Company news in brief

Naspers raises billions from Tencent saleSouth Africa's Naspers has raised US$9.8 billion from the sale of a 2% stake in Chinese investment Tencent to strengthen its balance sheet and fund growth in its e-commerce businesses, it said on Friday.Naspers said on Thursday it had no plans to reduce its holding further for the next three years, disappointing some investors who had called for it to spin off its 33% stake in China's biggest internet firm to close the widening gap between its own market value and the investment.Naspers said it sold 190 million shares in Tencent via an accelerated bookbuilding process, reducing its holdings to 31.2%, to strengthen its finances and invest over time in its classifieds, online food delivery and fintech businesses globally.The sale was priced at HK$405 per share, a discount of 7.8% to Tencent's closing price on Thursday.Tencent saw its shares down 4.51% at the midday trading break on Friday. The decline wiped US$24 billion off Tencent's market value, though at US$508 billion, it is still Asia's most valuable listed company and fifth globally behind Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp. – Nampa/ReutersDropbox IPO priced higher than expectedDropbox Inc's initial public offering, the largest tech stock debut in more than a year, was priced at US$21 per share, the company announced on Thursday, higher than expected.At US$21, the San Francisco-based company will have a market cap of about US$9.18 billion on a fully diluted share count.The cloud-based file-storage firm on Wednesday raised the expected price range by US$2 to US$18 to US$20 per share, on the back of strong demand.The IPO raised about US$756 million in the largest tech IPO since Snap Inc raised US$3.9 billion in its debut last year. Dropbox shares started trading on Friday at the Nasdaq under the symbol "DBX."The strong pricing bodes well for other highly anticipated IPOs from tech unicorns, or startups valued at more than US$1 billion. – Nampa/ReutersGoldman Sachs no longer in top 3Goldman Sachs lost its place among the top three earners of commodities-related revenue in 2017, falling below rivals JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Citibank for the first time, data from analytics firm Coalition showed.US-based investment bank Goldman has been among the top three since Coalition started compiling the figures in 2010, having a longstanding reputation for generating revenue from commodities trading, derivatives and other activities.However, last year Goldman's commodities business posted one of its worst results on record and it is now trying to boost performance, creating a new commodities finance team to drum up business from corporate clients.Coalition said JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley had the largest revenue in the commodities sector last year, followed by Citi. Coalition ranks the twelve largest investment banks. It did not provide revenue figures.Last year Goldman led the rankings, followed by JPMorgan and Citi in third place. Morgan Stanley was last placed in the top three in 2014, when it ranked third. – Nampa/ReutersTransnet signs deal with South32South Africa's state-owned freight company Transnet has signed a new deal with manganese miner South32 to export 2.6 million tonnes a year of the mineral to European and Chinese markets, the companies said on Thursday.South Africa accounts for close to 75% of global manganese reserves, Transnet said. The firm, which operates nearly three-quarters of the African rail network, the bulk of which is in South Africa, provides rail export lines for the country's main commodities including coal and iron ore.Gert de Beer, Transnet's new business development officer, said the firm will earn an estimated R10.4 billion from the seven-and-a-half year manganese export deal.He said a total of 12.5 million tonnes of manganese will be transported every year once Transnet signs contracts with nine local manganese producers, including South32. Most of the mineral will be from the Northern Cape province and will be hauled on the Saldanha and Port Elizabeth ore railway lines.Transnet said the contract with South32 will be back-dated, and will run from September 2015 until March 2023. – Nampa/Reuters

Company news in brief

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-04

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Company news in brief

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-04

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