Company News in Brief

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Coronation triples dividend after SARS victory, market boost



Coronation Fund Managers, which recently won a landmark court victory over the SA Revenue Service (SARS), has seen its annual profits more than triple, also helped by global and local markets delivering solid returns.

The Cape Town-headquartered asset manager's headline earnings per share increased 245% to 630.5c per share in the year to end-September, allowing for a final dividend of 228c per share, up about 38%.

This is over and above the special dividend of 153c per share paid to shareholders in September after the Constitutional Court ruled in Coronation's favour in June in its almost R800 million tax dispute with SARS.

Along with the interim dividend of 185c per share, the final and special dividend took Coronation's gross total shareholder distribution to 566c per share for the year, a 243% increase.

Excluding the impact of the SARS tax victory, which allowed Coronation to release provisions set aside to cover potential penalties, fund management earnings per share rose 9% to 402.9c per share. Coronation's total assets under management (AUM) increased 11% in the year to R667 billion as of end-September.

Shares of Coronation, which is valued at about R13.8 billion on the JSE, were up almost 2% on Tuesday morning and have risen by over a fifth in the past year.

-FIN24



Why WeBuyCars has started selling cars on behalf of dealers, banks, and manufacturers



WeBuyCars has introduced third-party sales for the first time, selling vehicles it doesn't own itself on behalf of the likes of banks, vehicle-fleet owners, and car dealers.

Speaking on a full-year results presentation call on Monday, CEO Faan van der Walt said that, up until now, this had not been something it did as it felt it ran the risk of cannibalising its own market. Instead, it had proactively purchased all the inventory it sold from sellers, who were predominantly private individuals and small companies.

Now, however, with increasing enquiries from third parties wanting WeBuyCars to sell their vehicles, and with the group having reached sufficient scale, it could introduce third-party sales without fear it will eat into its own market.

"With our size and volume right now, we believe we can start doing this without cannibalising our own market. If you consider that we are selling around 15 000-plus vehicles a month, if we start selling 500 on behalf of third parties, banks, etc., it would not have a negative impact on our selling, but it also enables us to expand.

The expansion of the group's footprint is also part of the company's stated plan to achieve monthly sales volumes of around 23 000 and double market share by 2028.

The company reported in its results for the year ended September that it had signed key property deals to develop new facilities in Pretoria and Cape Town in 2025, as well as to relocate its Pietermaritzburg supermarket to new premises.

During the year under review, WeBuyCars had also opened a new vehicle supermarket in East London in June with capacity for 300 vehicles.

Post-year end, the company had opened another in Rustenburg with capacity for 300 vehicles.

-FIN24



Resolute Mining to pay Mali $160 million to resolve tax dispute, free staff



Australia's Resolute Mining said on Monday that it would pay $160 million to Mali's government to help resolve a tax dispute after the West African country detained its CEO Terence Holohan and two other employees this month.

Resolute has made an initial payment of $80 million as part of the settlement from existing cash reserves and will make future payments of about $80 million in the coming months from existing liquidity sources, it said in a statement.

After the news, Resolute shares fell as much as 14.3% in early trading on Monday to A$0.345, their lowest since March 1.

The detained employees were in Mali's capital Bamako to hold discussions with mining and tax authorities regarding general activities related to the company's business practices, the company said last week.

Resolute is currently working with the Mali government to release the detained employees, who remain "safe and well" and are receiving support from the UK and international embassies and consulates, the miner said on Monday.

"We are supporting three British nationals who have been detained in Mali and are in contact with the local authorities," the British government's foreign office said in response to their detention.

Mali is one of Africa's top gold producers and the detention of mining company employees, which have also included some senior local staff at Canada's Barrick Gold, is becoming part of a pattern as the government seeks to extract more income from the sector.

Resolute's gold mine in Syama, Mali - one of its two operational mines - contributed nearly two-thirds of its annual sales of 329,061 ounces in 2023. Resolute owns an 80% stake in the project, while Mali's government holds the rest.

"The Company notes that operations on site continue as normal and have not been impacted," Resolute said in its statement.

-REUTERS