Company news in brief

Netcare to restructure UK business

South African private healthcare operator Netcare will restructure its operations in Britain after the group reported a drop in annual profit due in part to belt-tightening by the UK's National Health Service.

Netcare, South Africa's second-largest private hospital firm, reported a 7% drop in profit for the financial year ended Sept. 30, flagging the effect of changes to non-urgent medical treatment by both the NHS, which outsources some services to private healthcare providers, and private medical insurers in the UK.

Diluted headline earnings per share (EPS) declined to 108.6 cents from 117.1 cents the previous year. – Nampa/Reuters

Goldman to have two EU hubs post-Brexit

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said the bank would have hubs in Frankfurt and Paris after Brexit and that it would be up to the staff to decide where they want to move to from London.

Blankfein has visited Frankfurt and Paris over the past few weeks as the Wall Street bank pushes ahead with its plans to cope with Britain's exit from the EU.

Britain is currently home to most of Goldman Sachs's European operations, where it has around 6 000 employees. – Nampa/Reuters

Glencore flags issues in accounting practices in DRC

Glencore Plc said it had identified material weaknesses in the internal controls for financial reporting at Katanga Mining Ltd, in which the London-listed miner has a majority.

Glencore nominated three new directors to the board of Katanga, which operates mines in Democratic Republic of Congo.

It said the review did not have a material impact on Glencore's consolidated income or cash flow and said it would take steps in Katanga's copper department to strengthen accounting practices. – Nampa/Reuters

More time to settle Samarco mine disaster claim

Mining giant BHP has been given more time by a Brazilian court to negotiate the settlement of a massive claim over the fatal Samarco mine collapse.

Samarco, co-owned by BHP and Brazil's Vale, is facing a 155 billion reals (US$47.6 billion) legal claim for clean-up costs and damages after the 2015 tragedy in which 19 people died in one of the South American nation's worst environmental disasters.

"Samarco, Vale, BHP Brasil and the federal prosecutors have... requested, and the 12th Federal Court has approved, an additional 150 days, ending on 20 April 2018, for the parties to continue negotiations for the settlement of the public civil claims," BHP said in a statement. – Nampa/AFP

BP seeks stake in Cairn Energy

Oil exploration company Cairn Energy is in talks with BP to sell a 30% stake in its deepwater SNE field offshore Senegal, which could be valued at around US$600 million, banking sources and a Senegal oil ministry source said.

Oil majors have been increasingly homing in on the waters off Senegal, as well as neighbours Mauritania and Gambia, where they suspect hundreds of millions of barrels lie.

Senegal and Mauritania are two areas BP is targeting over the next decade and it plans to spend billions in the Tortue LNG project which is expected to produce its first gas in 2021. – Nampa/Reuters