Hotel operator, the JSE-listed Sun International, on Monday said it will sell its varying interests in Botswana, Zambia, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland to the biggest leisure and hospitality firm in Asia Pacific, Minor International Public Company (MINT) for R664 million ($62.7 million). “The investment by MINT will be a combination of an acquisition of existing shares from…Sun International…and the acquisition of an interest in the operating management agreements whereby Sun International Management Limited provides management and related services in respect of each of the African Assets,” Sun International said in the announcement.
Updated 5 Years ago

Iran exported $7.9 billion of crude oil and gas condensates in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 21, the Shana news agency quoted MP Hossein-Ali Hajideligani as saying on Sunday. Iran exported $41.6 billion of crude oil and gas condensates in the previous Iranian calendar year, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in April.
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Thirteen European and Asian companies have announced they are ready to invest in Iranian gas projects, according to National Iranian Gas Company official Asghar Soheilipour. Four British and French companies, three Japanese companies, two South Korean companies, and four Chinese companies, as well as four Iranian companies, are prepared to invest a total of $15 billion in Iranian gas projects, the ISNA news agency quoted Soheilipour as saying on Sunday.
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Kuwait Food Co (Americana) said on Monday that it had no knowledge of any talks with Saudi Arabia’s Savola Group on a possible acquisition of Americana. “The board and executive administration deny knowledge of any negotiations with Savola regarding an acquisition of Americana,” the Kuwaiti company said in a statement to its stock exchange.
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Saudi Arabia’s bourse could extend gains on Monday, as most of the region stays quiet with few themes to excite Gulf investors. The Kingdom’s benchmark rose for the 13th time in 15 sessions on Sunday to reach a new six-year peak, continuing to rise on the back of its plan to open to direct foreign investment early next year.
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They are greeters, a community of volunteers who delight in showing visitors around their hometown. Yu Ran and Yang Yuqing find out the attractions of the job. As a resident, Zhou Zhehao used to think he knew everything about Shanghai, but each time he guides visitors around the city, he says he learns something new.
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China is now the world's second-largest film market, and the prediction is that it will overtake the United States to become the largest by 2020. According to the latest figures, total Chinese box-office takings last year grew 28 percent year-on-year to $3.6 billion. The Film Bureau of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of China, reports that revenues from Chinese films overtook Hollywood blockbusters for the first time.
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China Vanke, the country's largest property developer by revenue, posted slower profit growth in the first half of 2014 compared with robust gains in the same period last year. Net profits edged up 5.55 percent year on year to 4.81 billion yuan (about $782 million) in the first six months, said a report on the website of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The growth was sharply down from a 22 percent increase in net profits in the first half of 2013.
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The shipping industry may have planted the seeds of its next crisis, even as it works to finish recovering from the last one, with a rise in the number of ships now being built in Asia. Many new ships are being built, mostly at Chinese or South Korean shipyards. When these hit the water over the next year or two they will create a glut that could hurt prices and push the industry into a new crisis.
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Biotech drug production techniques based on plants, which may prove to be faster, higher yielding and cheaper than current methods using mammalian cells, haven't caught on with the biggest pharmaceutical companies. The leading players in so-called "plantibodies" include San Diego's Mapp Pharmaceutical, which garnered global attention for an experimental Ebola drug given to two American medical workers, as well as companies like Germany's Icon Genetics, Canada's PlantForm Corp, and Delaware-based IBio Inc. All of the privately-held companies are working to produce antibodies, protein drugs and vaccines in fast-growing plants.
Updated 5 Years ago