Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 16 July 2018

Mon Jul 16 11:25:14 CAT 2018

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 16 July 2018

 <http://www.mbca.co.zw/> 

*  MTN's Dubai subsidiary sells MTN Cyprus for $304 million

*  Amplats expects first-half profit to more than quadruple

*  China willing to invest $3 bln in Nigerian oil operations -NNPC

*  Libya's Sharara oilfield cuts output after workers abducted

*  South African rand gains as dollar eases

*  UAE pledges $10 bln in investment, South Africa says

*  Telecom Egypt, Liquid Telecom sign MOU to complete fibre network from
Cape Town to Cairo

*  Police arrest ex-CEO of Kenya Power company

*  Africa's richest man Dangote signs $650 mln Afreximbank loan for oil
refinery project

*  Workers resume at MTN Nigeria after days of labour unrest

*  China's second quarter growth meets expectations at 6.7%

*  May pledges to boost aerospace amid Brexit fears

*  Rolls-Royce develops propulsion system for flying taxi

*  Boeing 'concerns' over US-China trade row

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

MTN's Dubai subsidiary sells MTN Cyprus for $304 million

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa-based mobile telecommunications
company MTN Group Ltd said on Monday its Dubai subsidiary sold its Cyprus
business to Monaco Telecom S.A for 260 million euros($304 million).

Africa’s biggest mobile telecoms group said that as part of the deal to sell
MTN Cyprus it would allow the use of the MTN brand in Cyprus for up to three
years for a fee.

MTN Cyprus, which is the South African company’s only business in the
European Union, was acquired as part of the acquisition of telecoms holding
company Investcom LLC in 2006.

“It falls outside the group’s core footprint of Africa and the Middle East,”
MTN said in a statement.

Johannesburg-listed MTN, which has businesses in 24 countries in Africa and
the Middle East, is expanding in the continent and plans to launch a mobile
service in Namibia in August.

($1 = 0.8548 euros)

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

Amplats expects first-half profit to more than quadruple

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s Anglo American Platinum (Amplats)
flagged a more than 350 percent increase in half-year profit boosted by
improved operational performance and a more favourable rand basket price for
the metal.

Amplats said it expects headline earnings per share (HEPS) to come in
between 1,249 cents ($0.94) and 1,302 cents per share for the six months
ended June 30, compared with 285 cents per share a year earlier.

HEPS is the main profit measure used in South Africa that strips out certain
one-off items.

($1 = 13.2307 rand)

China willing to invest $3 bln in Nigerian oil operations -NNPC

ABUJA (Reuters) - China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) is willing to
invest $3 billion in its existing oil and gas operation in Nigeria, the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on Sunday following a
meeting with the Chinese in Abuja.

During a visit to Nigeria’s state-owned NNPC, CNOOC Chief Executive Yuan
Guangyu said the Beijing-based oil company had invested more than $14
billion in its Nigerian operations and expressed readiness to invest more.

Guangyu said Nigeria was their largest investment destination and also asked
the NNPC to seek common grounds with CNOOC for enhanced productivity.

Nigeria has been holding talks with oil majors over new finance agreements
for joint ventures since last year. The NNPC last year signed financing
agreements with Chevron and Shell worth at least $780 million to boost crude
production and reserves.

Other western oil companies, including ExxonMobil (XOM.N), operate in
Nigeria through joint ventures with NNPC.

Libya's Sharara oilfield cuts output after workers abducted

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Production at Libya’s giant Sharara oil field
was expected to fall by at least 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) on Saturday
after two staff were abducted in an attack by an unknown group, the National
Oil Corporation (NOC) said.

The attack happened at a control station on the outskirts of Sharara, about
40 km (25 miles) from the main part of the field, engineers at the field
said. One of the abducted workers was Romanian, they said.

NOC said it expected output to drop by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd),
although one engineer said output at the field, which had been producing
200,000-300,000 bpd recently, had already dropped to below 100,000 bpd.

Tripoli-based NOC operates Sharara in partnership with Repsol, Total, OMV
and Equinor, formerly known as Statoil.

The field, in Libya’s remote southwest, has suffered security problems in
the past, including raids in which vehicles and mobile phones have been
stolen.

The facility that was targeted on Saturday is called Station 186 and was
also attacked last year.

The NOC said unknown armed assailants entered the station at 6.30 a.m. (4.30
GMT) on Saturday.

“Four of the station staff were initially kidnapped but two of them have
been since released,” it said. “Oil wells in the surrounding area have been
shut down as a precaution, and all other workers evacuated.”

An engineer at the field said one of the abducted workers was Romanian.

In addition to being one of Libya’s main export grades, Sharara feeds the
120,000 bpd Zawiya oil refinery on the country’s northwest coast.

