Companies news in brief

SAA rescue plan needs over R10 bnAdministrators at state-owned South African Airways (SAA) said on Tuesday the government needed to find more than R10 billion of new money for a long-delayed plan to rescue the cash-strapped airline.The administrators took over SAA in December, when the company entered a local form of bankruptcy protection called business rescue after almost a decade of financial losses.Their rescue plan has been repeatedly delayed amid fierce wrangling over SAA's future, with senior officials and trade unions applying pressure for the airline to be saved despite the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbating its longstanding frailties.SAA has not made a profit since 2011 and has burned through more than R20 billion of bailouts in the past three years.It suspended commercial passenger flights in late March, when the government imposed one of Africa's strictest coronavirus lockdowns. – Nampa/ReutersRioZim halts production over paymentZimbabwe's biggest gold miner RioZim Ltd said on Tuesday it had stopped production due to delays in payments for deliveries to the country's sole buyer of bullion, which left the company unable to meet its operational expenditures.Gold is Zimbabwe's single largest foreign currency earner, and Fidelity Printers and Refiners, an arm of the central bank, has a monopoly on buying and refining all the country's output.However, a shortage of foreign currency in Zimbabwe has led to payment problems in the mining sector.RioZim said it was owed US$2.46 million and 65.48 million Zimbabwe dollars (US$2.6 million) by Fidelity for gold deliveries.That made it difficult to pay for electricity, fuel and a portion of salaries, which are all denominated in US dollars, said RioZim, which owns three gold mines and a diamond mine. – Nampa/ReutersHSBC resumes cutting around 35 000 jobsHSBC is resuming a massive redundancy plan it had put on ice following the outbreak of coronavirus, and will cut 35 000 jobs over the medium term, a memo seen by Reuters yesterday showed.The bank will also maintain a freeze on almost all external recruitment, chief executive Noel Quinn said in the memo sent to the bank's 235 000 staff worldwide."We could not pause the job losses indefinitely - it was always a question of 'not if, but when'," Quinn said. A spokeswoman for the bank confirmed the contents of the memo.HSBC had originally postponed the job cuts, part of a wider restructuring aimed at reducing costs, in March when it said the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic meant it would have been wrong to push staff out.The bank now has to resume the programme as its profits fall and economic forecasts point to a challenging time ahead, Quinn said, adding that he has asked senior executives to look at ways the bank can cut costs in the second half of the year. – Nampa/ReutersHilton to cut 2 100 corporate jobs globallyHotel chain Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc said on Tuesday it would cut about 22% of its corporate workforce, or 2 100 jobs, in response to the coronavirus outbreak that has ravaged the global travel industry.The company is also extending previously announced furloughs, reduced hours, and corporate pay cuts for up to an additional three months."Never in Hilton's 101-year history has our industry faced a global crisis that brings travel to a virtual standstill," chief executive officer Christopher Nassetta said in a statement.Hilton's corporate staff consisted of about 9 600 workers globally, while total employees were 173 000 at the end of 2019.Larger rival Marriott has also furloughed thousands of employees as bookings dried up during the pandemic. – Nampa/ReutersIkea to return state crisis aid Furniture giant Ikea said Tuesday it would return subsidies it received from eight European countries and the US at the height of the coronavirus crisis, as its financial situation was not as strained as feared.Ikea said it received aid from Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain and the United States but did disclose the sums."Ikea is in touch with governments in nine countries ... about repaying the government aid we received to cover coworker salaries during the height of the pandemic," a spokesman for Ingka Group, which manages most of Ikea's retail operations, told AFP."Whilst no one knows how things will continue to develop, we now have a better understanding of the impact of the crisis on our business and have therefore decided to pay it back as it is the right thing to do," said Tolga Oncu, Ingka's retail operations manager.Several of the countries have already been reimbursed, Ingka said, without specifying which ones nor the sums involved. – Nampa/AFP

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