Company news in brief

Air France shares in tailspin after CEO quitsAir France shares went into a tailspin on the Paris stock exchange yesterday after the resignation of the strike-hit company's CEO.Air France-KLM boss Jean-Marc Janaillac announced his resignation Friday after staff at the carrier's French operations rejected a pay deal aimed at ending months of walkouts.Janaillac, who had been in the post for under two years and staked his future at the company on staff accepting the deal, deplored their decision as a "huge waste".In early bourse business Air France stock was down nearly 13% at 7.08 euro.Staff and management at the carrier have been locked in a dispute over pay since February. – Nampa/AFPNestle pays billions to sell Starbucks productsSwiss food giant Nestle announced yesterday it will pay US$7.15 billion in cash for the rights to market Starbucks products around the world, outside of the company's coffee shops.The agreement gives Nestle, which owns the Nescafe and Nespresso brands, a strong platform for continued growth in North America, the company said in a statement.Nestle is focusing on coffee as a main growth area and has already made some acquisitions in the sector, including buying a stake in California's Blue Bottle Coffee last September.The Starbucks business covered by the deal currently generates around US$2 billion sales annually and includes coffee beans and ground coffee that Nestle will be selling in supermarkets around the world.The deal does not include any of Starbucks' coffee shops and cafes. – Nampa/AFPZTE petitions US government to lift sanctionsChinese telecom giant ZTE has asked the US government to lift a ban on sales to the company, which threatens its survival and has added to trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.The telecom equipment and handset maker said in a filing Sunday that it had submitted a request to the commerce department for a stay of the export ban, along with supplemental information.US officials imposed the ban because of what they said were false statements by the firm over action it claimed to have taken regarding the illegal sale of goods to Iran and North Korea. ZTE pleaded guilty to the charges in March last year and was hit with US$1.2 billion in fines.The ban prohibits US companies from selling crucial hardware and software components to ZTE for seven years, with one Chinese investment bank estimating it had only one or two months' supply of those items on hand.Trading of ZTE shares in Hong Kong and Shenzhen has been halted since the US announcement last month. – Nampa/AFP Alibaba says annual net profit up 47%Chinese e-commerce giant Friday announced a massive 47% leap in net profit for the fiscal year 2017/18, helped by a rise in smartphone and tablet transactions on its shopping platform.Profit climbed to 63.985 billion yuan (US$10.2 billion), boosted by a 60% rise in revenue from its core business, the online retailer said.The New York-listed firm added 98 million active consumers over the year ended March 31, to a total of 552 million using its e-commerce marketplaces.Overall revenue climbed 58% year-on-year to 250.27 billion yuan, with revenue from cloud computing up 101% and digital media and entertainment up 33%.Chief financial officer Maggie Wu said they forecast similar results in the year ahead. – Nampa/AFPHSBC reports US$4.76 bn pre-tax profitHong Kong banking giant HSBC said Friday that pre-tax profit dipped 4% to US$4.76 billion in the first three months of the year owing to rising operating costs but added it would buy back US$2 billion worth of stock.It also said revenue rose 6% to US$13.7 billion in the period as it benefits from an improving global economy and rising interest rates.The upbeat January-March results follow a strong 2017, which was boosted by a recovery that saw it lay off tens of thousands of staff since 2015 as part of a wide-ranging overhaul.The improving global economy has led central banks around the world to either lift borrowing costs or at least consider lifting them as the decade of post-crisis easy money comes to an end.Leading the way is the Federal Reserve, which analysts expect to announce at least two more hikes this year, helping lenders. – Nampa/AFP

Company news in brief

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-25

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Company news in brief

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-25

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