Company news in brief

Steinhoff promotes commercial director to CEOSteinhoff has appointed commercial director Louis du Preez, a key figure in its attempts to recover from a financial crisis, as its permanent chief executive, sending shares in the South African retailer as much as 15% higher on Monday.Du Preez will replace acting CEO Danie van der Merwe, who will step down at the end of December, a year after the retailer revealed a multibillion-dollar hole in its finances.“It is not too surprising who they have gone for given his role in driving the restructuring and this would be seen as a positive,” said Mark Hodgson, equities trader at Avoir Capital Markets.At 1355 GMT, Steinhoff’s shares were up 8.7% at 1.99 rand, after earlier trading a higher as 2.14 rand.Du Preez joined the Steinhoff group in mid-2017 and was nominated as commercial director and member of the management board on Dec. 19. He has jointly led negotiations in the restructuring of the group, the retailer said.Steinhoff’s former permanent CEO Markus Jooste, who resigned after the scandal broke, is being investigated by South African authorities over the crisis that wiped more than 90 percent off the company’s market value and forced it to sell assets.Creditors agreed in July to hold off on their debt claims for three years, throwing the company a lifeline and giving it three months to start restructuring its debt.Steinhoff in October asked creditors for a one-month extension while it negotiates documents required for the restructuring.“He is the ideal candidate to lead the company through the final stages of the restructuring and into the next phase of its development,” Chairperson Heather Sonn said of du Preez.-Nampa/ReutersNaspers sees higher first-half core headline profitSouth African media and e-commerce giant Naspers Ltd said on Monday it expects first-half core headline earnings per share to be between 35% and 43% higher than a year earlier.Cape Town-based Naspers, which owns the largest stake in China’s Tencent Holdings, said core headline earnings per share are expected to be between 98 cents to US$1.18 higher for the six months ended Sept. 30, from US$2.77 a year earlier.Core headline earnings per share is Naspers’ main profit measure that strips out non-operational and one-off items.Naspers said first-half earnings per share were significantly boosted by the once-off gain after it sold its entire 11.18% stake in Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart to Walmart Inc for US$2.2 billion.-Nampa/ReutersDisney's Fox deal gets China's approvalWalt Disney Co on Monday received unconditional approval from China for its deal to buy Twenty-First Century Fox’s entertainment assets, clearing one of the last major hurdles for the deal to go through.Disney agreed to purchase Fox’s film and television assets for US$71.3 billion and received approval from European Commission earlier this month, subject to certain conditions.Other major US-centric merger deals in the past year have run into trouble with Chinese regulators, against the backdrop of growing trade tensions.The Fox assets being acquired include a cable group with FX Networks, National Geographic and 300-plus international channels, plus Fox’s stake in Hulu.The deal would expand Disney’s unrivalled portfolio of some of the world’s most popular characters, uniting Mickey Mouse, Luke Skywalker and Marvel superheroes with Fox’s X-Men, “Avatar” and “The Simpsons” franchises.Disney owns ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel Studios and “Star Wars” producer Lucasfilm, plus an array of theme parks.-Nampa/ReutersRwanda's Bralirwa to start brewing Heineken beer locallyRwanda’s biggest brewer, Bralirwa Ltd, will start making Heineken beer locally next month in a move that will allow it to cut retail prices by a fifth, it said on Monday.Bralirwa, which produces local beers like Primus, has been importing Heineken made in the Netherlands. The company said the switch to brewing Heineken locally was made possible by investments in its plant.The beer will also be exported to neighbouring countries. These include Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo.The price per bottle of Heineken will drop to 800 francs (US$0.9231) from 1 000 francs, once local production kicks in.Rwanda will join Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Ethiopia as local producers of Heineken in Africa.-Nampa/ReutersGoogle to invest US$690 million in Danish data centerAlphabet Inc’s Google will invest 4.5 billion Danish crowns (US$690 million) in building a new data center in Fredericia, Denmark, its Danish unit announced on Tuesday.Besides its plot in Fredericia, last year Google bought another plot in Denmark, in Aabenraa, next to a planned Apple Inc data center.-Nampa/Reuters

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