South African rand gains as dollar eases

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand strengthened early on Monday,
extending previous gains, as sentiment towards riskier, high-yield markets
improved after trade talks between China and the European Union.

At 0650 the rand traded at 13.2125 to the dollar, up 0.32 percent from
Friday’s close.

The dollar slipped against most major currencies on positive trade talks
between China and the European Union.

Statistics South Africa will publish June consumer price inflation data on
Wednesday, before a decision on interest rates on Thursday.

South Africa’s Reserve Bank is expected to hold rates at 6.5 percent, said
all 25 economists polled by Reuters.

“There is no change expected in interest rates and with a hike now priced in
from around 6 months’ time, all ears will be listening for any kind of
hawkish stance from the governor,” Standard Bank analysts said in a note.

The yield on the benchmark bond due in 2026 fell 0.5 basis points to 8.725
percent.

Stocks opened lower, with the JSE’s Top-40 index futures index down 0.34 pct
to 50085 points.

UAE pledges $10 bln in investment, South Africa says

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has pledged to
invest $10 billion in South Africa’s economy, including the tourism and
mining sectors, the South African presidency said on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia committed a similar sum with a focus on energy during a Middle
East visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has set an
ambitious target of attracting $100 billion in investment to kick-start an
ailing economy.

“The UAE announced its plans to invest $10 billion in key sectors of South
Africa’s economy, such as tourism and mining among others, to support the
sustainable development of the country,” the presidency said in a statement
after Ramaphosa visited the federation of seven emirates on Friday.

Telecom Egypt, Liquid Telecom sign MOU to complete fibre network from Cape
Town to Cairo

CAIRO (Reuters) - Telecom Egypt has signed a memorandum of understanding
with Liquid Telecom to enable the pan-African group to complete Africa’s
terrestrial fibre network stretching across the African continent, the
companies said on Saturday.

Liquid Telecom, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless Global, has been building a
fibre network across southern Africa covering Botswana, Democratic Republic
of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It also has a presence
in Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.

“Liquid Telecom will link its network from Sudan into Telecom Egypt’s
network via a new cross-border interconnection – bringing together a 60,000
km network that runs from Cape Town, through all the Southern, Central and
Eastern African countries, and has now reached the border between Sudan and
Egypt,” the two companies said in a statement.

They did not provide a time frame for the completion of the network or any
estimate of the cost.

“Completing our vision of building a single network running on land, all the
way from Cape to Cairo is a historic moment for the company and for a more
connected Africa,” Strive Masiyiwa, founder and executive chairman of
Econet, said in the statement.

Police arrest ex-CEO of Kenya Power company

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan authorities said on Saturday they had arrested a
former chief executive officer of the state-run distributor Kenya Power on
suspicion of economic crimes and wanted to charge the current chief
executive.

Kenya has been hit by a new spate of scandals involving bogus tenders and
suppliers with the alleged theft of hundreds of millions of shillings by
state officials from several government bodies.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations said on Twitter their detectives
had arrested Ben Chumo, former Kenya Power chief executive officer, Beatrice
Meso, its general manager for corporate affairs and company cecretary, and
Peter Mwicigi, its general manager regional co-ordination.

When sought for comment, Chumo asked to be called back later. Meso and
Mwicigi were not immediately available to comment.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations said two other Kenya Power
managers it was looking for had surrendered into their custody on Saturday.

The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said it planned to charge
eight other Kenya Power officials including Ken Tarus, the present chief
executive officer, who at the time of the alleged offences was the general
manager for finance. The charges relate to economic crime and abuse of
office.

Tarus’s phone was off and he was not immediately available to comment.

Also to be charged are four directors of a private company, Muwa Trading.

The prosecutor’s office said the charges arose from a 2012 contract between
Kenya Power and Muwa Trading which led to the loss of $3.1 million for the
supply of transformers, most of which the prosecutor said were faulty.

The office said other charges arose from the awards of labour and transport
contracts in 2017. It recommended Tarus and eight other Kenya Power
officials and four officials from another private company, Millers
Enterprises, be arraigned in court.

Africa's richest man Dangote signs $650 mln Afreximbank loan for oil
refinery project

ABUJA (Reuters) - Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has signed a $650
million loan facility with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) for
his oil refinery project in Nigeria.

Africa’s trade bank, based in Egypt, also signed a $750 million facility
with Nigeria’s development bank, the Bank of Industry.

Reuters witnessed the signing of both loans on Saturday.

Workers resume at MTN Nigeria after days of labour unrest

ABUJA (Reuters) - Workers resumed at MTN Nigeria on Friday after the
country’s labour union picketed the South African telecoms company over the
rights of workers to join unions, the company said.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the umbrella labour union in Africa’s
most populous nation, shut down MTN operations in Nigeria since Monday over
claims that the telecoms firm had refused workers from becoming union
members.

