Fabio Schvartsman and several other senior executives resigned on Saturday in what the company described as a temporary move, after one of its mining dams burst in January, killing hundreds.Vale said Schvartsman offered his resignation, which the board "immediately accepted" after state and federal prosecutors recommended their removal late on Friday.The move comes slightly over a month after a tailings dam broke at Vale's Corrego do Feijao mine in the interior Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, likely killing over 300 people and releasing massive amounts of toxic sludge.The resignations came after documents emerged in recent weeks showing that Vale knew it had an elevated risk of rupture and that inspectors felt they were under pressure to certify the structure as safe.Also resigning were Vale's head of ferrous minerals and coal, Peter Poppinga, planning director Lucio Flavio Gallon Cavalli and Silmar Magalhaes Silva, the head of a geographic division at Vale. – Nampa/ReutersHuawei plans billions in dividends for staffChina's Huawei is set to reward employee shareholders with a 3% rise in cash dividends that are worth billions of UA dollars, according to company sources and Reuters calculations - a move expected to boost morale as it battles a US-led drive against its telecom gear.The payout also appears to indicate profit growth as well as confidence the company can survive US accusations that its telecoms network equipment may enable espionage by the Chinese government, analysts said.Known for its so-called "wolf culture" that demands high levels of dedication from employees in return for high pay, Huawei Technologies Ltd boasts that some 80 000 of its workers own nearly all of the company's shares - a scheme viewed as unique for a firm of its size.The cash dividend per share for 2018 is expected to rise to 1.05 yuan per share from 1.02 yuan, six employee-shareholder sources told Reuters, citing internal notices handed down over the past month.Huawei said in December it expects 2018 revenue to rise 21% to US$109 billion, its fastest pace in two years. The company, which made a net profit of 47.5 billion yuan in 2017, is due to announce figures for last year in late March. – Nampa/ReutersAmazon plans new grocery-store businessAmazon.com Inc plans to open dozens of grocery stores across the United States as it looks to expand in the food business, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.Amazon is also exploring a strategy of strengthening its new supermarket brand by purchasing regional grocery chains that operate at least a dozen stores, according to the report.Amazon, which bought the upscale Whole Foods chain for US$13.7 billion in 2017, is now in talks to open grocery stores in shopping centres in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia, the WSJ report said.The online retail giant plans to open its first store in Los Angeles as early as the end of the year, and has already signed leases for at least two other grocery locations with openings planned for early next year, the Journal reported.The new stores were not intended to compete directly with Whole Foods, according to the report. Amazon declined to comment. – Nampa/ReutersTesla settles in cash convertible bond obligationTesla Inc has paid off a US$920 million convertible bond obligation in cash, a company spokesperson said on Friday.The bond, which matured on Friday, had a US$359.87 conversion price, but the electric carmaker's shares closed down 8% at US$294.79, forcing the company to settle its largest ever debt payment in cash.Convertible issues give bondholders the right to trade their debt for equity after shares rise over a certain price, allowing holders to benefit from a rising share price, while also offering bond-like protection if it falls.Friday's payout will make a significant dent in the US$3.7 billion in cash Tesla had on hand at the end of 2018.Tesla on Thursday offered for the first time a US$35 000 version of its Model 3 sedan and said its global sales would now be online-only. – Nampa/ReutersJaguar Land Rover to announce major UK investmentLuxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, part of Tata Motors Ltd, is preparing to announce hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment in Britain, the BBC reported on Friday.The reported investment would be a rare piece of good news for Britain's car industry, which is now recording falling sales, investment and production.A JLR spokeswoman described the report as speculation.Last month, Jaguar Land Rover's owner Tata Motors Ltd reported the biggest-ever quarterly loss in Indian corporate history of aboutUS$4 billion on slumping China sales.British new car production nosedived 18.2% in January, the eighth successive month of annual declines, due to model changes and weaker demand both in Britain and major export markets, an automotive industry body said on Thursday. – Nampa/Reuters

Company news in brief

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