COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

MultiChoice's Showmax invests in AfricaMultiChoice's online streaming platform Showmax is investing in producing its own local content for African audiences as it competes for their attention against Netflix on the continent, a senior executive told Reuters.MultiChoice is Africa's largest pay-TV group, available in 50 African countries. Its streaming service Showmax, launched in 2015, is available in 46 African countries and also in several Western countries, including Britain and France, which have sizeable African diaspora populations.The company is focusing on developing movies and shows set in its biggest markets of Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, senior executive Yolisa Phahle said in an interview."For us, it really is about getting the local entertainment which we know African audiences enjoy, programming in their languages, stories reflecting their realities, their hopes and their dreams," said Phahle.The company released six new original productions last year to add to its catalogue of content from the US-based cable channel HBO.- Nampa/ReutersADM posts 76% Q1 profit jumpArcher Daniels Midland Co reported a 76% jump in first-quarter profit on Tuesday as robust import demand from China and strong oilseed crushing margins boosted the US grains merchant's core agricultural services and oilseeds unit.The company forecast "significant year-over-year growth" in 2021 as coronavirus vaccinations accelerate and pandemic restrictions continue to ease on some markets, lifting demand for the company's food, feed and biofuel products.ADM results offered an early glimpse into how the world's largest grain traders are emerging from the pandemic that triggered massive shifts in food and fuel demand as consumers cooked more meals at home and avoided unnecessary travel.Further easing of pandemic restrictions are expected to benefit agribusinesses like ADM and its rivals Bunge Ltd, Cargill Inc and Louis Dreyfus Co, known as the ABCD quartet of grain trading giants."We are seeing clear, favourable demand trends for many of our products, and we expect that pattern to continue as vaccine rollouts accelerate and restrictions ease," ADM's Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano said in a statement. - Nampa/ReutersMastercard to launch crypto credit cardMastercard Inc and US cryptocurrency exchange Gemini will launch the first credit card that gives users digital currency "rewards" on purchases this year, deepening the involvement of major payment firms in the emerging asset class.Users of the card will from this summer receive up to 3% in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies on their purchases, the companies said in a statement, with the digital currency deposited in the cardholder's Gemini account.The card will be issued by WebBank, a Utah-based digital lender. Payment giants from Mastercard and Visa Inc to PayPal Holdings Inc have stepped up their engagement with cryptocurrencies in recent months, as larger investors and companies warm to bitcoin and its kin.Mastercard said in February it was planning to offer support for some cryptocurrencies on its network this year, while Visa will also allow the use of cryptocurrency to settle transactions on its payment network."As consumers go about spending in various acceptance locations, now they get a chance to earn reward in the form of crypto," Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard's head of digital assets and blockchain products & partnerships, said. - Nampa/ReutersBP to resume share buybacks BP's profit more than tripled to US$2.6 billion in the first quarter thanks to stronger oil prices and bumper revenue from natural gas trading, paving the way for the energy company to start buying back its shares.The jump in profits from a year earlier comes as BP says it expects oil demand to recover in 2021 due to strong growth in the United States and China as Covid-19 vaccination programmes accelerate.In a sign of growing confidence in the economic recovery and its operations following a year of cutting costs, headcount and its dividend, BP said it will buy back US$500 million of shares in the second quarter to offset dilution from an employee share distribution programme.Helping it deliver on its earlier promise to buy back shares, net debt fell below the company's US$35 billion target sooner than expected, dropping US$5.6 billion from the end of December to US$33.3 billion at the end of March.The company said it would provide an update on the third quarter buyback programme later this year. - Nampa/ReutersNomura posts biggest quarterly loss Nomura Holdings Inc reported on Tuesday a US$2.3 billion hit from the collapse of US investment fund Archegos, causing it to log its biggest quarterly net loss since the 2008 global financial crisis.Japan's biggest brokerage and investment bank said while it expects to book a further US$570 million in charges related to Archegos this financial year and would be beefing up its risk controls, it saw the debacle as an isolated incident."We are not planning to make major changes to our US and global business strategy," Nomura CEO Kentaro Okuda told a media briefing.Its January-March net loss came in at 155.4 billion yen (US$1.4 billion). That compares with a 34.4-billion-yen loss a year earlier when global stock markets were battered by the coronavirus pandemic.Before Archegos failed to meet margin calls on heavily leveraged stock bets last month, Nomura had been on track for record annual profit, bolstered by a buoyant US trading business. -Nampa/Reuters

COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

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