Company news in brief
MTN to appeal Syrian court ruling
South Africa's MTN Group said on Friday it intended to appeal a ruling from the Administrative Court of Damascus to place the company's Syrian business under judicial guardianship and was also considering other steps.
The latest lawsuit is an added headache for the mobile operator, whose entry into the Middle East has been marred by allegations, which it has denied, that it used bribes to win a 15-year operating licence in Iran and also that it aided militant groups in Afghanistan.
The company said a lawsuit was filed to the court by the Syrian ministry of telecommunications and the Syrian Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority earlier this month, seeking interim measures against MTN Syria.
The Syrian State Council said on Thursday this was after MTN had violated its obligations in its licensing contract, which deprived the Treasury of 21.5% of the total revenues.
This comes as MTN is planning to sell its stake in MTN Syria to TeleInvest as part of plans to exit the Middle East in the medium term. – Nampa/Reuters
Steinhoff agrees sale, lease-back of properties
South African retail group Steinhoff is to sell the properties of its European subsidiary Conforama Iberia and lease them back, it said on Friday, as part of efforts to cut debt and pay back creditors.
Conforama Iberia, a furniture and homeware retailer with operations in Spain and Portugal, has entered into a binding offer of 107 million euro for its properties, Steinhoff said, without naming the buyer.
South Africa-headquartered, Dutch-registered Steinhoff said its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation), a measure of operational profit, fell by 21% to 578 million euro in the year ending Sept. 30, from 733 million euro in 2019.
Revenue fell 2% to 7.9 billion euro in the period after store closures related to Covid-19.
Steinhoff's Johannesburg-listed shares closed 1.52% lower at R1.95, valuing the group at around R8.4 billion, a dramatic fall for the company that was valued at more than R230 billion before the scandal broke. – Nampa/Reuters
Debswana expects higher diamond output
Diamond producer Debswana aims to increase output by 38% this year to pre-pandemic levels of 23 million carats, a company official said on Friday, as the global diamond market recovers with the easing of travel restrictions and jewellers reopen.
Jointly owned by Anglo American unit De Beers and the Botswana government, Debswana cut production by 29% to 16.6 million carats in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic hurt demand and global travel restrictions affected trading.
De Beers, which gets on average 70% of its supply from Botswana, says it plans to ramp up production from 25 million carats in 2020 to a guidance of 32-34 million carats this year.
De Beers' first rough diamond sale of the year in January generated US$650 million, an 18% rise year-on-year and the highest amount since 2018, as cutting and polishing firms restocked after the Christmas and Chinese New Year holiday season. – Nampa/Reuters
South Africa's MTN Group said on Friday it intended to appeal a ruling from the Administrative Court of Damascus to place the company's Syrian business under judicial guardianship and was also considering other steps.
The latest lawsuit is an added headache for the mobile operator, whose entry into the Middle East has been marred by allegations, which it has denied, that it used bribes to win a 15-year operating licence in Iran and also that it aided militant groups in Afghanistan.
The company said a lawsuit was filed to the court by the Syrian ministry of telecommunications and the Syrian Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority earlier this month, seeking interim measures against MTN Syria.
The Syrian State Council said on Thursday this was after MTN had violated its obligations in its licensing contract, which deprived the Treasury of 21.5% of the total revenues.
This comes as MTN is planning to sell its stake in MTN Syria to TeleInvest as part of plans to exit the Middle East in the medium term. – Nampa/Reuters
Steinhoff agrees sale, lease-back of properties
South African retail group Steinhoff is to sell the properties of its European subsidiary Conforama Iberia and lease them back, it said on Friday, as part of efforts to cut debt and pay back creditors.
Conforama Iberia, a furniture and homeware retailer with operations in Spain and Portugal, has entered into a binding offer of 107 million euro for its properties, Steinhoff said, without naming the buyer.
South Africa-headquartered, Dutch-registered Steinhoff said its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation), a measure of operational profit, fell by 21% to 578 million euro in the year ending Sept. 30, from 733 million euro in 2019.
Revenue fell 2% to 7.9 billion euro in the period after store closures related to Covid-19.
Steinhoff's Johannesburg-listed shares closed 1.52% lower at R1.95, valuing the group at around R8.4 billion, a dramatic fall for the company that was valued at more than R230 billion before the scandal broke. – Nampa/Reuters
Debswana expects higher diamond output
Diamond producer Debswana aims to increase output by 38% this year to pre-pandemic levels of 23 million carats, a company official said on Friday, as the global diamond market recovers with the easing of travel restrictions and jewellers reopen.
Jointly owned by Anglo American unit De Beers and the Botswana government, Debswana cut production by 29% to 16.6 million carats in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic hurt demand and global travel restrictions affected trading.
De Beers, which gets on average 70% of its supply from Botswana, says it plans to ramp up production from 25 million carats in 2020 to a guidance of 32-34 million carats this year.
De Beers' first rough diamond sale of the year in January generated US$650 million, an 18% rise year-on-year and the highest amount since 2018, as cutting and polishing firms restocked after the Christmas and Chinese New Year holiday season. – Nampa/Reuters
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