COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

SCB arranges financing for AngolaStandard Chartered Bank (SCB) said on Monday that it had arranged US$1.1 billion of financing to the Angolan government for a water supply project that will serve its capital Luanda.The funding is made up of two loans a US$910 million facility supported by a partial World Bank guarantee, and US$165 million backed by France's export credit agency.The project aims to improve access to drinking water for the capitals over 2 million residents.The financing will be used for investments in water production, transmission and distribution facilities, including a water treatment plant, storage facilities and new networks, Standard Chartered said in a statement. -Nampa/ReutersBMW confident about sales in ChinaBMW is confident that sales in China will increase next year, finance chief Nicolas Peter told Reuters on Monday, attributing high demand for premium cars to travel restrictions that have left consumers with more money to spend.Car sales in China have fallen in recent months as floods, Covid-19 outbreaks and a semiconductor shortage hit the domestic market, but BMW has bucked the trend, reporting a 12% rise in sales there in its second-quarter. "The market will not grow as quickly as it did over the last 12 months - that was when the catch-up effects after the corona disruption made themselves felt," Peter said. "But we do expect it to grow."BMW was also profiting from travel restrictions that have left more money in people's pockets in China for discretionary spending, he said on the side-lines of Munich IAA auto show, the first such industry event since before the pandemic.Peter said BMW had struck enough contracts for the raw materials needed to produce batteries for two to three years via its third-party suppliers, even as carmakers face shortages across supply chains of everything from lithium to chips. -Nampa/ReutersQualcomm to supply chip for Renault Qualcomm Inc on Monday said it will supply a key computing chip for the digital dashboard in a new Renault SA electric vehicle.San Diego, California-based Qualcomm, the world's biggest supplier of key semiconductors in mobile phones, has been expanding into vehicles with chips that can power dashboards and infotainment systems at the same time. The company earlier this year announced a deal with General Motors Co to use Qualcomm chips.Qualcomm said Monday that Renault's Mégane E-TECH Electric will use its chips to power the vehicle's infotainment system using software from Alphabet Inc's Google, Qualcomm's long-time partner in the Android phone market.The Mégane E-TECH Electric, which is expected to be unveiled at this month's IAA Mobility 2021 automotive trade show in Munich, is expected to go on sale next year. -Nampa/ReutersVolkswagen sticks to margin targetVolkswagen's namesake brand on Monday confirmed its margin target, the division's chief executive said, shrugging off the impact from a shortage of automotive chips as well as higher raw materials prices.The Volkswagen brand expects an operating margin of 3-4% for 2021. "It stays that way," Ralf Brandstaetter told Reuters at the IAA Munich car show, also confirming the 6% margin goal set for 2023. At group level, Volkswagen targets an operating margin of 6-7.5%.Brandstaetter, who also sits on Volkswagen AG's management board, said, however, that Volkswagen was feeling the impact of rising costs for raw materials, adding this would be passed on to customers. -Nampa/ReutersGoldman lines up US$5 blnGoldman Sachs plans to float the assets of its Petershill Partners unit, hoping to cash in on a private equity boom with an IPO valuing the investment vehicle at more than US$5 billion.Petershill, which takes minority stakes in alternative assets managers including private equity, venture capital and hedge funds, will be a standalone company operated by the Goldman Sachs Asset Management team, it said on Monday.The deal will consist of a sale of around US$750 million of new shares as well as existing ones to give Petershill a free float of at least 25% and make it eligible to be included in FTSE indices.Goldman Sachs declined to give an estimated market value for the unit, but a source close to the deal said analysts put it at in excess of US$5 billion. The listing is slated to take place around a month from now, the source said.The US bank chose London to list because Petershill was founded in the British capital and because the financial centre's vibrant capital markets offer a strong fundraising opportunity, the source added.The London Stock Exchange has had a strong run of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the first half of this year, with new companies raising US$12.77 billion in the first seven months of 2021, the highest in seven years, Refinitiv data shows. -Nampa/Reuters

COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-04

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COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-04

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