Company news in brief

AngloGold Ashanti moots higher dividendAngloGold Ashanti said on Friday it would consider paying a higher annual dividend after reporting a more than 200% jump in first-half earnings, driven by higher gold prices and a weaker local currency.AngloGold, which has operations in Australia, Brazil and Tanzania, said its headline earnings per share for the six months ended June rose 234% to 97 cents against 29 cents a year earlier, despite output disruptions caused by Covid-19.Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) climbed 59%.AngloGold, which pays an annual dividend of 10% of its free cash flow before growth capital, said free cash flow had increased more than four-fold to US$324 million.Spot gold has roared past US$2 000 an ounce for the first time, giving South African gold miners a lifeline after the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. – Nampa/ReutersStandard Life CEO predicts tough marketsStandard Life Aberdeen's clients switched to more defensive assets in the first half and the coronavirus pandemic meant tough times ahead, its outgoing CEO Keith Skeoch said after the asset manager's profit dropped 30%.A swift return to economic growth was not guaranteed, with the shape of any recovery dependent on whether a vaccine can be found to halt Covid-19, Skeoch said on Friday after SLA's first half pre-tax profit fell to 195 million pounds (US$255 million)."The outlook for markets is tough. I don't think this recovery without a vaccine is going to be V-shaped, it's going to be W-shaped," he told a media call, adding that the success of vaccines for some strains of flu was only around 40%.SLA's fee-based revenue dropped 13% to 706 million pounds due to 2019 outflows, clients switching to lower-fee assets, and a scheduled withdrawal of assets by Lloyds Banking Group. SLA said it would pay an interim dividend of 7.3 pence per share, unchanged from a year ago but above a forecast 6.8 pence. – Nampa/ReutersRichemont seeks share capital increaseRichemont, the owner of Cartier, gave details of its proposed shareholders' loyalty scheme on Friday, where it will give warrants to investors which later can be converted into newly created stock.The luxury goods maker said it would ask shareholders at its annual general meeting on Sept. 9 to authorise the creation of new shares which can be exchanged for the warrants after three years.Richemont proposed the scheme to preserve cash during the Covid-19 pandemic after halving its dividend to 1 Swiss franc per share.Richemont said in May it was examining a warrant scheme when it announced its full-year results.The company said last month it had seen "unprecedented levels of disruption" from the pandemic with its sales almost halving in the three months to June 30. – Nampa/ReutersRio Tinto sacred cave blast worth US$135 mlnRio Tinto was able to reach high grade iron ore worth about US$135 million with the blasting of two sacred caves in Western Australia, the global miner's chief executive told a government enquiry on Friday.Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques told a senate probe into the destruction of the culturally significant site in May that the company had four options for its mine plan and chose the most valuable one."The difference between option 4 and the other three options was in the vicinity of 8 million tonnes of high grade iron ore. The economic value at the time of the decision ... was around $135 million of net present value," he said.Jacques earlier apologised for the destruction of the site, which showed evidence of 46 000 years of continual habitation, saying there was no doubt the company could have made better decisions. – Nampa/ReutersHuawei to stop making flagship chipsetsHuawei Technologies Co will stop making its flagship Kirin chipsets next month, financial magazine Caixin said on Saturday, as the impact of US pressure on the Chinese tech giant grows.US pressure on Huawei's suppliers has made it impossible for the company's HiSilicon chip division to keep making the chipsets, key components for mobile phone, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Unit was quoted as saying at the launch of the company's new Mate 40 handset.With US-China relations at their worst in decades, Washington is pressing governments around to world to squeeze Huawei out, arguing it would hand over data to the Chinese government for spying. Huawei denies it spies for China."From Sept. 15 onward, our flagship Kirin processors cannot be produced," Yu said, according to Caixin. "Our AI-powered chips also cannot be processed. This is a huge loss for us."Huawei's HiSilicon division relies on software from US companies such as Cadence Design Systems Inc or Synopsys Inc to design its chips and it outsources the production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which uses equipment from US companies. – Nampa/Reuters

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