COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Discovery to be called Warner Bros

Discovery Inc said on Tuesday that the recently announced global entertainment and media business created with Discovery and WarnerMedia assets will be named Warner Bros.

Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav made the announcement during a meeting with WarnerMedia employees at the Warner Bros studio lot in Burbank, Calif.

WarnerMedia Chief Executive Jason Kilar asked Zaslav questions, according to a source familiar with the meeting, in which Zaslav introduced himself and Discovery to WarnerMedia employees.

AT&T Inc and Discovery said in May that they would combine content from WarnerMedia including the Harry Potter and Batman franchises, news network CNN and sports programming - and Discovery's unscripted shows from lifestyle TV networks such as HGTV and TLC.

Discovery's Zaslav will lead Warner Bros. Discovery, which is expected to see US$3 billion in cost synergies with no plans to sell any assets. The deal is anticipated to close in mid-2022, pending approval by Discovery shareholders and regulatory approvals. - Nampa/Reuters

Vodafone gets 5G deal with Huawei

Vodafone's Italian unit has secured conditional approval from Rome to use equipment made by China's Huawei in its 5G radio access network, two sources close to the matter said.

Italy can block or impose tough conditions on deals involving non-EU vendors under "golden powers", which have been used three times since 2012 to block foreign interest in industries deemed to be of strategic importance.

The government of national unity led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi authorised the deal between Vodafone and Huawei on May 20, one of the two sources told Reuters, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

As in similar deals, the government imposed a set of prescriptions including restrictions on remote intervention by Huawei to fix technical glitches and an extremely high security threshold, the source added.

The United States has lobbied Italy and other European allies to avoid using Huawei equipment in their next generation telecoms networks and to closely scrutinize rival ZTE, saying the companies could pose a security risk. Huawei and ZTE strongly deny the allegations. - Nampa/Reuters

BHP says operations normal despite strike

BHP said operations at the world's largest copper mine Escondida and at the smaller Spence mine in Chile were normal on Tuesday despite a strike by a union representing remote workers.

The 200-member union, which runs BHP's Integrated Operations Centre in Santiago, walked off the job after failing to reach agreement with management on a labour contract following weeks of negotiations.

Global miner BHP subsequently called in substitute workers to keep the mine running, a move the union has contested with Chilean labour authorities.

"Spence and Escondida mines have informed that their operations are continuing normally," the company said in a brief statement.

The strike coincides with a spike in copper prices fuelled by soaring demand globally following more than a year of coronavirus pandemic-induced stagnation. The rising prices have given additional leverage to organized labour at Chile's sprawling copper mines. - Nampa/Reuters

BP invests US$220 million in US

BP on Tuesday boosted its investment in US renewables with a US$220 million purchase of solar projects from developer 7X Energy.

The deal, for assets with production capacity of 9 gigawatts, marks BP's first independent investment in solar since buying a stake in Europe's largest solar developer, Lightsource, in 2017.

BP CEO Bernard Looney last year launched a strategy to sharply reduce carbon emissions by 2050 by reducing oil output and growing its renewables business 20-fold between 2019 and 2030 to a capacity of 50 gigawatts (GW).

The deal will grow BP's renewables pipeline from 14GW to 23GW. The company expects to start developing around 2.2 GW of the acquisition's pipeline by 2025.

BP will integrate the new solar output into its large US power trading business, which includes onshore wind and natural gas electricity. In future, it will also have offshore wind from a project it is developing off the East Coast with Norway's Equinor, Dev Sanyal, BP head of gas and low carbon energy, told Reuters. - Nampa/Reuters

Nestle under fire over unhealthy products

Nestle said on Monday it was working on updating its nutrition and health strategy after the Financial Times reported an internal document at the food giant described a large portion of its food and drinks as unhealthy.

The newspaper said it had seen an internal presentation circulated among top executives early this year stating that more than 60% of Nestle's mainstream food and drinks portfolio could not be considered healthy under a "recognised definition of health".

The paper said this assessment applied to about half of Nestle's overall portfolio because categories like medical nutrition, pet food, coffee and infant formula were excluded from the analysis.

Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Jon Cox said that including these categories would significantly reduce the proportion of products potentially considered unhealthy.

"Given the group’s confectionery, ice cream, and pizza businesses, the real figure for the group based on 2021 estimates would be 28%, which is hardly a surprise," he said in a note. He said the report could point to changes in the product portfolio, notably an exit from mainstream confectionary. - Nampa/Reuters