ABN Business Briefs

Johannesburg, (ABN)

Namibia MPC
Namibia's central bank yesterday left its bank rate unchanged at 6.0 percent, citing concerns of "frail" economic growth. Governor Ipumbu Shiimi said they estimate growth for 2011 just under 4 percent compared to 6.6 percent in 2010. The bank said it expected inflation to trend upwards but remain in single digits.

Kenya's British American Tobacco
Kenya's British American Tobacco has posted a 65 percent rise in full year pretax profit to 4.48 billion shillings after revenues rose by close to a half, and a weaker shilling helped exports. The cigarette manufacturer said that total revenues rose to 20.14 billion shillings in 2011 from 13.54 billion, while earnings per share jumped to 30.98 shillings from 17.67 shillings.

Mondi
South African paper maker Mondi reported a 49 percent rise in its full year profit buoyed by recovering demand. Headline earnings per share totalled 69 euro cents in the year to end-December. Speaking on the state of the global paper industry, Mondi said that it is slowly recovering from a slump triggered by weak demand and overcapacity. But it added that these capacity reductions across the industry have helped lift prices. Mondi's full-year dividend is up 30 percent to 26 euro cents.

British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco increased its share buyback to 1.25 billion pounds after it raised prices and saw strong growth in emerging markets to help boost its annual earnings. The world's second-biggest cigarette maker posted a rise of 11 percent in adjusted diluted earnings per share to 194.6 pence. The group, which made 705 billion cigarette last year, is seeing smoking levels decline in Western Europe and North America, but is offsetting this by increasing its cigarette prices and making gains from strong growth in developing markets such as Russia, Romania and Pakistan. The full-year dividend also rose 11 percent to 126.5 pence a share.

Zambia Inflation
Zambia's inflation slowed to 6 percent year-non-year in February, from 6.4 percent in January. The Central Statistics Office said that the reduction is mainly attributed to reductions in food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Exxaro FY Results
Exxaro's full year revenue climbed 24% to R21.3 billion, as higher selling prices across the group's commodities helped to increase the miner's top line. Headline earnings per share are up 40% to R20,98. South Africa's second largest coal producer experienced a decrease in coal volumes during the period, but the impact was softened by higher export sales at higher prices. Exxaro has declared a final dividend of 500 cents.

Standard Bank
Standard Bank expects full year headline earnings per share to be between 18 and 22 percent higher. Headline earnings per share were at 735.2 cents during the comparative period. South Africa's biggest bank by assets will release results on the 8th of March.

Aveng
Aveng expects interim headline earnings per share to slip by 30 to 35 percent. The group said that the reduction in earnings is primarily due to a highly competitive construction market, compounded by unresolved claims and some execution difficulties on a number of large projects. Aveng will release results on 14 March.

Nigeria
Nigeria earned gross crude oil revenues of 666 billion naira in January. That's down 25 percent on December's figure, because of production outages. The country also distributed 614 billion naira to the three tiers of government in January.

Mozambique
Mozambique plans to start construction of a coal terminal at the northern port of Nacala in the next few months. The country aims to have it operational in the next two to three years. Brazil's Vale plans to spend $4.4 billion to build the terminal. The miner also plans to build a 912 kilometre rail line to connect its coal mine with the port.

Kenya NIC
Kenya's NIC Bank posted a 38 percent rise in full-year pretax profit to 3.6 billion shillings and plans to raise cash through a rights issue. The group said that it will also expand in neighbouring Uganda. Ranked in the second tier of Kenyan banks, NIC's earnings per share rose 47 percent to 6.72 shillings. The bank, which did not give details to explain the rise in profit, said that it would pay a final dividend of 0.25 shillings, unchanged from the previous year. NIC said that it was planning to raise additional capital of 2 billion shillings through a rights issue.