COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

BHP-Anglo prospects flag more M&A ahead for miners



BHP's bid for Anglo American underlines the growing appetite for energy transition metals like copper from miners who must become more aggressive to secure new projects or risk missing out, investors and mining CEOs said on Wednesday.

The bid by the world's biggest listed miner for Anglo is expected to whet appetite for more deals in the sector whether it goes ahead or not, they said.



"There is clearly a preference for buying over building because costs have ramped up so much in the past few years," said Ben Cleary of Tribeca Investment Partners, which is an investor in Anglo American.

"BHP ... have been telling you for a long time that they love copper. Rio the same. In terms of their portfolio skew they are still very heavily weighted to iron ore ... you are going to see more deals," he said, speaking at the AFR Mining Summit in Perth.



Anglo has twice rejected overtures by BHP, whose deadline to make a third offer expires later on Wednesday. Instead, Anglo has pledged to break up its company to lower costs.

Whether Anglo's management decide to engage with BHP on Tuesday, investors expect more interest in the sector as copper prices, which hit a record above $11,000 a tonne on Monday, climb and encourage new projects.

Rising prices will only make competition for copper assets more intense, said Brett Beatty, partner and managing director Australia, of private equity company Resource Capital Funds.



-REUTERS-





ExxonMobil and Shell considering bids for stake in Galp’s Namibia oilfield



ExxonMobil and Shell are among the energy giants evaluating bids for a stake in Galp Energia’s oilfield offshore Namibia, reported Bloomberg, citing sources.



TotalEnergies and Equinor are also interested in acquiring the 40% stake that Galp is looking to sell in the Mopane discovery, the sources added.



The Mopane field, part of the Orange Basin within petroleum exploration licence 83 (PEL 83), is a region that has recently witnessed several significant oil and gas finds.



Galp holds an 80% stake as the operator of PEL 83, with the National Petroleum Company of Namibia (NAMCOR) and Custos Energy each holding a 10% share.



Based on Galp’s recent “in place” estimates, the Mopane complex contains approximately ten billion barrels of oil equivalent, potentially valuing the entire discovery at around $20bn (€18.44bn), the sources said.



-BLOOMBERG-



Kenya to get huge Microsoft data centre for East Africa



Microsoft and G42 have announced plans to build a hyperscale data centre in Kenya to service the East Africa region.



The new Microsoft Azure East Africa Cloud Region forms part of a US$1-billion initial investment by the two companies and form part of a “comprehensive package of digital investments in Kenya”.



“In collaboration with Microsoft and other stakeholders, G42 will lead the arrangement of an initial investment of $1-billion for the various components outlined in the comprehensive package,” Microsoft said in a statement on Wednesday.



Microsoft, which has already deployed several Azure data centres in South Africa – and which is in the process of building more capacity in the Johannesburg area – said the Kenya facility will be a “state-of-the-art green data centre”.



-TECHCENTRAL-



Liquid to offer Starlink rival OneWeb in Africa



Liquid Intelligent Technologies has reached a distribution partner agreement with Eutelsat Group that will see enterprise-grade low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite services being made available in Africa.



On a continent where satellite technology is relatively new and limited in its reach, for Liquid Dataport’s customers, this translates to enhanced performance for applications like cloud computing, video conferencing and real-time applications, among others, Liquid said in a statement.



Liquid Dataport is the wholesale connectivity arm of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a pan-African technology group.

The integration of the OneWeb LEO satellite network will offer lower latency, faster orbital periods, and higher bandwidth, the company added. OneWeb is a competitor to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service, which is owned by his company SpaceX.



The Eutelsat Group was formed through the merger of Eutelsat and OneWeb in 2023, becoming the first fully integrated GEO-LEO satellite operator with a fleet of 35 GEO satellites and a LEO constellation of more than 600 satellites.



TechCentral reported last week that Avanti Communications has partnered with Q-KON to deliver LEO satellite services via the Eutalsat OneWeb constellation in South Africa. And last November, NEC XON said it would sell OneWeb’s solutions in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa.