COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Eskom lenders hire PwC Lenders to Eskom have hired financial advisers as South Africa’s state-owned power utility restructures its business.The banks asked consultants at PricewaterhouseCoopers to assist them with negotiations, said people familiar with the matter, who aren’t authorised to talk about it and asked not to be identified. Representatives for Eskom and PwC didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Bondholders appointed advisers Moelis & Co. and law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld earlier this year. Eskom is working with its own adviser Lazardto split its transmission, generation and distribution units to help manage its debt and improve performance.In order to implement the unbundling of the transmission units, Eskom needs the consent from some of its lenders, according to a presentation to investors in June. The company issued a formal request of consent to all necessary creditors earlier this year. The latest appointment comes as the utility and government face mounting criticism for South Africa’s worst-ever blackouts. Eskom’s plants, responsible for supplying more than 90% of the country’s electricity, keep breaking down. The company recently revamped its board to tackle the crisis.-Fin24Clicks ups dividendClicks, which has a footprint of 840 stores, has upped its full-year dividend by almost a third after achieving double-digit retail sales growth. A recovery of beauty products supported this as South Africans spent more time outside their homes, and despite "severe headwinds" such as the July 2021 riots and intense load shedding.The JSE-listed pharmaceutical retailer reported on Thursday that headline earnings rose 32% to R2.55 billion in its year to end-August, also getting a boost as it supported the rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations, lifting turnover by R1.1 billion, as well as an expansion of its store base. It said it was the largest vaccination provider in the private sector, having administered more than 3.5-million doses.But, while it indicated it was continuing with its expansion strategy, increasing its target to 1 200 stores from 900 over the long term, Clicks also struck a cautious note, saying that trading conditions "will remain extremely constrained owing to the increasing pressures on consumer disposable income in the current low growth, high inflationary environment".CEO Bertina Engelbrecht said in a statement that the pharmacy group had to contend not only with the effects of the July 2021 civil unrest on retail trading, but also much higher levels of load shedding in the second half of the year and depressed consumer spending."The performance for the year highlights the resilience of the group’s business model and the defensiveness of our core retail categories," she said.-Fin24

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