Company news in brief

Total’s investment in Iran in jeopardy France's Total will lose all of its investment of US$66 million if it pulls out of a deal with Iran to develop South Pars, the world's largest gas field, the Iranian oil minister said. Total signed a deal with Tehran in July to develop phase 11 of Iran's South Pars field, marking the first major Western energy investment in the Islamic Republic since the lifting of sanctions. However, Total's Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said last week that the oil major would have to review its Iran gas project if the United States decided to impose unilateral sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, given Total's assets in the US market. – Nampa/Reuters HSBC fine US$51 mln for Lehman-linked products A Hong Kong tribunal imposed a fine of HK$400 million (US$51 million) on the private banking unit of HSBC in a case related to the sale of Lehman Brothers linked structured financial products between 2003 and 2008. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal (SFAT) said that HSBC's private banking unit was "culpable of material systemic failings in its marketing and sale of derivative products" in that period. It also "partially suspended" its registration for dealing in securities for a period of one year. – Nampa/ReutersSAA under-capitalised despite bailout Even with a government injection of R10 billion, the struggling South African Airways will remain under-capitalised with a negative equity position of over R9 billion, a presentation to parliament showed. The airline narrowly missed defaulting on debt repayments of around R5 billion owed to domestic lenders thanks to an emergency bailout by the National Treasury, which said a default posed a risked to the entire economy. SAA has one of Africa's largest airline fleets but has struggled, relying on around R20 billion of guarantees from government to stay afloat. – Nampa/Reuters MTN fights fee battle in Benin South African mobile phone giant MTN is in talks with Benin's telecoms regulator after its subsidiary was slapped with a bill of more than US$200 million. The regulator (Arcep) wants MTN Benin to pay 134.4 billion CFA francs – the equivalent of US$213 million - in frequency fees for 2016 and 2017. But the company has called the fees "excessive". MTN has the largest mobile phone network in Benin with more than four million subscribers but its relations with the government have deteriorated in recent months. – Nampa/AFP Tencent more valuable than Facebook Chinese social media and video game giant Tencent became more valuable than Facebook on Tuesday as investors sent the company soaring into the top five of the world's biggest firms. Tencent's Hong Kong-listed shares have doubled in value this year, and on Monday it became the first Asian company with a market capitalisation of half a trillion dollars. By the end of the trading day on Tuesday, Tencent's outstanding shares were worth a combined 4.08 trillion Hong Kong dollars (US$523 billion), surpassing Facebook's US$519 billion. – Nampa/AFP

Company news in brief

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Namibian Sun 2025-10-14

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Company news in brief

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Namibian Sun 2025-10-14

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