Company news in brief

Tongaat mulls measures to cut debtSouth Africa's Tongaat Hulett, which has been battling to restore investors' confidence after announcing in April it would have to restate prior financial reports, has postponed its results statement for the latest full year, it said on Monday.Chairman Louis Von Zeuner said that the process of identifying the restatements had been "thorough, with the right level of governance". "We are cognisant of the need to provide stakeholders with reliable financial information," he said.The sugar producer, which has operations in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, is also considering selling assets, raising capital through a share sale, or a combination of the two in order to reduce the group's debt, it said.Tongaat said debt restructuring talks with South African and Mozambican creditors are progressing well, and that it is looking to conclude agreements as soon as reasonably possible.The firm said earlier this year that it would restate prior financial information after a formal review revealed accounting practices that required remedial action. A forensic review by PricewaterhouseCoopers has been completed and the final report has been issued to law firm Bowman Gilfillan, Tongaat said, adding that an overview of the report will be provided to shareholders "at an appropriate time". – Nampa/ReutersImpala to buy North American PalladiumSouth Africa's Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd (Implats) said on Monday it would buy Canada-based North American Palladium Ltd for about C$1 billion (US$751.77 million), marking the miner's first purchase outside of Africa.Prices for palladium, widely used in vehicle exhausts to reduce harmful emissions, have doubled from a low in August last year as tighter environmental regulations force carmakers to buy more of the precious metal."[The acquisition] not only signals our confidence in the prevailing platinum group metals (PGM) market but it also expedites our transition to a high-level multinational producer," Implats chief executive officer Nick Muller said on a media call.Implats pursued North American Palladium for three years, and the deal adds the Lac des Iles Mine in Thunder Bay, Ontario to the South African company's portfolio."It provides us with access to a well-established operational asset that employs bulk mining methods and occupies an attractive position on the industry cost curve," Muller said. Implats said it will finance the deal using cash and a bridge loan facility. – Nampa/ReutersSierra Leone cancels licence of Gerald GroupSierra Leone's government has cancelled the mining licence of a subsidiary of Gerald Group, the mines minister told Reuters yesterday, amid a dispute over royalty payments.SL Mining suspended its iron ore mining operations in the West African country last month after filing for arbitration over the matter in an international court.In July, authorities imposed a ban on exports from the company's Marampa mine, saying it had failed to maintain the mine's agreed work schedule or make royalty payments. SL Mining denies the accusations.The International Chamber of Commerce ruled last month that the export ban should be lifted, but Sierra Leonean authorities refused to do so.SL Mining estimates that Marampa holds about 1 billion tonnes of iron ore with a potential lifespan of 30 years.Airbus targets record Q4 deliveriesAirbus sold 41 jets in September and processed cancellations for nine jets including five originally sold to Norwegian Air, leaving the European firm ahead of Boeing Co in a relatively slow year for an industry distracted by safety and trade headlines.The European planemaker said it had won a total of 303 orders in the first nine months of the year, or 127 net new orders after cancellations.That remains well ahead of US rival Boeing, whose sales have been hampered by the grounding of its fast-selling jet, the 737 MAX, in the wake of two accidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia.Boeing registered sales of 145 aircraft up to end-August, the latest period for which data is available, or a net total of 55 after ordinary cancellations and a negative total of 85 after adjustments to historic orders deemed unlikely to materialise.Deliveries of new Airbus aircraft rose 13.5% from a year earlier to 571 between January and September, Airbus data showed. That means it must top last year's record fourth-quarter handovers of 297 jets to reach its full-year goal of 880-890. – Nampa/ReutersUnilever to halve use of new plasticAnglo-Dutch commercial giant Unilever said Monday it will cut its use of new plastic by half by 2025 as pressure grows on multinational companies to do more for the environment.The firm, which owns brands including Dove soap, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Marmite, would cut annual use from the current 700 000 tonnes of a year to no more than 350 000 tonnes.Of the 350 000 tonnes of "virgin plastic" Unilever will cut, it said 100 000 tonnes will come from an outright reduction in the use of plastic packaging, for example by making reusable or refillable packs, using alternative packaging or "naked products" that use none at all. The other 250 000 of the reduction will come from using recycled plastics.On 19 September companies including Unilever, Nestle, Google and L'Oreal announced a "coalition" to protect biodiversity at the UN climate summit in New York. The world produces more than 300 million tonnes of plastics annually, the UN says, with much of it ending up in the oceans. – Nampa/AFP

Company news in brief

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