Company News in Brief

Pick n Pay sales climb 3.6%Retail group Pick n Pay reported on Tuesday that it managed to pick up the pace of its sales in recent months, though it also continues to push price cuts amid a battle for market share. Group sales in the 45 weeks to 5 January climbed 3.6%, the group said in an update, and while sales at its shrinking Pick n Pay SA store base fell 0.1%, they grew 1.9% on a like-for-like basis. The last figure is an improvement on the group's half-year result of 1.1% growth, with Pick n Pay saying on Monday growth had accelerated to 3% in the last 19 weeks of the period.-FIN24 Canal+ working toward SA ownership rules French media giant Canal+ and its acquisition target MultiChoice said on Tuesday that they intend to meet SA's rules on ownership of broadcasting licences by carving out a new independent business. In a joint statement the two said they have submitted a proposal that carves out the current holder of the broadcasting licence in SA, and which therefore contracts with local subscribers, which will be majority owned by historically disadvantaged persons (HDP). MultiChoice will ultimately still have a 49% interest in this entity, and 20% of the voting rights, while the operator's black empowerment scheme Phuthuma Nathi will ultimately hold a 27% economic interest. Two well-established black-owned and -managed companies, Identity Partners Itai Consortium and Afrifund Consortium, as well as an employee share ownership scheme, will also hold interests. SA's Electronic Communications Act of 2005 places limitations on foreign ownership of local broadcast licences. This means Canal+ can increase its shareholding in MultiChoice to any level, but its voting rights are limited to a maximum of 20%.-FIN24 Sasol, Anglo to develop green diesel Sasol and Anglo American have partnered to develop green diesel, something the two companies believe would be "transformative" given the potential to cut fuel emissions by as much as 90%. In a signing ceremony which took place on the sidelines of the African Mining Indaba on Tuesday, Sasol and Anglo entered into a Joint Development Agreement to pilot the production of feedstock for renewable diesel. The mission ahead is to assess the technical and commercial viability of feedstock production, starting with Solaris and Moringa plantations, to generate vegetable oil. In the longer term, the initiative hopes to establish the value chain for renewable fuels.-FIN24 UBS to conclude Credit Suissse takeover by 2026Swiss banking giant UBS said it remained on track to substantially wrap up its mega-merger with Credit Suisse by the end of 2026 after once again posting better-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday. Switzerland's biggest bank reported a net profit of $770 million (about R14.5 billion) for the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with a $279 million loss in the same period a year earlier as it wrestled with the weight of absorbing its closest domestic rival. In March 2023, Swiss authorities strong-armed UBS into a $3.25-billion takeover to prevent Credit Suisse from going under, with what could have been catastrophic consequences for the global financial system. The Zurich-based bank posted Tuesday a year-on-year seven percent increase in fourth-quarter revenue to $11.6 billion, fuelled by rising stock markets, which supported transactions in both wealth management and investment banking. - AFPDiageo meets sales target Diageo, the maker of Guinness stout and Johnnie Walker whisky, scrapped Tuesday a key sales target with US President Donald Trump's tariff plans set to sour its US sales of tequila The British group, whose brands include also Smirnoff vodka, Baileys liqueur and Captain Morgan rum, has in recent times been impacted by inflation-suffering consumers swapping its premium brands for cheaper beverages. In an update Tuesday, Diageo said that "given the current macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty in many" key markets, a medium-term guidance for organic net sales growth of 5-7% had been axed. - AFPOpenAI pens agreement with KakaoOpenAI chief Sam Altman signed a deal with tech giant Kakao in South Korea on Tuesday as the US firm seeks new alliances after Chinese rival DeepSeek shook the global AI industry. Kakao, which owns an online bank, South Korea's largest taxi-hailing app, and a messaging service, announced a partnership allowing them to use ChatGPT for its new artificial intelligence services, joining a global alliance led by OpenAI amid intensifying competition in the sector. "We're excited to bring advanced AI to Kakao's millions of users and work together to integrate our technology into services that transform how Kakao's users communicate and connect," said Altman. - AFP

Company News in Brief

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