COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Kenya's Equity Group launches loan facility Kenya's Equity Group Holdings said on Wednesday it had launched a lending facility worth 75 billion Kenyan shillings (US$685 million) to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) recover from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic."For the SMEs that have been out of business for a year, working capital has been depleted," CEO James Mwangi said at a news conference in the capital Nairobi.Kenya's second biggest lender also operates in South Sudan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.In the first nine months of 2020, its pre-tax profit fell to 19.76 billion shillings from 24.79 billion shillings in the same period of 2019.Over the same timeframe, its loan book grew 30% to 453.9 billion shillings, while customer deposits increased 45% to 691 billion.Last year, Kenya's central bank governor said SMEs needed urgent help to survive the economic slowdown triggered by the pandemic, and that many were at risk of shutting down. - Nampa/ReutersDenel board exits linked to lack of budget fundsA series of resignations from the board of directors of South Africa's state-owned defence company Denel is linked to funding not being made available in the government's 2021 budget, a senior official told Reuters on Wednesday."There were expectations from the board that there will be funding made available in the budget speech," said Kgathatso Tlhakudi, director-general of the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE). "When that was not forthcoming, they felt that they could not stay on."Denel, which makes military equipment for South Africa's armed forces and for export, has faced a liquidity crunch aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2021 budget presented in parliament last week, the National Treasury did not allocate it new bailout funds.Tlhakudi added in an interview that the DPE, the main ministry responsible for Denel, believed the company had peripheral assets that could be sold off before agreeing strategic equity partnerships (SEP)."Let's aim for the low-hanging fruit before we aim for that SEP process. There are peripheral assets that can be disposed of, dispose of those, we can't want to go to the core of the business when there are non-core assets that can be gotten rid of," he said. - Nampa/ReutersExxon commits to dividend growthExxon Mobil Corp said on Wednesday it will grow its dividend and cut debt through 2025, ahead of a closely watched investor meeting that comes a month after the top US oil and gas producer reported a historic annual loss.In the recent months, the company has faced immense pressure from investors who want it to do more to rein in spending and cut carbon emissions.Exxon and the rest of the oil industry endured one of the worst market downturns last year as the Covid-19 pandemic hammered energy prices and forced shale operators to slash the value of their assets by billions of dollars.The company reaffirmed its plans to keep capital spending between US$16 billion and US$19 billion in 2021 and between US$20 billion and US$25 billion a year through 2025 on high return.Separately, Exxon has also announced a 7% reduction in its Singapore workforce and detailed a plan to achieve $6 billion in annual savings by the end of 2023.- Nampa/ReutersSoftBank aims to double PayPay users SoftBank aims to double user numbers at its PayPay QR code payment app in the next three to four years, an executive at its domestic internet subsidiary Z Holdings told Reuters on Wednesday, as it seeks to extend its lead in cashless payments.PayPay has used SoftBank's sales network and aggressive rebates to attract 36 million users in the three years since launch, driving a shift to push Japanese consumers to digital payments away from their traditional preference for cash."We want to double the user base during the investment phase," Z Holdings co-CEO Kentaro Kawabe said in a joint interview with fellow co-CEO Takeshi Idezawa.The two executives, dressed in matching red and green ties, spoke following the completion of the merger of internet business Yahoo Japan with chat app operator Line - putting the latter's 86 million domestic users under SoftBank's umbrella.Z Holdings announced on Monday that Line Pay, which has 39 million users but is less widely used and has signed up fewer merchants, would be merged with PayPay in 2022.- Nampa/ReutersLufthansa reports smaller than expected lossDeutsche Lufthansa yesterday posted a smaller-than-expected net loss in the fourth quarter and forecast an operating loss in 2021 below last year’s level.The German carrier said its net loss came at 1.14 billion euros (US$1.37 billion), above the company’s analyst consensus for a loss of 1.24 billion euros in the October-to-December period.Fourth quarter adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) came at -1.29 billion euros, also better than the analyst forecast.The airline, which secured 9 billion euros in state aid last year, said it expects 2021 capacity on offer of 40% to 50% of 2019 levels and an average monthly operating cash drain of around 300 million euros in the first quarter of 2021.- Nampa/Reuters

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