MTN Nigeria staff confirmed that they were allowed to enter offices for the
first time on Friday since this week.

“Given ongoing interventions by various stakeholders ... and the security
agencies, we trust that there will be no further protests, aggression,
attacks on our employees or damage to the network and property,” MTN said in
a statement.

“Most of all, we expect that our employees’ rights to associate freely and
without coercion will be respected.”

South Africa’s MTN is the biggest player in Nigeria’s telecoms industry. The
company is in the middle of an IPO process to list its Nigerian unit, as
part of a settlement with the Nigerian government over unregistered SIM
cards for which it was fined $1.7 billion fine in 2015.

Last year protesters attacked and vandalised MTN’s head office in Abuja in
apparent retaliation for anti-Nigerian violence in South Africa.

China's second quarter growth meets expectations at 6.7%

China's economy grew at an annual pace of 6.7% in the three months to June,
official data showed, meeting forecasts for the period.

That marked a slight slowdown from a 6.8% expansion recorded in the previous
quarter.

The data comes as the government attempts to curb growing debt and as trade
tensions with the US escalate.

The US raised the stakes in a trade war last week, listing another $200bn
worth of Chinese goods to be hit by tariffs.

Chinese stock markets, which have struggled recently amid the escalating
trade dispute between the US and China, traded down slightly on Monday.

How a US-China trade war could hurt us all

US-China trade row: What has happened so far?

"GDP growth eased... on softer global trade and the tightening of financial
policy since early 2018," Oxford Economics said in a research note.

It expects slow credit growth and softer real estate activity - along with
the "intensifying trade conflict with the US" - to weigh on China's growth
in the second half of 2018.

The US slapped tariffs on $34bn of Chinese goods on 6 July, opening the way
for a tit-for-tat trade war with the world's second-largest economy.

China retaliated, saying the US had launched the "largest trade war in
economic history".

However, Tom Rafferty from the Economist Intelligence Unit said there were
also worries about the strength of China's domestic economy.

"The EIU is more concerned about slowing domestic demand within China's
economy, with investment persistently weak and consumption also having
slowed, and these are much more important drivers of growth than exports,"
he said in a research note.

China's monthly trade surplus with the US hit a record high of nearly $29bn
(£22bn) in June as exports to America remained strong.

US President Donald Trump recently suggested that more than $500bn of
Chinese goods could be hit by tariffs. That is almost equal to the value of
China's entire goods exports to the US last year.--BBC

May pledges to boost aerospace amid Brexit fears

Theresa May is to promise extra investment for the aerospace industry, just
days after Airbus threatened to reduce its UK presence because of Brexit
disruption.

The prime minister will also say that her Brexit plan will secure millions
of aviation jobs in Britain.

It comes amid growing criticism of her plan from MPs, with another
government member resigning in protest on Sunday.

The proposal urges close links with the EU on trade in goods, but not
services.

At a speech at the Farnborough Airshow on Monday, she will offer more than
£300m of government money for several projects, including research on more
environmentally-friendly aircraft.

Airbus: Chequers deal 'right direction'

Brexit circles over air show extravaganza

There will be additional money for two new spaceports - one in Cornwall, one
in Scotland - and a long-awaited commitment to build a new high-tech fighter
aircraft that will eventually replace the Eurofighter Typhoon.

The UK aviation sector generates turnover of about £60bn and supports almost
a million jobs. British aerospace exports alone were worth £30bn in 2017.

However, industry trade association ADS has warned the sector could be
paralysed if Britain leaves the EU customs union and single market, given
its dependence on cross-border trade in components.

Check out all our coverage of Farnborough 2018

In June, Airbus UK boss Tom Enders said it could pull production out of the
UK if it quit the bloc without a transition deal. The French firm employs
about 14,000 people in Britain.

However, last week, Mr Enders tentatively welcomed Mrs May's plan, saying
the government is now moving in the right direction.

But in an interview with the BBC, the boss of Airbus's arch-rival, Boeing,
pledged to keep investing in Britain.

Dennis Muilenberg said while the company did not welcome disruption to the
movement of goods - or to the Europe-wide systems of aviation regulation -
his company's plans would not be changed by the UK's plans to leave the EU.

"We are going to continue to grow in the UK," he said, adding that Boeing
would maintain a long-term view of its UK investments, "regardless of how
Brexit plays out".

However, he added there were worries over whether "we continue to see free
flow of goods and services".

In her speech, Mrs May will argue that her proposals - including
frictionless free trade in goods and the avoidance of a hard border in
Northern Ireland - will protect the supply chains that big aerospace firms
depend on.

