Company news in brief

Steinhoff's US unit Mattress Firm exits bankruptcySteinhoff International said on Thursday its Mattress Firm Inc unit, the largest US mattress retailer, emerged out of bankruptcy with access to US$525 million in exit financing, within two months of filing for Chapter 11 protection.Mattress Firm also closed about 660 underperforming stores, said Steinhoff, which has been working on a deal to restructure the debt of some units after revealing multi-billion-euro holes in its balance sheet.The store closures still leave the Houston-based company with about 2 600 stores across the United States.“Today’s announcement is a further positive step in the wider Steinhoff restructuring process, which continues to make good progress,” Steinhoff acting CEO Danie van der Merwe said.Mattress Firm, founded in 1986, had filed for voluntary bankruptcy protection in early October, gaining some breathing room to restructure and shore up its finances.The retail industry has seen a series of bankruptcies, including Toys “R” Us, over the last couple of years on mounting pressure from e-commerce companies like Amazon.com Inc.-Nampa/ReutersStanbic sees June 2019 close for US$2.5 bln debt deal for Uganda's oil pipelineStanbic Bank Uganda, lead arranger for the East African nation’s US$2.5 billion debt for a crude oil pipeline, expects the deal to conclude in June next year, its chief executive said on Wednesday.Uganda and Tanzania signed an agreement in May last year to jointly develop a pipeline that has been described as the longest electrically heated crude oil pipeline in the world.Stanbic Uganda, a unit of South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, secured the role of joint arranger and adviser together with Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.The pipeline will cost a total of US$3.5 billion, with the balance coming from shareholders in equity.Patrick Mweheire, Stanbic’s CEO, said it had engaged in talks with other lenders in Europe, Japan and China and that “they have all been extremely positive”.“People like the project ... the economics of the pipeline make a lot of sense. I think we are looking at some time in June next year for financial close,” he said in an interview.Covering a distance of 1 445 km, the 24-inch diameter pipeline will start near the oilfields in western Uganda and terminate at Tanzania’s Indian Ocean seaport of Tanga.Landlocked Uganda discovered crude oil reserves estimated at 6.5 billion barrels more than a decade ago.-Nampa/ReutersMr Price promotes corporate finance director to CFOSouth African retailer Mr Price Group Ltd has appointed corporate finance director Mark Stirton as group chief financial officer effective Jan.1, it said on Wednesday.Stirton’s appointment follows an announcement in October that current CFO Mark Blair will succeed Stuart Bird as chief executive.Stirton, 39-year old, has been with the retailer since June 2014 and in his current position as group corporate finance director since April 2017.-Nampa/ReutersMomentum reviewing 3 years of rejected claimsMomentum has reviewed claims on life policies dating back to 2016 so far, which it rejected under circumstances similar to the death of slain policy holder Nathan Ganas.The financial services and insurance group on Tuesday backtracked on its earlier decision not to pay a R2.4 million life insurance claim to the Ganas family, due to Ganas's failure to disclose that he suffered from elevated blood sugar levels.The company initially cited non-disclosure of his health condition as grounds for rejecting the death benefit, although it was not the cause of his death. According to Momentum, they became aware of his condition when they requested his health records after receiving the claim - a standard industry procedure, according to the company.-Fin24Dolce & Gabbana China blunder rages on as sites pull brand Thousands of Dolce & Gabbana goods have been pulled from China’s biggest shopping websites and calls for a boycott of the brand are gaining traction as the uproar over the Italian fashion house’s Chinese advertising campaign grows.The high-fashion brand faces a growing storm in China after a video campaign it made was criticized as racist and insensitive, and incendiary messages purportedly from co-founder Stefano Gabbana’s Instagram account went viral.Cross-border e-commerce site Yangmatou said late Wednesday night that it had taken 58 000 D&G products off its site, saying that “the motherland is more important than anything else.” NetEase said all D&G items have been removed from its Kaola shopping platforms.On Internet giant the Alibaba Group’s Tmall shopping portal, a search for D&G in both English and Chinese returned no results, while a check of JD.com’s site also produced no D&G items.Alibaba and JD.com did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Dolce & Gabbana didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the pulled items.Dolce & Gabbana’s trouble comes at a time when global luxury brands are increasingly dependent on China to drive growth. The country’s consumers spent more than US$100 billion on high-end purchases last year - almost a third of the global total. Fears that Chinese demand for premium goods was slowing in the face of waning consumer confidence and the ongoing US-China trade war sent jitters across global luxury stocks last month, wiping out some US$160 billion in market value.-Fin24

Company news in brief

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-19

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Company news in brief

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-19

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