Company News in Brief

Aveng shares take a knockShares of infrastructure, construction and engineering group Aveng crashed after it warned it has suffered setbacks at projects in Singapore and Australia. Shareholders can expect a headline loss per share of up to 27 Australian dollar cents for its half-year to end December, from earnings of 8.8c (A$11.3 million or R137 million then). The group, valued at about R1.1 billion on the JSE, reported that troubles at two of its projects costs it A$77 million (about R900 million now). Aveng said its Kidston project in Queensland has not achieved expected productivities, resulting in an increased forecast cost to complete and a reported loss. The project involves the world-first conversion of a disused gold mine into a pumped storage hydroelectric power generation facility. It has also suffered delays and disruptions in its Jurong Region line project in Singapore, which has resulted in commercial claims and increased forecast cost to complete.-FIN24Depansum gains interim relief against VisaThe Competition Tribunal said on Friday it has again extended the interim relief granted to ecommerce payments group Depansum against multinational payments giant Visa. This, in effect, means that Visa may not prohibit Nedbank from processing transactions for Depansum. The Competition Tribunal heard Depansum's interim relief application on 14 December 2023, which was brought by against Visa Inc. and its sub-Saharan African subsidiary. Though Nedbank was cited as an interested party in the interim relief application, Depansum sought no relief against the lender. Depansum alleges that Visa and Visa SA established rules that are treated as a binding contract between Visa and its members, including banks, and that Visa uses these rules to prohibit Nedbank from using its payment system, the tribunal said. It argues that this is an abuse of dominance, but Visa disputed the allegations and alleged that Depansum's local collecting agent activities for foreign merchants in SA contravene exchange control laws. The matter is currently on appeal in the Competition Appeal Court and Visa did not oppose the second extension.-FIN24Richemont announces changes to executive structure Swiss luxury conglomerate Richemont announced changes to its senior executive committee, appointing Catherine Rénier, CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, Louis Ferla, CEO of Cartier, and Marie-Aude Stocker, who is chief people officer of the group Jérôme Lambert is stepping down from the committee and board of the group after his appointment as CEO of Specialist Watchmaker Maison Jaeger-LeCoultre. Boet Brinkgreve, CEO of Laboratoire de Haute Parfumerie et Beauté, will be leaving the company at the end of April.-FIN24Two new suspect nabbed in Steinhoff fraud case Two new suspects have been arrested and granted bail in the long-running Steinhoff fraud case. Hein Odendaal, 67, and Iwan Peter Schelbert, 62, appeared in the Pretoria Commercial Specialised Crimes Court on Friday morning. The two former Steinhoff executives earlier handed themselves over to the Hawks' Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit. They were each granted bail of R150 000. Odendaal, chartered accountant who lives in Alberton, Gauteng, was a managing director of two Steinhoff affiliates in the UK and a longtime director of Steinhoff Africa Holdings and Steinhoff At Work. He oversaw the publication of Steinhoff At Work's audited financial statements for a number of years. Iwan Peter Schelbert, meanwhile, was the managing director of Steinhoff At Work from June 2004 until 29 March 2018. He was involved in signing off the group's financial statements. Like many other former Steinhoff executives, he lives at Val de Vie lifestyle estate outside Paarl in the Western Cape.-FIN24

Company News in Brief

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-04-04

Please login to leave a comment

Company News in Brief

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-04-04

Please login to leave a comment

Login