COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Comair operations remain suspended

The suspension of Comair's flights - which according to the company account for 40% of the local market - has put a squeeze on flights between Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, and into the Eastern Cape, according to other airlines.

Comair operates its own low-cost airline kulula.com as well as British Airways domestically and regionally in terms of a franchise agreement. Comair suspended its kulula.com and British Airways flights on Tuesday last week due to not having enough money to continue flying.

"Loads are definitely up and better than we would have budgeted. There are not a lot of fully sold-out flights on Monday, but there is a bit of a squeeze on flights into the Eastern Cape. Cape Town to Durban is also looking very full for a few days out," Flysafair spokesperson Kirby Gordon said on Monday morning.

According to South African Airways (SAA), the state-owned airline has seen an increase in demand and it is adding more frequencies to meet that demand. It is adding more seats between Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in the wake of the gap left by the suspended Comair flights. -Fin24

Vi Holding quits Zim platinum project

Russia’s Vi Holding has quit its involvement in Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke Investments platinum company.

The Russian company has ceded its 50% stake in the company to Zimbabwe’s Kuvimba Mining House, according to an email from Great Dyke, which didn’t give a reason for the change in shareholding. Igor Higer, who had served as Great Dyke chairman and is a representative of Vi, said his company has exited the arrangement.

Great Dyke owns the Darwendale platinum deposit and has said it planned to build a US$3 billion mine to extract the metal, which would make it Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum project.

But last week Bloomberg reported that the project was struggling to get off the ground for the past two years as the Russian holding was scaring off potential financiers for the US$3 billion mine.

Initial development work on the Darwendale deposit began in early 2020, but operations at the project were soon halted because of a lack of capital and the site has been abandoned since early last year, according to a report by Zimbabwe’s Centre for Natural Resource Governance. -Fin24

Apple launches car dashboard software

Apple on Monday announced it would more deeply integrate its software into the instrument cluster on the dashboard of cars that will start shipping next year, while analysts and developers are keenly awaiting any hints about how a future mixed-reality headset might work.

Apple also announced that its new MacBook Air laptop was "completely redesigned" around its new M2 silicon processor, which it says is 35% faster than the previous M1 chip.

The new laptop will be 1.2 kg and have a 1080p high-definition camera to provide better images on video calls. The MacBook Air will start at US$1 199.

The M2 chip will also power the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which will start at US$1 299 and be available next month. Prices are US$100 lower for education customers as Apple targets the back-to-school market.

Apple unveiled an updated version of its CarPlay software at its annual software developer conference. The new software for the first time will time power the instrument cluster on a car's dashboard showing speed, directions and fuel mileage. Apple said that automakers such as Ford, Nissan and Honda are planning to use the new software and that cars with it will start shipping next year. -Fin24

UK accounting watchdog fines PwC

he Financial Reporting Council has fined accounting firm PwC around 5 million pounds (US$6.22 million) as part of a package of sanctions following an investigation into audit failures at construction firms Kier and Galliford Try.

The FRC, Britain's accounting watchdog, said PwC and audit partner Jonathan Hook had failed in a number of relevant requirements, including identifying and correcting errors in Kier's income and cash flow statements relating to the presentation of gains on corporate sales completed in 2017.

The error led to the misstatement of the 2017 financial statements.

PWC was fined 3.35 million pounds, adjusted foraggravating and mitigating factors and further discounted to just under 2 million pounds.

Hook was fined 90 000 pounds, adjusted for aggravating and mitigating factors and discounted for cooperation with the probe to just under 52 650 pounds.

In a separate statement, the FRC also fined PwC and Hook for breaches in the audits of Galliford Try after finding a number of auditing faults including "material" variations and claims on contracts later deemed inappropriate. -Reuters

J&J to terminate manufacturing deal

Johnson & Johnson said on Monday it had formally informed Emergent BioSolutions Inc of its decision to terminate agreement with the contract manufacturer to make Covid-19 vaccine for the drugmaker.

The termination notice comes about a week after J&J had initially informed Emergent of its intent to end the pact based on the contract manufacturer's breaches, including failure to supply Covid-19 vaccine drug substance, J&J said.

Emergent said earlier on Monday that J&J breached an agreement by failing to buy the minimum quantity of COVID-19 vaccines made by the company.

The contract manufacturer added that J&J had failed to provide required forecasts for the amount of vaccines it needed and had wound down the agreement instead of fulfilling minimum requirements.

If the agreement is terminated, Emergent said J&J would owe it roughly US$125 million to US$420 million. J&J, in its statement, said Emergent's filing was "false and misleading".

"We have sufficient capacity across our global Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing network, and we continue to meet our contractual obligations to supply our vaccine," J&J said. -Reuters