COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Anglo reports first quarter copper boost

Diversified mining giant Anglo American said its first quarter output rose 9% largely due to improved copper output, with the company also keeping the 2023 guidance for its raft of minerals unchanged.

The miner, whose subsidiaries include Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Kumba Iron Ore, and diamond miner De Beers, said on Tuesday that copper production increased by 28% in the quarter as it ramped-up of production from its Quellaveco copper mine in Peru, while steelmaking coal production increased by 59% due to all three of its underground longwall mines being operational during the period.

Kumba increased its production 14% to 9.4 million tonnes, with the company benefitting from lower rainfall during the quarter. Ore railed to port by Transnet increased by 3% following the completion of outstanding maintenance and a successful spraying programme that reduced locust problems, which had impacted rail performance in the comparative period.

In a separate release, however, Kumba said its rail performance was below planned levels required to drawdown stock held at the mines.

"On the marketing front, economic activity in China strengthened on the back of pro-growth policy decisions with improved demand from China expected to offset the slowdown in other markets," Kumba CEO Mpumi Zikalala said in a statement.

"The demand outlook for our high-quality iron ore product continues to be positive given the steel intensity of the global energy transition."-Fin24

British American Tobacco to pay R12bn

British American Tobacco agreed to pay US$635.2 million (almost R12 billion) to US authorities to resolve investigations into the cigarette maker’s activities in North Korea.

The UK company reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice and a civil agreement with the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control over its business activities in North Korea from 2007 to 2017, BAT said in a statement.

The Financial Times reported in 2010 that North Korea generated currency by re-exporting cigarettes manufactured by BAT, and the company said at the time it had halted exports to North Korea.

BAT said it took a £450 million (US$540 million) provision related to the matter in its half year report in July. The maker of Lucky Strike cigarettes said Tuesday its full-year guidance is unaffected by the penalty.

“We deeply regret the misconduct arising from historical business activities that led to these settlements,” Jack Bowles, BAT’s chief executive, said in a statement.-Fin24

Capitec rectifies technical glitch

South Africa's biggest digital banker Capitec says it has rectified a technical glitch that saw some of its customers wake up to their bank accounts reflecting zero balances on Tuesday morning.

Capitec customers took to social media to complain, as the 25th of the month is payday for many.

But Capitec said that while its app reflected zero balances, customers could still pay with their cards without problems, while debit orders were not affected.

"Capitec's IT team worked quickly to resolve the issue that clients experienced on its app early on Tuesday morning, 25 April. Although there was a slight delay in balance updates, all card payments and debit orders were not affected, and clients can now continue using the app. We apologise to our clients for any inconvenience caused," said the bank in a brief statement.

Payday technical glitches have become a common occurrence in some of South Africa's big banks. Standard Bank is another bank that experienced these more frequently in the past and has dedicated extra resources to minimise outages.

Capitec also experienced another big technical glitch in August last year, which left customers frustrated about not being able to transact on their apps, internet banking and USSD services.-Fin24