COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Eskom offers workers wage increase

South African state power utility Eskom on Monday said it was offering a wage increase of 1.5% to workers, far below the above-inflation demands made by its trade unions.

The struggling company, which produces the vast majority of the power in Africa's most industrialised nation, has previously warned that disputes during the current round of wage negotiations could impact its ability to supply electricity.

It began wage talks with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and Solidarity early this month.

NUM demanded a salary increase of 15% in the 2021/22 financial year but would also consider a multi-year agreement, while NUMSA wants a one-year 15% salary increase and Solidarity is seeking a 9.5% annual increase over multiple years.

Eskom said in a statement that its wage offer was conditional on labour representatives accepting amendments to staff conditions of employment including overtime rates and travel time. -Nampa/Reuters

South Africa's Redefine earnings fall

South Africa's Redefine Properties reported a 62.7% decline in half-year headline earnings on Monday, due to asset sales and further rental relief to financially distressed tenants and said that it may pay a dividend.

The owner of retail, office and industrial properties said headline earnings per share, the main profit measure in South Africa, fell to 8.45 cents in the six-months that ended Feb 28, from 22.63 cents a year earlier.

During the period, total relief granted to its tenants amounted to R107.3 million (US$7.58 million), made up of rental discounts of 81.5 million rand and deferred rental payments of 25.8 million rand, Redefine said.

The group's retail tenants, particularly travel agents and cinemas were the most impacted, with hairdressers and beauty salons still battling to recover, it said. Redefine sold assets for R4 billion and deconsolidated its European Logistics Investment B.V. (ELI), which also contributed to the 30.8% decline in total revenue to R3.3 billion.

The asset sales, however, helped the diversified Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) reduce its debt levels or loan-to-value ratio (LTV), which measures the ratio of a company's debt and its assets, by 3.6% to 44.3%, well within debt covenants. - Nampa/Reuters

T&T, Discovery deal puts pressure on rivals

AT&T Inc's US$43 billion deal on Monday to spin out its Warner Media business and combine it with Discovery Inc was among the most ambitious yet in the streaming era. Media bankers and analysts said it will not be the last.

The agreement adds Discovery's 15 million subscribers to the 64 million subscribers that WarnerMedia's HBO Max has globally. The size of the subscriber base drives revenue and the budget for new content.

The bigger scale of the combined company gives it a fighting chance against Netflix Inc and Walt Disney Co., which have 207.6 million and 103.6 million subscribers, respectively.

But the deal leaves the remaining streaming players notably ViacomCBS Inc and Comcast Corp's NBCUniversal vulnerable.

ViacomCBS reaches about 36 million people through its streaming platforms. NBCUniversal does not report total subscribers for its Peacock service. But Chief Executive Jeff Shell said in April that one-third of sign-ups were monthly active accounts, which works out to 14 million households-Nampa/Reuters

Vantage profit in line with guidance

Vantage Towers, the infrastructure unit of Britain's Vodafone, on Monday reported modest growth in underlying revenue and core profit that was in line with its own guidance in its first full-year results since floating on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

Revenue grew by 2.2% to 966 million euros (US$1.2 billion) on a proforma basis in the year to March 31, within its 955-970-million-euro guidance range but just shy of median forecasts by analysts of 971 million euros according to Refinitiv.

Core profit, measured as EBITDA after leases, rose by 2.1% to 524 million euros, Vantage said.

"We have fully delivered on our FY21 operation and financial targets and we remain focused on commercializing our business and delivering our medium-term targets," Chief Executive Officer Vivek Badrinath said of the results.

Badrinath highlighted an increase in Vantage's so-called tenancy ratio the number of antennae on each site as a validation of its core strategy of investing in organic growth while opportunistically eyeing acquisitions. -Nampa/Reuters

Amazon in talks to buy MGM movie studio

Amazon.com Inc is in talks to acquire the iconic US movie studio MGM, The Information reported on Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The status of Amazon's discussions with MGM is unclear and it is possible no deal may result, the report said.

The movie studio behind the "James Bond" franchise, also owns the Epix cable channel and makes TV shows, including popular shows like The Handmaid's Tale, Fargo, Vikings and Shark Tank.

Amazon declined to comment on the report, saying it "doesn't comment on rumours or speculation".

In December, Reuters reported that the movie studio was exploring a sale and had tapped investment banks Morgan Stanley and LionTree LLC and started a formal sale process. -Nampa/Reuters