Company news in brief

Nedbank’s profit rises

South African lender Nedbank said on Thursday it saw half-year profit rising as much as 28%, boosted by profitability of its west-African associate Ecobank.

Headline earnings per share (HEPS) is expected to be between 1 350.5 cents and 1 405.4 cents for the six-month period ended 30 June 2018, which is between 23% and 28% higher than the 1,098 cents per share in the previous reporting period.

HEPS, the main profit measure in South Africa, strips out certain once-off items.

“Nedbank Group delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2018 assisted by our share of associate income from ETI as it returned to profitability, while managed operations delivered positive earnings growth in line with our expectations,” the firm said in statement.

-Nampa/Reuters

Zuckerberg loses more than US$15bln

Facebook Inc chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune took a more than US$15 billion hit on Thursday, as the social media company suffered the biggest one-day wipeout in US stock market history a day after executives forecast years of lower profit margins.

At least 16 brokerages cut their price targets on Facebook after chief financial officer David Wehner startled an otherwise routine call with analysts by saying the company faced a multi-year squeeze on its business margins.

-Nampa/Reuters

Naspers considers listing some businesses

Naspers is considering the listing of certain parts of its sprawling global media and technology business outside South Africa as the continent’s largest company by market value seeks to reduce its size.

The company takes “very seriously” the difference in value between its stake in Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings and the firm as a whole, chief executive officer Bob Van Dijk said in an interview on Thursday. Naspers’s weighting on Johannesburg’s stock exchange of more than 19% is also too high and forces some investors to reduce their holdings, he added.

That said, Naspers is committed to retaining a primary listing on the JSE, the CEO said in Johannesburg, where he was attending a summit of Brics nations.

-Fin24

BP pays US$10.5 billion for BHP shale assets

BP Plc has agreed to buy US shale oil and gas assets from global miner BHP Billiton for US$10.5 billion, expanding the British oil major’s footprint in oil-rich onshore basins in its biggest deal in nearly 20 years.

The acquisition marks a big turning point for BP since the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, for which the company is still paying off more than US$65 billion in penalties and clean-up costs.

“This is a transformational acquisition for our Lower 48 business, a major step in delivering our upstream strategy and a world-class addition to BP’s distinctive portfolio,” BP chief Executive Bob Dudley said in a statement.

-Nampa/Reuters

Starbucks reports cooling quarterly growth and pares outlook

Starbucks Corp forecast slower growth for the current fiscal year on Thursday as boutique coffee chains and fast-food retailers won business in the United States and other established markets and the bloom came off once-booming China.

Wall Street had been braced for a disappointing quarter from the ubiquitous coffee brand, and its shares were relatively unchanged in after-market trading.

Seattle-based Starbucks last month warned of lower quarterly sales growth and announced plans to close about 150 US cafes in the next fiscal year, triple the typical number of closures, as it seeks to enter under-served markets in the US South and Midwest.

-Nampa/Reuters