COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Exxaro,CNIC favourites to buy Lekela

South African miner Exxaro and Chinese state fund CNIC are among potential buyers admitted to the final round of bidding for African renewable energy firm Lekela Power, a company worth around US$2 billion, a number of sources familiar with the deal told Reuters.

African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), an arm of Old Mutual, has advanced to the final stages alongside Exxaro, two sources said. Another two sources said CNIC was in the final bidding round. All sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

Private equity firm Actis' plans to sell its 60% stake in Lekela were first reported last year, but 40% shareholder Mainstream Power is also looking to cash out as well, three sources familiar with the decision said, with one adding it was being advised by Citi alongside Actis.

Actis, which founded Lekela with Mainstream in 2015, values the company at US$1.9 billion, according to its website. Lekela develops utility-scale renewable power projects in Africa. It has 1.3 GW of projects in Egypt, Ghana and South Africa and lays claim to building the first ever utility-scale wind farm in Senegal, according to its website.

AIIM, advised by Goldman Sachs, is currently seen as the frontrunner, two of the sources familiar with the deal said. -Reuters

J&J unit proposes independent exam

A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary proposed that it would submit to an independent examination of the corporate restructuring the healthcare giant undertook in an attempt to settle in US bankruptcy court thousands of lawsuits alleging that J&J baby powder and other talc products cause cancer.

Greg Gordon, a lawyer for J&J subsidiary LTL Management LLC, raised during a hearing before US Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan the idea of a court-appointed examiner that could "come in and do whatever investigation it wants" to determine whether the restructuring short-changed cancer victims.

Bankruptcy judges have wide discretion over the scope and budget for an appointed examiner. Any such examination would be contingent on LTL remaining in bankruptcy, an arrangement that cancer plaintiffs oppose.

Cancer plaintiffs have asked Kaplan to dismiss LTL's bankruptcy case and allow them to resume the lawsuits against J&J. Kaplan, who presided over a week-long hearing on the matter in Trenton, New Jersey, has said he will decide by the end of the month whether to dismiss the case.

J&J is attempting to use LTL's bankruptcy case to resolve about 38 000 lawsuits alleging the company's talc products caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, an illness linked to asbestos exposure. -Reuters

AGL Energy rejects offer

Australia's biggest power producer AGL Energy Ltd on Monday rejected a surprise US$3.54 billion takeover approach from billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canada's Brookfield Asset Management in favour of a plan to split in two this year.

AGL said the A$7.50 apiece proposal from the Canadian group and Cannon-Brookes, Australia's second-richest man and co-founder of software firm Atlassian, at a 4.7% premium to the stock's Friday close undervalued it.

"The proposal does not offer an adequate premium for a change of control and is not in the best interests of AGL Energy shareholders," AGL Chairman Peter Botten said.

AGL's shares jumped as much as 13% on Monday to a high of A$8.09, reflecting investors' view that a higher bid will emerge.

The unsolicited cash proposal with an option for AGL shareholders to elect a scrip alternative provided limited other information about how the deal would be structured, Botten said. -Reuters

Lufthansa to suspend flights

Germany's Lufthansa group is suspending flights to and from the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Odessa, a spokesperson said on Saturday amid growing fears of a possible Russian invasion.

The company, which owns Germany's flagship carrier as well as Eurowings, Swiss, Brussels and Austrian Airlines, will conduct some last flights to those cities over the weekend before suspending flights from Monday until the end of the month, the spokesperson said.

It will continue to fly to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine where some countries have moved their embassies, the spokesperson said. Lufthansa is constantly monitoring the situation and will decide on further flights at a later date.

Lufthansa follows several other European airlines which have already cancelled services to and from Ukraine. Germany's foreign ministry earlier on Saturday told its nationals to leave the country. -Reuters

Amazon, Reliance set to lock horns

Amazon's rivalry in India with oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries looks set to head to the cricket field, where they will likely battle media heavyweights for telecast rights to India's premier cricket league with its hundreds of millions of viewers.

Amazon.com Inc and Reliance Industries Ltd are expected to take on India units of Sony Group Corp and Walt Disney Co for exclusive five-year TV and digital broadcast rights to the two-month series of matches, at a cost that could run to a record 500 billion rupees (US$6.7 billion), sources familiar with the companies' plans said.

"Cricket is the second-biggest sport in the world with two-and-a-half billion fans and IPL is like its Super Bowl," said Anton Rublievskyi, head of Parimatch, a betting company that advertised at the Indian Premier League (IPL) last year.

Disney-owned Star India, which is one of the top broadcasters in India along with Sony and its planned acquisition Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, paid 163.48 billion rupees for the digital and television rights until 2022. The league's matches reached 350 million viewers during the first half of the 2021 season alone. -Reuters