COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Glencore names Madhavpeddi as chairmanSwiss commodities trader Glencore said Kalidas Madhavpeddi will take over as its new chairman at the end of the month, when Tony Hayward retires after eight years in the role.US-based Madhavpeddi joined the board of the London-listed miner in February 2020 and is better known as the chief executive of China Molybdenum International (CMOC), a role he covered for almost ten years until 2018.During his time at the Chinese producer, Madhavpeddi made a series of sizable acquisitions, including US Freeport-McMoRan Inc.'s majority stake in the Tenke copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo for US$2.65 billion and Anglo American's niobium and phosphates business in Brazil."I am delighted to have been appointed Chairman at such an exciting time for the business," Madhavpeddi said in a statement."As the world transitions to cleaner forms of energy and mobility, our portfolio of commodities will allow Glencore to play a key role in helping us achieve the goals of Paris and play a key role in the ongoing energy and mobility transition."-Nampa/ReutersHyundai Motor to invest millionsSouth Korea's Hyundai Motor Co has invested about US$100 million to buy a stake in a lithium metal battery startup, Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday, citing industry sources."As we have been investing in various companies related to electrification, our investment in SolidEnergy is part of that," an official at Hyundai Motor told Yonhap.Founded in 2012, SolidEnergy Systems (SES), which was spun off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, develops anode-free lithium metal batteries.In April, Hyundai said during its earnings call that the company had been developing solid-state batteries and planned to mass produce electric vehicles (EV) using solid-state batteries in 2030.Hyundai currently sources its batteries for its EVs from SK Innovation Co Ltd and LG Chem Ltd's wholly-owned LG Energy Solution. In March, General Motors announced a partnership with SES to boost its battery development, allowing for increased electric vehicle driving range in a smaller package. - Nampa/ReutersSydney Airport receives buyout bid Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd said a consortium of infrastructure investors had proposed a A$22.26 billion (US$16.7 billion) cash buyout of the operator of Australia's biggest airport.A consortium comprised of IFM Investors, pension fund QSuper and Global Infrastructure Management offered A$8.25 a share, a 42% premium to Sydney Airport's closing price on Friday, the airport operator said.Sydney Airport noted that the offer is below its pre-pandemic share price and said it was reviewing the proposal. The airport operator's share price hit a record high of A$8.86 in January last year, before the pandemic led to a collapse in travel demand.The company is Australia's only listed airport operator, with the remainder of the country's major airports owned by consortiums of infrastructure investors.In May, Sydney Airport's international traffic was down more than 93% from levels in the same month of 2019 due to Australia's largely closed border, while domestic traffic was down 39.2%. -Nampa/ReutersFacebook services restored after outageFacebook Inc said it has resolved a technical issue that caused some users trouble accessing Facebook, Messenger, Workplace and Instagram on Saturday."We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience," a spokesperson told Reuters.Facebook, Instagram and Messenger were down for thousands of users on Saturday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from a series of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform. The outages might be affecting a larger number of users. - Nampa/ReutersSyngenta to fund growth and acquisitionsSyngenta Group will use the proceeds from its US$10 billion initial public offering (IPO) to fund internal growth and an acquisition spree to snare more of the US$100 billion market for seeds and sprays, the agrichemical giant said on Friday.The company's prospectus to list on Shanghai's Nasdaq-style STAR Market was posted online by the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday, confirming details reported this week by Reuters after the application was filed on Wednesday."Syngenta Group will expand and renovate its production facility and implement strategic acquisition to meet growing market needs," the company said in the document.The Shanghai Stock Exchange filing showed Syngenta’s application to list on the STAR Market had been accepted and the company plans to issue up to 2.79 billion shares.The flotation, set to be the world's biggest this year, will value the maker of pesticides and seeds based in Basel, Switzerland, at about US$60 billion including debt, or US$50 billion without, sources have told Reuters. -Nampa/Reuters

COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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