COMPANY NEWS IN BREIF
Glencore flew cash in private jets to pay bribesGlencore officials delivered cash in private jets to officials across Africa, UK prosecutors said as they laid out a web of bribery and corruption orchestrated by the London oil trading desk.
The LSE and JSE-listed Company, founded by Marc Rich, admitted to seven counts of bribery across countries including Nigeria and Cameroon, following a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation. Prosecutors said the company paid more than US$28 million in bribes to secure access to oil cargoes. It marks the first time a corporate has been convicted for paying bribes, according to the SFO.
A London judge will determine the final fine on Thursday.
"Corruption was condoned at a very senior level within the company generally" and the West African trading desk specifically, prosecutors said in a case summary made public Wednesday.
The sentencing will draw a line for the company in the UK over a series of long-running investigations, but leaves open the possibility of charges against former employees. An SFO prosecutor said on 21 October that as many as 11 ex-staff were under investigation for criminal wrongdoing.
In May, Glencore said it expected to pay around US$1.5 billion in total to resolve investigations in the US, UK and Brazil, of which US$1.06 billion was payable to agencies in the US and Brazil. Glencore made a US$410 million provision for the UK fine in the 2021 accounts of its UK subsidiary. It also faces ongoing investigations in Switzerland and the Netherlands.
The SFO said previously that its investigation showed the commodity trader paid for preferential access to oil, including increased cargoes, valuable grades of oil and preferable dates of delivery, between 2011 and 2016.-Fin24
Sibanye retrenchments are 'punishment' for strike
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has labelled Sibanye-Stillwater's plans to restructure its gold operations, and potentially retrench more than 2 000 workers, as a "form of punishment" for a three-month strike at its operations this year.
The union, in a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, said it was shocked to hear that the company was mulling the retrenchments of employees at Beatrix 4 shaft in the Free State and Kloof 1 and 2 plants in Gauteng.
"The NUM cannot dismiss the fact that this is a form of punishment for the strike period in which gold sector workers, through their unity, secured a reasonable victory in terms of wages and working conditions. This is capitalist barbarism at its best," the union said.
"Although we are deeply shocked by such a decision, we are not surprised as we expected such a kind of brutal and heartless behaviour coming from Sibanye-Stillwater. It is a well-known fact that this company does not care much about its employees. What matters most to them is profit. Sibanye-Stillwater is today coming up with all sorts of excuses just to merely punish the workers."
Sibanye on Tuesday announced its gold division had launched a formal consultation process in terms of section 189 of the Labour Relations Act to consider measures to avoid and mitigate possible retrenchments and look for alternatives to the potential cessation or downscaling of operations and associated services at the gold operations in question.
The company said possible retrenchments could affect 1 959 employees and 465 contractors. NUM said it believed Sibanye plans to repurpose Beatrix 4 to mine uranium with an intention to use subcontractors.-Fin24
Dis-Chem boosted by receding pandemic threat
Dis-Chem has reported double-digit group and retail income increases, beating its own margin targets as the threat of the pandemic receded with customers not spending as much on less-profitable Covid-19 related items.
At the same the group, which delivered dividend growth of just under a half for the six months ended 31 August, is continuing its major expansion drive, particularly in the lucrative baby category, with the JSE-listed pharmaceutical retailer reporting that in addition to opening three retail baby stores, 15 Baby Boom stores were acquired, effective from 1 March. The group opened five retail pharmacies.
It said this extended its "baby retail leadership position", adding that it had 251 retail pharmacy stores and 53 retail baby stores on its books as of 31 August.
It said total income grew by 22.8% to R5.2 billion for the six months ended 31 August, with its total income margin coming in at 31.7% compared to 28.2% in the prior comparative period. It said that it had beaten its targeted 30% total income margin 18 months sooner than anticipated. This in turn had led to boosts to both its earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation and operating margins.
The group’s total retail income grew by 19.1% with the retail margin increasing from 27.7% to 30.2% compared with the same period last year.-Fin24