She will also set out how the UK could remain part of EU agencies critical
for the aerospace industry, such as the European Aviation Safety Agency.

'Encourage investment'

"By working closely together, government and industry have ensured we remain
at the forefront of civil aviation and that our air power is second to
none," she will say.

"Today I want us to build on that, and ensure not only that we retain our
prominence, but that in an increasingly competitive industry we make the
most of the opportunities that lie ahead."

ADS has welcomed the government's plan, but insists there are important and
complex issues still to be resolved.

However, chief executive Paul Everitt said the prime minister's remarks were
a "strong statement of intent" that would help build confidence and
encourage investment.

"The international political, military and business leaders visiting
Farnborough will be reassured by last week's Brexit White Paper and are keen
to hear more about the UK's post-Brexit ambitions."--BBC

Rolls-Royce develops propulsion system for flying taxi

Engine maker Rolls-Royce has designed a propulsion system for a flying taxi
which it says could take to the skies as soon as early next decade.

The British firm said it had drawn up plans for an "electric vertical
take-off and landing" (EVTOL) vehicle, which could carry four to five
people.

The vehicle could travel at speeds of up to 250 mph (402 km/h) for
approximately 500 miles, it said.

Rolls joins a variety of other firms in seeking to develop flying vehicles.

Speaking ahead of this week's Farnborough Airshow, Rob Watson, head of the
company's electrical team, said: "We are well placed to play a leading role
in the emerging world of personal air mobility and will also look to work in
collaboration with a range of partners."

Self-flying air taxi lifts off

Uber to open Paris lab for flying taxis

BlackFly is latest attempt at flying car

Flying vehicles have long been the stuff of science fiction, but aviation
and technology companies are now working to make them a reality.

Airbus, US ride-sharing firm Uber and a range of start-ups including one
backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, called Kitty Hawk, have all
announced projects.

Check out all our coverage of Farnborough 2018

Rolls said the initial concept for EVTOL used gas turbine technology to
generate electricity to power six electric propulsors, specially designed to
have a low noise profile.

Its wings would be able to rotate 90 degrees, enabling the vehicle to take
off or land vertically. It could also use existing heliports and airports.

"We believe that given the work we are doing today to develop hybrid
electric propulsion capabilities, this model could be available by the early
to mid 2020s, provided that a viable commercial model for its introduction
can be created," the firm said.

The company, which will disclose more details at Farnborough, said it was
looking for an airframe maker and a partner to provide aspects of the
electrical system.--BBC

Boeing 'concerns' over US-China trade row

The head of US aerospace and defence giant Boeing has warned about potential
damage of the growing US-China trade row.

"Aerospace thrives on free and open trade," said chief executive Dennis
Muilenburg.

He said he was concerned tariffs could push up costs for aircraft
manufacturers.

"The aerospace sector drives economic benefits globally," he added.

With both the US and China imposing tariffs on each other's goods, Mr
Muilenburg said Boeing wanted to find "alternative solutions" to trade
disputes.

"We are concerned it could affect supply chain costs - but those supply
chains are flowing in both directions [between China and the US], it is an
intricate network around the world."

Speaking to reporters ahead of this week's Farnborough Airshow, Mr
Muilenburg insisted that the White House was listening to his firm's
arguments.

Check out all our coverage of Farnborough 2018

"We engaged very much with both governments [in China and the US," he said,
"our voice is being heard." He was hopeful that there would be a "good
resolution" to the disputes, adding "our job is to maintain a long-term
perspective".

This month, the US imposed tariffs of $34bn (£25.7bn) on Chinese goods. In
response, China introduced equivalent tariffs on US imports, such as pork
and soya beans.

President Trump has now gone further and threatened to impose tariffs on a
further $200bn of Chinese trade. China has said it will retaliate.

The US has also imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports - a 25% tax
on steel and 10% tax on aluminium from the EU, Mexico and Canada.

All of this has raised concern that these multiple trade disputes will slow
global growth.

Mr Muilenburg said that Boeing has not yet felt the impact of any tariffs on
its business, but added that "the rhetoric about potential penalty actions
are a concern for us".

On China, Mr Muilenburg said that Beijing "well understood" the need to
expand their aerospace capability to drive their growth.

"We understand their long-term aim to be a global competitor. The idea of
co-operation, collaboration and competition in China - this is the business
model - it's not new."--BBC

INVESTORS DIARY 2018

Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

NicozDiamond

shares delist from the ZSE

06/07/2018

Zimbabwe

Heroes’ Day

Zimbabwe

13/08/2018

Zimbabwe

Defence Forces Day

Zimbabwe

14/08/2018

The Harare Agricultural Show

The Harare Agricultural Show

The Harare Agricultural Show

August 27- September 1

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

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opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without
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for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

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