ANGLO AMERICAN reinstated dividends but warned about delayes and higher costs at its Minas Rio project in Brazil. ANGLO this morning said the project would probably not start producing in 2012 as planned. A number of key approvals remained outstanding and these were on the critical path of the project, therefore impacting time and cost to complete. ANGLO said underlying EPS increased to $1.84 from 91c the year before. It announced a half-year dividend of 25cps after suspending payouts last year to conserve cash during the global downturn.

INVESTEC today said Q1 net operating income rose by 11% as the stength of its UK business offset weakness in SA. The group said it was bolstered by "particularly strong results" at its British asset management and capital markets divisions. INVESTEC gave few details on performance in the quarterly update. Attributable earnings or net profit before goodwill and non-operating items rose by 2% in the Apr.-Jun. quarter compared with a year earlier. It did not report quarterly figures for either net operating income or attributable earnings. INVESTEC said bad debts remain at "elevated levels". INVESTEC is also targeting rising investor interest in Africa. The bank's asset management arm has said it aims to triple its assets under management in Africa outside of SA over the next 5 years. Shares of INVESTEC have risen 14.6% thus far this year, outperforming a 1.6% gain in the Top-40 index.

MERCANTILE BANK HOLDINGS CEO DAVE BROWN yesterday said he was not proud to report a 32% decline in headline earnings in the six months to end-Jun., but predicted a positive outcome in the second half of the year. BROWN said he was comforted by the fact that MERCANTILE had survived the recession with a fairly stable business and robust debtors book. The decline in HEPS to 1.4c from 2.1c was mainly attributed to a decrease in net interest income before credit losses of 7.7%, and the general low business activity as evidence by the small growth in loans and advances of 1.9%. Additionally, the loss of revenue from WOOLWORTHS FINANCIAL SERVICES - sold to ABSA - had affected noninterest income, which fell more than 20% in the period. Net interest income after credit losses stood at R129.86m, down from R133.04m, while noninterest income was down from R138.3m to R125.3m. Operating profit was R78.16m and profit after tax was R55.85m from R82.4m. BROWN said talks with SASFIN were continuing and a planned BEE deal had been suspended pending the outcome of these negotiations.

OMNIA has received commitments from several institutional investors to subscribe for shares to the tune of R1bn. The group earlier this year announced plans for a R1bn capital raising exercise through a "clawback offer and rights" of a maximum of 20m new ordinary shares at R50/share. OMNIA yesterday announced that SANLAM INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT had subscribed for shares worth R400m, CORONATION ASSET MANAGEMENT for R300m, INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION for R250m and CADIZ ASSET MANAGEMENT for R50m. OMNIA would announce the results of the offer on Sep. 13. The capital raising would partially fund OMNIA's R1.4bn nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plant in SA. The other R400m would come from internal funds and debt.

REDEFINE is planning to list its offshore property company on the JSE. REDEFINE INTERNATIONAL has built up a portfolio of properties in the UK, Europe and Australia, and the company now has Reserve Bank position to use this for foreign direct investment in offshore property. REDEFINE INTERNATIONAL, currently known as CIREF PLC, is registered in Jersey and listed on AIM in London. It has a portfolio of 92 quality properties in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and a number or prestige properties in Australia. The listing will be used to raise £100m - the present market capitalisation is £160m. REDEFINE CEO MARC WAINER said the company would be listed on the JSE as a domestic company with no restrictions, and shares will be priced at 50p and the rand value will be a function of the exchange rate. REDEFINE INTERNATIONAL believed offshore oppotunities, particularly in Australia, were better than here. REDEFINE INTERNATIONAL will have a dividend yield of 8%, compared with 8.5% in SA. The group has just funded QUANTAS's Sydney head office on a ten-year lease on an 8.4% yield. The cost of borrowing will be 6%. Another attraction is the rand hedge, according to WAINER, who thinks it is an attractive time to hedge against the local currency. Like all REDEFINE's companies, RI will be income focused. WAINER said a prospectus would be published soon and a presentation held on the new listing on Tuesday at 17h00 at the Park Hyatt in Rosebank.

DE BEERS yesterday said it had been approached by potential investors interested in buying its Namaqualand and Finsch diamond mines in the Northern Cape. DE BEERS in may said that 350 Finsch mine jobs out of 903 could be shed at the operation, and production at Namaqualand was suspended three months ago. A restructuring is under way to prevent Finsch from losing R200m/year. DE BEERS said interest in the two mines had arisen on the back of the recovery in the diamond market. The company would be undertaking a systematic review process in order to assess the expressions of interest appropriately. This would involve the evaluation of offers from companies with good mining track records and strong BEE credentials, and interested parties would have to satisfy other economic, social and environmental criteria when formulating their submissions.

BARRICK GOLD would defent the court action instituted against it and PLATMIN over the sale of BARRICK's 10% stake in the Sedibelo mine. BARRICK in Apr. announced it would sell the stake in the project to PLATMIN for $15m, but the company's JV partner in the project, the BAKGATLA-BA-KGAFELA tribe, which held the remaining 90% stake in Sedibelo, had informed the Canadian miner it had exercised its right to prevent the disposal. The tribe also said it had filed an action in the SA High Court against PLATMIN and BARRICK. BARRICK said it believed the right was not lawfully exercised and would defend the court action and seek information of its rights pursuant to the arbitration provisions of the agreement between the parties. The deal had been expected to be concluded in Q2 of this year, but could not be closed owing to the tribe's objections. PLATMIN's planned $45m acquisition of long-lead items required for the development of Sedibelo had also not been finalised.

MVELAPHANDA HOLDINGS, founded by Human Settlements Minister TOKYO SEXWALE, was advising KHULUBUSE ZUMA on the development of two oil blocks in the DRC, MVELA CE MARK WILLCOX said yesterday. Blocks 1 and 2 in Lake Albert were last month awarded to CAPRIKAT and FOXWHELP, companies incorporated in the British Virgin Islands by ZUMA in Mar. WILLCOX said he was working as ZUMA's "strategic adviser" with a team from MVELA, but that the group was not involved in the ownership of the projects. CAPRIKAT and FOXWHELP would begin seismic exploration and community development projects as soon as possible, and the two companies would open an office in Kinshasa and Bunia next week.

HARMONY GOLD yesterday reported a rise in gold and copper mineral resource at its Papua New Guinea project. HARMONY announced that a new zone of mineralisation was discovered at the JV Wafi-Golpu porphyry copper-gold project. The mineral resource now contained 16m oz of gold and 4.8m tons of copper, HARMONY said.

The sale by MURRAY & ROBERTS of 24 properties to BRODSKY INVESTMENTS, CAPITAL PROPERTY FUND, RESILIENT PROPERTIES and FORTRESS INCOME 2 as a single transaciton was yesterday approved by the Competition Tribunal. M&R said the sale for an undisclosed sum would relieve domestic debt and allow it to acquire new core assets.