Company news in brief

Kumba to cut jobs

Kumba Iron Ore was forced to slow its production during the last quarter of 2023 to reduce a growing stockpile prompted by railway woes.

The Anglo American subsidiary, which employed about 11 000 people in 2022 including contractors, also announced yesterday that it would look to cut up to 490 jobs as it rethinks its required medium-term production footprint.

It will also review some 160 supplying companies with the possibility that some of their services will be reduced or terminated.

The company said production fell 5.3% to 35.7 million tonnes in its year to end-December, saying it took "decisive action" to slow overall production in the fourth quarter after product stockpiles peaked at unsustainable levels.

To match the current low railway capacity, Kumba has therefore decided to keep its production at 35 million tonnes to 37 million tonnes over the next three years - on average a 12% cut.

The restructuring will help reduce costs by up to R3 billion in the current financial year. – Fin24



WeBuyCars wants to double market share

WeBuyCars plans to almost double its share of the second-hand vehicle market in SA over the next five years. It expects an acceleration in financed sales to fuel this ambition.

The second-hand vehicle dealer, which is in the process of being unbundled by JSE-listed Transaction Capital, said in an investor presentation it wants to grow its market share to about 23% by its 2028 financial year. WeBuyCars currently has between 10% and 12% of South Africa's used-car market.

The company, which was founded in 2001 by CEO Faan van der Walt and his brother Dirk, sold about 141 000 used vehicles in its 2023 financial year, with just over 58% of those being cash sales.

Only about 30 000, or just over 21%, of sales were financed via roughly 60 finance and insurance (F&I) managers stationed at its selling depots, though that's still up from 14.4% in 2019. The rest were business-to-business sales to dealerships.

With WeBuyCars currently receiving about 14 000 credit applications a month, the company wants to convert more of its cash sales to more formal credit channels. – Fin24



Gecamines plans overhaul of mining JVs

The Democratic Republic of Congo's state miner is broadening a push to extract more from its copper and cobalt joint ventures, seeking to negotiate for higher stakes across the board to gain leverage in management of some of its biggest mines.

Gecamines is also leveraging existing shareholding in mines to negotiate off-take contracts for the purpose of trading copper and cobalt on its own.

The miner wants more local executives on boards governing joint ventures to have a greater say in how assets are managed, Guy Robert Lukama, the Gecamines chairman, told Reuters.

The plans may mean overhauling some terms of agreements that Gecamines deems unfavourable to capitalise on the world's scramble for supplies of minerals critical to global green energy transition.

"We want to repair a certain stage of mistakes that were made when they asked us to give most of our best assets to third parties just to attract foreign direct investment," said the chairman of the state miner, which at its peak in 1986 produced more than 490,000 tons of copper and cobalt - but is now a shadow of its former self. - Reuters