COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Standard Bank plans to increase stakes in Nigeria and Angola businessesStandard Bank, Africa&#039;s biggest lender by assets, is looking to increase stakes it holds in businesses in Angola and Nigeria, its CEO said on Thursday.The Angolan government is planning to sell as much as a 34% stake in Standard Bank de Angola SA through an initial public offering, according to a presidential decree, after seizing a 49% stake that was controlled by a former insurance tycoon who is serving a nine-year prison term.South Africa-based Standard Bank Group owns the remaining 51% and has the right to buy an additional 24% stake in the Angolan business."We are going through a process where we are putting our best foot forward and therefore would increase our shareholding if all goes well," CEO Sim Tshabalala told Reuters in an interview."In Nigeria we are again wanting to increase our shareholding in the business. It&#039;s a great business," he added, without saying by how much.Standard Bank owns 67.55% of Stanbic according to LSEG data.Standard Bank, with operations in 20 African countries, is hoping to be at the forefront of growth opportunities unlocked by energy transition projects in key regions on the continent, including East Africa.-REUTERS-Exxaro nears deal to pivot its business - even as coal is &#039;strangely enduring&#039;Exxaro Resources is inching closer to an acquisition to diversify its business away from coal and into future-facing commodities with a deal likely to be progressed within the next six months.The group first announced plans to diversify out of coal and iron ore into future-facing commodities in 2021, with hopes to finalise a deal by 2024, but it noted on Thursday that the coal business is excelling amid "strangely enduring" demand. In addition to this, in targeting commodities like copper, manganese, and even bauxite, the miner has found the merger and acquisitions environment more complex than it imagined.-FIN24-Stadio bullish over results Private higher education group Stadio flagged a between 14% and 24.3% rise in core headline earnings per share for its six months to end-June, while headline earnings per share could rise by over a quarter. The group didn&#039;t go into details, but it had reported a 10% climb in student numbers for its 2023 year when it said it&#039;s increasingly confident a comprehensive offering is making it a first choice for many school leavers. Shares in the group, valued at about R4.5 billion on the JSE, were down almost 3% on Thursday afternoon, but have gained more than 11% in the past 12 months.-FIN24-Alibaba reports fall in profit Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba reported a 29% fall in quarterly profit on Thursday as it battles sluggish consumption during an economic slowdown. The company&#039;s net income attributable to shareholders came in at 24.3 billion yuan (about R60 billion) in the quarter ending 30 June, Alibaba said in its filing, down from 34.3 billion yuan in the same period in 2023. Alibaba runs some of China&#039;s most popular e-commerce apps and its performance is widely considered an indicator of broader economic trends. China released another series of disappointing indicators on Thursday despite recent government measures to boost growth. Alibaba&#039;s revenue for the first quarter was 243.2 billion yuan, up 4% from the previous year. The firm&#039;s results contrast starkly with rival shopping app operator JD.com, which announced a whopping 92.1% increase in profit for the past quarter. - AFP.Aldi to end click, collect service Aldi UK, Britain&#039;s fourth largest supermarket group, is to end its click and collect service that was introduced at the height of the pandemic, the company said on Thursday. Launched in September 2020, the service was initially introduced in response to the online grocery shopping boom that was fuelled by the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. It is currently available in 174 stores out of Aldi&#039;s UK total of 1 020, but the service will end on 18 August. Unlike its traditional supermarket rivals - market leader Tesco, Sainsbury&#039;s, Asda and Morrisons - Aldi does not offer a home delivery service. Online&#039;s share of Britain&#039;s total grocery market was about 7% before the onset of the pandemic in 2020. It peaked at about 15% during the pandemic, and is currently just under 13%, according to industry data. Aldi, owned by Germany&#039;s Aldi Sud, and fellow discounter Lidl have expanded rapidly over the past two decades, transforming the UK supermarket scene and forcing traditional players to compete more aggressively. However, recent industry data showed Aldi&#039;s UK market share has edged lower. - ReutersAlphabet expands AI business to six new countries Google parent Alphabet said on Thursday it was expanding its AI-generated summaries for search queries to six new countries, just two months after it rolled back some capabilities following a problem-riddled launch. The search giant made AI Overviews - which are displayed atop a search results page before traditional links to the Web - available to all US users in May after spending one year trialling a limited earlier version. The feature was widely panned after screenshots of factually inaccurate answers circulated across the internet, such as a pizza recipe that listed glue as an ingredient and an answer claiming that former US President Barack Obama is Muslim. Google acknowledged the "odd and erroneous overviews" and announced updates to the product in a blog post in late May. These updates added restrictions to which queries would display AI answers and curbed user-generated content from websites like Reddit from serving as source material for answers. — ReutersUS Securities and Exchange commission impose multi-billion dollar fines US regulators imposed fines totalling almost $393 million (about R7 billion) on more than two dozen financial firms after a probe found they had failed to retain electronic communications as required by federal law. The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlements on Wednesday, accusing the 26 financial institutions of "widespread and long-standing failures" to follow communications protocols. The fines of $392.75 million add to the billions banks have already been sanctioned over improper use of personal phones and messaging services such as WhatsApp. "Each of the SEC&#039;s investigations uncovered pervasive and longstanding use of unapproved communication methods, known as off-channel communications, at these firms," Wall Street&#039;s government watchdog and rule enforcer said in a statement announcing the settlements. "These failures involved personnel at multiple levels of authority, including supervisors and senior managers," it said. Four companies, Ameriprise Financial Services, Edward D. Jones & Co., LPL Financial and Raymond James & Associates, have each agreed to pay a $50 million penalty. Among the other companies fined is a unit of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), which will have to pay $45 million, and Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, which will pay $40 million. - AFP

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