Company news in brief

Ford compensates SA owners for SUV firesUS automaker Ford has paid out cash damages to dozens of South African car owners after of its Kuga SUVs caught fire due to a manufacturing fault, a consumer watchdog said Thursday.The National Consumer Commission which mediated between the carmaker and consumers said out of 53 claims that were lodged, 47 accepted a payment of R50 000 each.Three others turned down the offer and opted to go to court to seek greater compensation, while another three claims were rejected because they failed to "prove that their loss fell within the parameters of settlement agreement," said the consumer commission.The company said the fires were caused by overheating due to poor coolant circulation that led to an oil leak. The fault forced Ford to recall 4 500 cars from South African roads.Separately, the car giant was slapped with a R35 million fine over the fires by South Africa's consumer watchdog last year. – Nampa/AFPZambia to appeal Vedanta court rulingZambia's state mining arm ZCCM-IH plans to appeal a court ruling in favour of Vedanta, which has sought arbitration in a dispute over its jointly owned copper mine that is facing liquidation, the mining minister said.India-based Vedanta has been locked in a protracted dispute with the Zambian government since May 2019, when Lusaka appointed a liquidator for the mine."ZCCM-IH has already indicated that they are appealing because they are not happy with the court judgment," mining minister Richard Musukwa told parliament on Thursday.A Zambian court recently ordered a halt to liquidation proceedings for Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) to allow Vedanta and ZCCM-IH, which owns 20% of the operation, to proceed to arbitration.Potential buyers of KCM were awaiting a resolution to the dispute, Musukwa said, adding that steps taken by the government should not be "considered as nationalism". – Nampa/ReutersCentum sees improvement after H1 lossKenya's Centum Investment Company expects a better second half performance, lifted by a resumption in dividend payments from some of the companies it has shares in, its chief executive said after it posted a first-half loss.Centum swung to a loss in the six months to Sept. 30 due to pandemic-induced market uncertainty, though the lean performance was offset by its cash and marketable securities holdings.The company, which owns shares in listed and non-listed companies in manufacturing, banking and publishing, had a pre-tax loss of 2.05 billion shillings (US$18.67 million) in the first half from a 7.72 billion shilling profit in the same period last year.Centum said income for the six months ended Sept. 30 fell to 433.5 million shillings from 12.4 billion shillings last year.The company said earlier it was confident it would withstand the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to its holdings in cash and marketable securities and minimal exposure to listed firms. – Nampa/ReutersHSBC considers exit from US retail bankingHSBC Holdings Plc is considering a complete exit from retail banking in the United States after narrowing the options for how to improve performance at its struggling North America business, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.The bank's senior management aim to present the plan to the board in the coming weeks, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the situation. HSBC declined to comment on the report.HSBC said last month it planned to reduce annual costs to below US$31 billion by 2022, a more ambitious target than it set out in February and well below the operating expenses of US$42.3 billion it reported in 2019.The bank also said it would also accelerate the transformation of its US business, where it has long struggled to compete with much bigger players. – Nampa/ReutersDisney increases planned layoffsWalt Disney Co said last week it would lay off about 32 000 workers, primarily at its theme parks, an increase from the 28 000 it announced in September, as the company struggles with limited customers due to the coronavirus pandemic.The layoffs will be in the first half of 2021, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A spokesman for Disney confirmed that the latest figures include the 28 000 layoffs announced earlier.Earlier this month, Disney said it was furloughing additional workers from its theme park in Southern California due to uncertainty over when the state would allow parks to reopen.Disney's theme parks in Florida and those outside the United States reopened earlier this year without seeing new major coronavirus outbreaks but with strict social distancing, testing and mask use.Disneyland Paris was forced to close again late last month when France imposed a new lockdown to fight a second wave of the coronavirus cases. The company's theme parks in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo remain open. – Nampa/Reuters

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