Company news in brief

SA bank stocks fall after SARB statement

South African banking stocks opened more than 4% down yesterday after the central bank's advice on Monday to refrain from dividend payouts as the country contends with the widespread economic damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The South African Reserve Bank's Prudential Authority advised lenders not to pay dividends or bonuses this year, joining the Bank of England, European Central Bank and others in asking banks to skip shareholder returns.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange's banking index fell 4.3% when the market opened but recovered slightly to stand 3.9% down at 0707 GMT, against a 1.9% rise for the market overall.

Standard Bank, Africa's biggest lender by assets, was the first of South Africa's leading lenders - which include FirstRand, Nedbank, Absa and Investec - to comment on the SARB announcement.

"The board fully recognises the importance of dividends to the group's owners," Standard Bank said in a statement. "However, it also recognises the need to support households and businesses amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the importance of ensuring the stability of the group in the short, medium and long term." – Nampa/Reuters

WhatsApp limits message forwarding

Facebook Inc's WhatsApp tightened message forwarding limits yesterday, restricting users to sharing forwarded content one chat at a time after a jump in messages touting bogus medical advice since the start of the coronavirus crisis.

The pandemic, which has killed more than 70 000 people worldwide, has been accompanied by what the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called an "infodemic" of misinformation, prompting governments and other authorities to urge social media companies to do more to combat the problem.

WhatsApp, which has more than 2 billion users worldwide, said in a blog post it made the change after observing a "significant increase" in the number of forwards since the start of the coronavirus crisis.

A WhatsApp spokesman said the new limit was in place indefinitely.

The service has been imposing gradual curbs on message forwarding since 2018, after viral rumors on its platform triggered a wave of mass beatings and deaths in India.

Since last year, users have been able to forward a message to only five individuals or groups at once, down from an earlier limit of 20. – Nampa/Reuters

GSK invests big in research

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline will invest US$250 million in Vir Biotechnology Inc and collaborate to develop potential antibody treatments for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, the companies said on Monday.

"We are transferring antibodies that recovered patients have made, that have presumably helped them recover, to new patients," said Vir chief executive officer George Scangos.

Vir's approach, which is different from plasma therapy that involves giving newly infected patients the blood component that carries antibodies, lets it select the best antibodies out of the plasma, and makes it more convenient to administer.

Initial focus will be on accelerating development of Vir's investigational treatments, VIR-7831 and VIR-7832, and then directly starting with a mid-stage trial within the next three to five months, the companies said.

GSK has so far focused on providing adjuvants, efficacy boosters that play a vital role in many vaccines, as part of its efforts to find potential vaccines against the coronavirus.

Experts have said it could take 12 to 18 months to develop a coronavirus vaccine. – Nampa/AFP

Deutsche Bahn sees massive drop in numbers

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) has seen a drop of at least 85% in passenger numbers due to the coronavirus crisis, group president Richard Lutz said Monday.

The current number of passengers was "about 10 to 15% its usual level" on long-distance routes and around "15% on regional lines", said DB president Lutz in a telephone press conference.

He added that a dramatic increase in journeys was not expected over the Easter period, praising customers for "being responsible" by not travelling during the crisis.

DB has cut down its long-distance timetable by around 25%, said Lutz, striking off a number cross-border trains, connections to domestic holiday destinations and "sprinter" trains favoured by business travellers.

The DB president had already warned that the coronavirus crisis would "hit hard" when presenting the group's annual figures last month. – Nampa/AFP

Ambu soars on rising demand

Shares in Ambu, which makes diagnostic and life-support devices for hospitals, jumped 20% yesterday after it raised its sales outlook as Covid-19 and the accompanying fear of cross-contamination fuels demand for its single-use products.

Organic sales growth for its 2019/20 financial year to Sept. 30 is now expected to be 26-30%, up from a previously forecast 16-22%.

The company expects to sell more than a million of its endoscopes - imaging equipment used for internal examinations - this financial year, compared with a previous forecast of about 900 000.

Organic sales growth in Ambu's January to March quarter was up 24%, according to preliminary figures, with about 14 percentage points of that attributed to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Ambu's share price has soared by about 80% since mid-March and is up 96% since the start of the year, against a 21% slide in the European Stoxx 600 index. – Nampa/Reuters