COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF
Glencore faces flood of UK litigationGlencore faces a raft of class-action style lawsuits from investment and pension funds in the UK, months after the mining giant pleaded guilty to market manipulation and bribery.
Mubadala Investment Company and International Petroleum Investment Company are among over a dozen funds who filed claims at a London court against Glencore and a group of its executives in recent weeks, according to court records.
While there is no public record of what the claimants allege, people familiar said it was linked to the more than US$1 billion fine Glencore paid in May. The firm admitted to bribery and market manipulation stretching over a decade, Glencore said at the time that the company had changed since the wrongdoing.
Funds linked to Phoenix Group, Standard Life and HSBC filed claims against the mining giant, while another suit named abrdn Plc, Norges Bank and the Kuwait Investment Office as claimants.
Glencore in May pleaded guilty to a range of charges from bribery and corruption in South America and Africa, to price manipulation in US fuel-oil markets, resolving long-running investigations against the company in the US, UK and Brazil.
It agreed to pay about US$1.1 billion to US and Brazilian authorities, with the total amount of the fine in the UK to be set in a sentencing hearing at the beginning of November at Southwark Crown Court. Glencore made a US$410 million provision for the UK fine in the 2021 accounts of its UK subsidiary Glencore Energy UK Ltd.-Fin24
FlySafair adds 11 new destinations
FlySafair has received approval to operate flights to 11 new destinations within the southern African region, it announced on Monday.
The Air Services Licensing Council of South Africa has approved FlySafair's application to operate flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg to Gaborone, Livingstone, Luanda, Lusaka, Maputo, and Victoria Falls.
In addition, the airline has been approved for frequencies from Johannesburg to Bulawayo, Nairobi and the Seychelles, as well as between Cape Town and Windhoek. Its application for routes between Johannesburg and Harare, Windhoek and Zanzibar, and additional frequencies to Mauritius are still pending.
FlySafair can now engage the relevant airport and civil aviation authorities in each market and begin planning its flight schedules.
"While this is a big milestone, there is still a fair amount of work ahead of us from an operational perspective," says Kirby Gordon, chief marketing officer of FlySafair. "By launching a host of new services, we hope to provide passengers with more options for air travel at a competitive price."
Since the beginning of the year, FlySafair has added four new aircraft to its current schedule with one more on the way in January. While the new capacity forms part of the airline's long-term growth plans, the airline expects that the additional seats will help to stabilise domestic flight prices going into the busy holiday season.-Fin24