COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

SA's Absa CEO in discussions to leaveAbsa Group Chief Executive Daniel Mminele is in talks with the board on an agreement to leave the South African bank, the company said on Tuesday, sending its shares down almost 4%.Mminele took over at Absa, one of the continent's biggest banks, less than two years ago, and has been responsible for driving a turnaround plan that was largely put in place before his arrival, although he made some changes to strategy.Business Day newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing sources, that Mminele would step down due to differences of opinion on the bank's strategic direction.Absa said in a brief statement that the board had been in discussions with Mminele around his working relationship with them and a further announcement would be made later on Tuesday."Mr Mminele and the board are working on a suitable separation agreement," the bank said, without elaborating. An Absa spokeswoman declined to comment further. Mminele could not immediately be reached for comment. -Nampa/ReutersJohnson & Johnson's sales increasesJohnson & Johnson, whose Covid-19 vaccine was put on pause last week to review reports of rare blood clots, reported US$100 million in first-quarter sales of the shot on Tuesday and tightened its forecast for profits this year.The company has previously said the vaccine will be available on a not-for-profit basis until the end of the pandemic.The company now expects full-year adjusted profit of US$9.42 to US$9.57 per share from its prior forecast of US$9.40 to US$9.60 per share, after sales of its cancer drugs helped quarterly profit rise nearly 7%.Net earnings rose to US$6.20 billion, or US$2.32 per share, in the first quarter from US$5.80 billion, or US$2.17 per share, a year earlier.The company's Covid-19 vaccine use was delayed by US regulators last week as they review reports of rare but serious blood clots in recipients. - Nampa/ReutersHammerson appoints new finance chiefHammerson on Tuesday named a new finance chief and said the number of visitors at its shopping malls in England in the past week had risen to around 80% of 2019 levels after restrictions were eased.Malls, restaurants and pubs were allowed to reopen on April 12 in England after multiple lockdowns in the past year.The owner of the Brent Cross shopping centre and the Bullring in Birmingham said footfall in the past week was at about 80% of levels seen in April 2019 as it looks to recover from lockdowns which slashed sales last year.So far it had collected 40% of the second-quarter rents that are due at group level, Hammerson said.In France and other regions where Hammerson operates, however, it said market conditions remained challenging as it still faces pandemic-related restrictions. Hammerson's portfolio spans seven countries. Its London-listed shares were down 3.4% by 0816 GMT. - Nampa/ReutersExxon floats US$100 bln storage project Exxon Mobil on Monday floated a proposal for a public-private carbon storage project that would collect planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from US petrochemical plants and bury them in deep under the Gulf of Mexico.The plan would require "US$100 billion or more" from companies and government agencies to store 50 million metric tons of CO2 by 2030, with capacity potentially doubling by 2040, Joe Blommaert, president of Exxon's Low Carbon Solutions business, said in an interview.Blommaert outlined the plan on Monday, about two months after the largest US oil producer appointed him to run a new Low Carbon Solutions business that could profit from selling carbon-reduction technology and services.Houston has a large concentration of "hard-to-decarbonize" industry near the Gulf, said Blommaert. "We could create an economy of scale where we can reduce the cost of the carbon dioxide mitigation, create jobs and reduce the emissions," he said. - Nampa/ReutersUzbekistan, Dutch firm sign US$1.2 bln dealUzbekistan has signed a US$1.2 billion deal for a Dutch-registered company to build a 1 560-megawatt gas turbine power plant in the Central Asian nation, the Uzbek energy ministry said on Tuesday.The company, Stone City Energy, says on its website it is a special-purpose vehicle set up to develop power generation projects in Uzbekistan. It does not disclose its founders.Stone City will design, finance, build, commission, operate and manage the power plant for 25 years after launching it at the end of 2024."The thermal power plant will employ the latest technologies, including modern HL class steam and gas units manufactured by Siemens Energy, which will save 1.1 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually," the ministry said in a statement.A site for the plant has been allocated on 150 hectares of land, in the Angora district of the Surkhandarya region in Uzbekistan's southeast.The ministry said in a separate statement it was in talks with Electricite de France on projects such as the construction of Uzbekistan's first pumped storage power plant. - Nampa/Reuters

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