COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

After 29 years, HSBC to exit SA following deals with FirstRand, AbsaAfter almost three decades in the country, HSBC will be closing its South African businesses, following deals with both FirstRand and Absa.The London-headquartered bank, the largest in Europe, first opened a South African office in 1995. Over the past decade, HSBC (formerly known as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) has been selling many of its businesses across the world to focus on its core markets in Asia.It announced on Thursday that it will transfer its South African banking business to FirstRand. This will include the transfer of clients, as well as banking assets and liabilities. HSBC’s local employees will also be transferred to FirstRand. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of next year, subject to regulatory and governmental approvals.Bloomberg previously reported that HSBC is in talks to sell its South African corporate banking unit to FirstRand’s Rand Merchant Bank, and that it was also looking to sell its equities business.On Thursday, HSBC announced that a deal was struck with Absa for its equities unit. The SA bank will provide its global equities and securities finance clients with continued access to the South African market, HSBC said. Absa recently bought HSBC’s banking operations in Mauritius.-FIN24-Old Mutual upbeat as it gains market share, bank launch now planned for 2025Insurance and investment group Old Mutual reported on Thursday that it carved out additional market share among SA's lower-income customers, but investment in its growth initiatives weighed on half-year profits. This includes spending on its new bank, OM Bank, which will now only be launched in the first quarter of next year. Headline earnings per share rose 7% in the six months to end-June, helped by R1.5 billion in share buybacks in 2023, with a further R1 billion buyback proposed for 2024. Its result from operations (a profit indicator), however, fell 3% to R4.2 billion. Excluding its "growth initiatives" (primarily its new bank), this would have risen 4%, while headline earnings would have risen 12%, Old Mutual said.Finance costs climbed by a fifth, as the group continued investing in its new bank and digital modernisation in its business. Old Mutual announced plans to launch a new bank before the end of 2024 two years ago. The technical and operational progress is ahead of schedule, with successful industry testing and integration into the National Payments System already completed, Old Mutual said. The bank will now focus on meeting the remaining regulatory conditions and "continue refining systems and capabilities to ensure a seamless launch".Shares in the group, which is valued at almost R64 billion on the JSE, had lifted almost 2% on Thursday morning and have risen by about 10% in the past year.-FIN24- Facebook, Instagram group bets on normal-looking AR glasses, celeb AI voicesMeta launched AI chatbots voiced by Hollywood celebrities including Judi Dench and John Cena on Wednesday, betting its billions of users are eager to embrace artificial intelligence.At the company's annual product launch event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also unveiled a prototype of normal-looking augmented reality glasses, which he hopes can one day replace smartphones.Social media giant Meta is banking on AI and virtual and augmented reality applications to diversify its revenue streams.However, the company has yet to convince investors of the need to shift from its highly profitable advertising-based model."I think voice has the potential to be one of, if not the most frequent way, that we interact with AI," Zuckerberg said, demonstrating a conversation with an AI version of performer Awkwafina."It is just a lot better," he said.This launch follows OpenAI's controversial ChatGPT voice feature, which drew criticism for its similarity to actress Scarlett Johansson's voice.Meta has secured permission from the celebrities featured in its voice tool, which will be available on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.-AFP-

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