COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Libstar sees an increase in retail salesRetail product revenue of South Africa's Libstar Holdings Ltd, one of the country's biggest packaged-food companies, has surpassed pre-Covid-19 levels but the company's food service business will continue to stay shy of 2019 numbers, it said on Wednesday.Libstar owns brands such as Denny mushrooms and Lancewood dairy and sells products ranging from perishables to groceries, confectionaries and baking under its retail division.The company has been one of the beneficiaries of increased at-home consumption and stockpiling due to government-imposed lockdowns as consumers stocked up on pasta, baking products, meal ingredients and private label products.Chief Executive Andries van Rensburg said while retail demand had normalised in the fourth quarter, it was still stronger than before the pandemic. Food service revenue, its second-biggest sales contributor which includes selling dairy, meat and chicken, slumped 23.8% in the year ended Dec. 31.- Nampa/ReutersVolkswagen expects deliveries to doubleVolkswagen expects to double electric vehicle deliveries and increase profits for its core brand this year after the world's second-largest carmaker stepped up its switch to fully electric vehicles.The brand will deliver more than 450 000 electric cars this year, the company said on Wednesday. Volkswagen is targeting 1 million electric vehicle deliveries for the wider group.The core brand is aiming for a significant year-on-year increase in sales revenue and an increase in profits, VW said.The group's preferred stock rose as much as 7% to its highest since June 2015, as institutional and retail investors cheered VW's efforts to overtake Tesla in the electric car market.Volkswagen earlier this month unveiled its 'Accelerate' strategy for its main brand, saying it expected fully electric vehicles to account for more than 70% of total European vehicle sales by 2030, compared with a previous target of 35%. - Nampa/ReutersToyota, Honda cut North America production Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co Ltd announced on Wednesday new North American production cuts, citing supply chain issues that have wreaked havoc with the auto industry.Toyota said it would cut production this week at four plants in Kentucky, West Virginia and Mexico, citing "a shortage of petrochemicals" and "recent severe weather conditions" affecting production.A Toyota spokeswoman said the production cuts "will impact production of the Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon, Avalon Hybrid, RAV4 Hybrid, Lexus ES 350, Lexus ES 300h and Tacoma," but declined to say how long or how much production would be cut.Honda said late on Tuesday that supply chain issues would force a halt to production at a majority of its US and Canadian auto plants for a week starting next Monday and would result in some production cuts at all US and Canadian plants next week.The company cited "the impact from Covid-19, congestion at various ports, the microchip shortage and severe winter weather over the past several weeks."- Nampa/ReutersVodafone to reap up to 2.3 bln euroVodafone has priced shares in infrastructure unit Vantage Towers at 24 euros each, valuing the firm at 12.1 billion euros (US$14.5 billion) in one of Europe's largest initial public offerings this year, Vantage Towers said.Vodafone is reaping as much as 2.3 billion euros from the deal, assuming that an overallotment option (greenshoe) is fully exercised at the final offer price, Vantage Towers added.The British-based operator had set the initial price range for the flotation of Vantage Towers at 22.50 to 29 euros per share, before narrowing that to 24-25 euros this week. It had targeted proceeds of 2-2.8 billion euros."This IPO unlocks value for our shareholders: it demonstrates the value of our towers assets in a 5G world," Vodafone Chief Executive Nick Read said. Assuming the greenshoe will be fully exercised, Vodafone will continue to hold 81.1%.The deal adds to a strong pipeline of new listings this year including Polish e-commerce firm InPost, German used-car trading platform AUTO1, British footwear brand Dr. Martens and food delivery firm Deliveroo. - Nampa/ReutersHeidelbergCement sees higher salesHeidelbergCement, the world's second-largest cement maker, expects sales and core profit to slightly rise this year on the back of infrastructure programmes launched around the world, it said yesterday."The good start to the year confirms our optimistic outlook for 2021," Chief Executive Dominik von Achten said, echoing comments by larger rival LafargeHolcim which said last month that Covid-19 stimulus packages would boost construction.HeidelbergCement, which released preliminary results in February, proposed a dividend of 2.20 euros (US$2.63) per share for 2020, up from 0.60 euros for 2019 which was impacted by the coronavirus crisis.According to analyst estimates collected by Refinitiv, sales are expected to rise 3.2% in 2021 to 18.17 billion euros, while earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation is forecast to be flat versus the 3.7 billion generated last year."Decisive for the actual extent of growth are the further development of the coronavirus pandemic and progress with vaccinations, as well as local economic development and the level of public and private investments," the company said. - Nampa/Reuters

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