Company news in brief

SA’s Taste Holdings sells Starbucks

Taste Holdings, owner of Starbucks and Domino's Pizza franchises in South Africa, said on Friday it was abandoning the food business, and had already sold its 13 stores of the coffee chain to a consortium for R7 million.

The company said it was also in discussions around the sale of Domino's and its two other food businesses, restaurant chain Maxi's and The Fish & Chips Co, as part of a new strategy to become a solely luxury retail group.

It had been trying to turn the Starbucks and Domino's businesses around after putting their expansions on hold a year ago amid losses - making Taste one of a string of retail firms hurt by a troubled South African economy.

Taste said following the sale of the food assets, including the Starbucks stores and 48 Domino's outlets, it would focus on its remaining luxury retail portfolio, including jewellers Arthur Kaplan and World's Finest Watches. That, however, is also loss-making.

Its statement said the Starbucks outlets had been sold to a company called K2019548958 (South Africa) Proprietary Limited, a consortium whose members were not identified in full. – Nampa/Reuters

AfDB approves record capital boost

The African Development Bank's board approved a 125% capital increase to US$208 billion on Thursday, the largest in the lender's history, AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina said.

The decision caps two years of negotiations to give the Abidjan-based bank greater scope to meet the continent's funding needs. The last increase was agreed in 2010.

At an extraordinary meeting of the board, Adesina said the extra capital would help the bank finance energy, climate, and agricultural projects, as well as support infrastructure needed for the success of a continental free-trade zone.

The AfDB's shareholders are Africa's 54 nations and 26 non-African donor countries. Part of its lending to poorer countries is at concessionary rates, largely financed by Western donors.

Each member country appoints a governor to the board whose voting power is proportionate to the amount of capital contributed by the country. – Nampa/Reuters

Safaricom plans joint bid with Vodacom

Kenya's largest telecoms operator Safaricom plans a joint bid with South Africa's Vodacom for one of two Ethiopian telecoms licences that will be offered next year, its acting chief executive said on Friday.

Michael Joseph said the company, partly owned by Vodacom and Britain's Vodafone, had not made up its mind about another option of entering the lucrative Ethiopian market through partial privatisation of state monopoly Ethio Telecom.

Firms which want to secure the licences have to come with deep pockets, Joseph said, citing the expected cost of acquiring the spectrum.

"You have to bid for the spectrum. There is talk about it and it is in the billion dollar range, just for the licence," he told Reuters after the firm released its first half results. – Nampa/Reuters

Mazda sees 30% FY profit drop

Mazda Motor Corp cut its annual profit forecast by nearly half on Friday as the Japanese automaker expects a strong yen and falling cars sales in the United States and China, its biggest markets, to drive earnings to a seven-year low.

Japan's fifth-largest automaker expects to post 60 billion yen (US$555.4 million) in operating profit for the year ending March, down from a prior outlook of 110 billion yen, and lower than a mean forecast of 69.5 billion yen from 20 analysts polled by Refinitiv.

It represents a cut of nearly 30% from 82.3 billion yen profit a year ago and would be its weakest performance since the year ended March 2013.

The downgrade comes after operating profit came in at 18.8 billion yen in the July-September quarter, falling for the fourth straight quarter. However, it recovered from a 2.9 billion yen loss a year ago and was above analysts' expectation of 14.4 billion yen.

Mazda posted global sales of 378 000 units for the quarter, down 4% from a year ago, partly due to sluggish sales in the United States and China. – Nampa/Reuters

Earnings fall at Exxon, Chevron

US oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported a drop in their third-quarter profits Friday on lower oil prices, even as increased investment in US shale projects boosted output.

The companies have pumped heavy investment into the Permian Basin, a shale-rich region in Texas and New Mexico drawing considerable interest due to newer technologies that have made developing unconventional shale resources profitable.

These efforts enabled Exxon and Chevron, the two biggest US oil companies, to increase overall oil and gas production in the quarter ending September 30. But results were dented by a retreat in crude oil prices during the three-month period, as signs of a slowing global economy amplified worries about a glut of supply.

Exxon reported quarterly profits of US$3.2 billion, plunging 49.2% from the year-ago period, as revenues fell 15.1% to US$65 billion.

At Chevron, net profits were US$2.6 billion, which was 36.2% below the same period of 2018. Revenues were US$36.1 billion, a 17.9% decline. – Nampa/AFP