Company news in brief

Gold Fields CEO defends takeoverThe top leaders involved in this year’s biggest gold mining deal are defending their transaction after a top investor called into question the takeover.South Africa’s Gold Fields is seeking investor approval for its all-stock deal to buy Canadian miner Yamana Gold, a deal currently valued at C$6.8 billion (R91 billion). Some shareholders, however, have balked at the premium and structure of the transaction.“It was not unexpected that this would take time for the market to understand,” Gold Fields CEO Chris Griffith said Friday in a TV interview with BNN Bloomberg. “There was quite a large shareholder base saying we don’t understand this.”Griffith says he “remains confident in our deal” and hopes to get the majority of investors on board by the time shareholders vote on the transaction. The Johannesburg-based miner will start international road shows to tout the deal starting this week. Yamana shareholders vote on the deal on Nov. 21, while Gold Fields investors vote on Nov. 22.“This is a great deal both in the short term for Yamana shareholders - who will get the growth and the cash flow of Gold Fields - and in the long term for Gold Fields, which will get the benefit of the portfolio of growth projects that come with the Yamana assets,” Griffith said. – Fin 24/BloombergDRC returns passports of VodacomThe Democratic Republic of Congo returned passports to phone-company executives after they agreed to sign up to a controversial new tax law, according to people familiar with the matter.The deal was brokered with the African nation’s four major carriers - Orange SA, Airtel Africa Plc, Vodacom Group Ltd. and Africell Holding SAL - and was negotiated after the government banned executives from leaving the country, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous as the information is still private. While the framework of the agreement is similar to the initial demand, a cap has been placed on how much operators can owe the state, said the people. The limit is set at US$65 million next year and US$70 million annually from 2024, divided up between the companies according to their market share, they said.The carriers initially rejected the levy as “irregular and therefore unenforceable,” the Federation des Entreprises du Congo, the country’s main business association, said previously. Congo’s plan to increase takings from telecom operators follows numerous similar initiatives around Africa, where phone companies carry great influence due to their revenue-generating mobile-money services. For their part, wireless carriers argue that taking more of their profit will force them to cut investment. – Fin24/BloombergMusk to form Twitter ‘content moderation council’Elon Musk has announced that he plans to form a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints” at Twitter in his first policy act after taking over the social media company on Friday, stressing that no changes to the platform’s moderation policies have been made so far.“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” the outspoken billionaire businessman said amid concerns that former US president Donald Trump’s account might be reinstated.“To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies,” he added in a later tweet.Twitter formally became the private property of Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, on Friday, steering the platform down an uncertain path under the stewardship of one of its most vocal critics.Scrutiny quickly turned to how the platform will operate under a self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist who some users fear will turn Twitter into a global stage for hate speech and disinformation. – Fin24/Aljazeera

Company news in brief

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Company news in brief

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