Company News in Brief

UK banking giant appoints Maria Ramos as its chairStandard Chartered named South African banking veteran Maria Ramos as its next chair, replacing Jose Vinals. Ramos was picked after an "extensive global search", the London-headquartered bank said in a statement Tuesday.She joined the Standard Chartered board as an independent nonexecutive director in January 2021.Her career has included serving as director-general at the Ministry of Finance under the late President Nelson Mandela and running Absa Group during the lender's split from Barclays Plc."Maria is a proven leader with deep industry experience and strategic vision,” said Standard Chartered chief executive officer Bill Winters.Vinals has chaired the bank for almost nine years, approaching the maximum recommended term under UK corporate governance rules. Ramos will replace him at the annual meeting on May 8, subject to regulatory approval.She will relocate to London and step down from her board role at luxury goods company Richemont, Standard Chartered said.-BLOOMBERG NEWSAckermans owner Pepkor lifts as its reports SA market share gains, fintech surgeRetail giant Pepkor reported on Monday that it saw first-quarter revenue growth of over 10%, helped by market share gains and rapid adoption of its fintech offerings, including cellular rentals.The owner of brands including Ackermans, PEP and Tekkie Town said in an update that continuing revenue climbed 12.1% to R26.7 billion in the three months to end December, when fintech revenue surged 35% to R3.8 billion.Shares of the group, which is valued at almost R100 billion on the JSE, had risen about 1.3% on Monday morning, and have now risen by more than a third on a one-year basis. At the same time, there was general pressure on SA retailers, with TFG, Truworths and Mr Price all down about 2%.Group sales increased by 9.5% and like-for-like sales increased by 7.3% for the quarter, Pepkor said. In southern Africa (excluding PEP Africa and Avenida in Brazil), like-for-like sales increased by 9.6% and the group added that according to industry data, it outperformed the market in SA, gaining market share.-FIN24 Musk's SpaceX says SA's BEE rules are a big barrierSpaceX has said that current BEE ownership rules are "a significant barrier" to international satellite operators, such as Starlink, who want to operate in South Africa. It voiced support for an equity equivalence programme as an alternative.SpaceX filed a 16-page written submission, dated 12 November 2024, to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to comment on the regulator's proposed new licensing framework for satellite services.The submission was filed by Brandi Oliver, SpaceX's global licensing and market activation manager. The SpaceX submission all but confirmed that the Electronic Communications Act's requirement for licence holders offering communications services in South Africa to be 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups has blocked the company from operating locally.-FIN24 WhatsApp says its users targeted by Israeli spywareAn official at Meta’s popular WhatsApp chat service has said Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions targeted 90 of its users, including journalists and members of civil society.The official told the Reuters news agency on Friday that WhatsApp had sent Paragon a cease-and-desist letter following the hack.The official declined to say who, specifically, was targeted but confirmed that WhatsApp is referring targets to the Canadian internet watchdog group Citizen Lab.He declined to say how WhatsApp ascertained that Paragon was responsible for the breach. He said law enforcement and industry partners had been informed, but would not go into detail.In a statement, WhatsApp said the company “will continue to protect people’s ability to communicate privately”.WhatsApp also told the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper that it had “high confidence” the users in question had been targeted and “possibly compromised”.-AL JAZEERAVodacom rallies almost 6% as it reports local growth in Egypt, pickup in SAShares of SA's biggest mobile operator Vodacom lifted almost 6% on Monday after it reported that despite some rand pressure it managed strong underlying growth in customers, notably in Egypt.Revenue climbed 1.6% in reported terms to R39.5 billion to end December, it said in an update, or by 12.6% when excluding currency effects.The effect of a stronger rand was particularly notable in Egypt, where revenue climbed almost 55% in local currency terms, but fell 7.5% in rand terms. In late 2022 Vodacom had finalised its buyout of Vodafone Egypt, the largest deal in its history, but the country has been battling severe macroeconomic challenges and has seen been subjected to hefty currency devaluations.In SA, the group's biggest market, revenue climbed 4.7% to R23.86 billion, which the group said was underpinned by successful seasonal campaigns - referring to promotions - improved consumer environment in the prepaid segment and a 40.6% increase in data traffic.In Egypt, the group reported a 40.7% increase in financial services customers to 10.5 million and a 25.6% improvement in data traffic. Egypt now accounts for 22.3% of the group's total service revenue, closing the quarter with 50.7 million customers, up 6.2%.-FIN24 Sasol, Anglo American and De Beers to pilot renewable diesel in South AfricaSouth African petrochemicals company Sasol (SOLJ.J), opens new tab, mining group Anglo American (AAL.L), opens new tab and its diamond business De Beers entered into a joint development agreement on Tuesday to pilot the production of renewable diesel from vegetable oil.Under the terms of the deal signed at the annual African Mining Indaba in Cape Town, the partners will assess the technical and commercial viability of feedstock production, company officials told reporters.De Beers is providing the more than 20-hectare tracts of land on which the crops for the trial vegetable oil feedstock - initially the Solaris and Moringa plants - will be grown, Anglo American's Director of Projects and Development Alison Atkinson said.Atkinson said pre-feasibility studies have been approved and renewable diesel production trials have been initiated. The resulting fuel will be used at De Beers operations.Advertisement · Scroll to continueBiofuels, derived from plant material or animal waste, are among the alternative fuels promoted to reduce carbon emissions.Although renewable diesel production in South Africa is not yet at a commercial scale, customer demand and decarbonisation targets indicate that the country's renewable fuels market is promising, according to Sasol.

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