COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Shell to take a nearly R73bn hitBritish energy giant Shell warned on Thursday that it would take a hit of up to US$5 billion (around R73 billion) on its exit from Russia, following Moscow&#039;s invasion of Ukraine.Impairment from assets and additional charges relating to Russia activities were expected to be between US$4 billion and US$5 billion in the first quarter, Shell said in a statement after recently signalling its gradual withdrawal.The news comes after the London-listed energy major announced in late February that it would sell its stakes in all joint ventures with Russian state energy giant Gazprom after the Kremlin launched its assault on Ukraine.The group said at the time that the ventures were worth about US$3 billion.Shell then announced in March that it would withdraw from Russian gas and oil in line with UK government policy, and also immediately stopped purchases of its crude on the spot market.The company had also apologised for buying a cargo of Russian oil at a vast discount, adding that it should not have happened. -Fin24MC Mining’s interim CEO steps downMC Mining&#039;s Sam Randazzo will step down as executive director ahead of an extraordinary AGM to discuss his removal.The company announced Randazzo would step down as executive director, effective close of business on Friday.He has however agreed to continue in the role of interim CEO while the board identifies a suitable replacement.Randazzo served as interim CEO since February 2021 and progressed work to secure funding for the company&#039;s flagship Makhado coking coal project.His resignation follows that of Bernard Pryor, MC Mining&#039;s board chairperson. The two were intended to face calls for their resignation at the extraordinary AGM on Monday, 11 April.Certain shareholders had called for the two to step down over protracted delays in commencing with phase one of the Makhado project. -Fin24Telkom and Icasa reach settlementTelkom and communications regulator Icasa have reached an out-of-court settlement, bringing to an end the drawn-out legal wrangling over the licensing of high-demand spectrum. In terms of the settlement agreement, Icasa will kick off the licensing of spectrum that remains unassigned in the auction by no later than 30 June 2022, with the licensing process to be concluded within the regulator&#039;s current financial year, by the end of March 2023. It has also undertaken to take into account the outcomes of the recently completed auction in its licensing of the unassigned 800 MHz. Icasa said it would conduct an inquiry that would look into a secondary market for spectrum. It would consider the findings of the Mobile Broadband Services Inquiry as well as the recent auction&#039;s outcome, and would assess whether there is a need for regulatory intervention. Telkom itself was one of the winners in the recently completed auction round, having secured over R2 billion spectrum. It nonetheless wanted the auction declared invalid, arguing that the auction process would entrench an uneven playing field in the telecommunications sector. -Fin24Absa paid Mminele more than R30mAbsa paid its former CEO Daniel Mminele R30.47 million in total as part of a termination agreement, which included almost R500 000 for his legal fees. According to the banking group&#039;s 2021 remuneration report, there was a "mutual separation agreement" between the board and Mminele to terminate his employment on a "no-fault" basis.A year ago, Mminele quit as Absa CEO following clashes with the board on how to implement the bank’s strategy. At the time, Absa chair Wendy Lucas-Bull said Absa&#039;s leadership team also didn&#039;t see eye-to-eye with Mminele on how to do things. Arrie Rautenbach has since taken over as new CEO.According to the new report, Mminele and the board agreed on a "termination payment". The bank would give Mminele both unvested short-term and unvested long-term incentives in cash payments, without tying these to any measured targets.So, the bank paid him a lump sum of R5 million in lieu of his 2020 short–term incentive and another R3.25 million for 2021 long–term incentives. It also gave the former CEO an ex-gratia or damages payment of R16.5 million. -Fin24Absa Life predicts less deadly fifth waveAbsa Life, the first bank insurer to predict that the fifth wave of Covid-19 infections might be around the corner, says it nonetheless expects the trend of milder illness to continue.The insurer set aside R423 million Covid-19 provision for the fourth and fifth wave at the end of 2021, but only one-third of that is for the coming wave.Absa Life CEO, Eugene Strauss and his team, predict that it will likely be less severe than any other waves SA has passed. "Actually, the experience has been very, very positive," he said, referring to the fourth wave claims.He said excess deaths are not as high as they used to be. The Omicron was the first to introduce a variant with a surprisingly low death rate while being more infectious."The big unknown now - and there&#039;s a lot of writing about it - is whether we are now at the point where the virus has gone from a pandemic to an endemic. I think it&#039;s too early to tell. But we&#039;ll closely monitor what the next wave does," said Strauss. -Fin24

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