Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 18 June 2018

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 18 June 2018

 


 

 


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

 


 

 


 

 

*  South Africa's PPC full-year profit doubles on Zimbabwe and Rwanda operations

*  South Africa's rand firmer; focus CPI, current account data

*  South Africa's NUM wants Eskom wage talks delayed to next week

*  UAE to give Ethiopia $3 billion in aid and investments

*  Brexit barriers could cost households £1k each, report argues

*  General Electric faces fines over French jobs pledge

*  Virgin Money bought by CYBG for £1.7bn

*  Trade tariffs: Chinese media in Trump 'fools build walls' jibe

*  Google diversity figures show little change

*  Fears mount over WhatsApp's role in spreading fake news

*  Elon Musk e-mails Tesla employees urging 'radical improvements' to hit quarterly targets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

South Africa's PPC full-year profit doubles on Zimbabwe and Rwanda operations

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African cement producer PPC on Monday reported a more than two-fold jump in annual earnings, boosted by strong performances in its African operations, particularly in Zimbabwe and Rwanda.

 

PPC, which has operations in six countries, said its headline earnings per share for the full-year ended March 2018 surged to 15 cents from 7 cents a year earlier.

 

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

 

The total cement sale volumes increased 6 percent to 5.9 million tonnes, while group revenue rose 7 percent to 10 billion rand ($744.91 million) from 9.6 billion rand in the prior year.

 

“The performance from Southern Africa cement and materials was subdued, while certain one-off costs had an impact on our overall financial performance,” Chief Executive Officer Johan Claassen said in a statement.

 

Group core profit, or EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, amortisation and depreciation), fell 9 percent to 1.9 billion rand due to costs related to corporate action, ramp up of plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo and restructuring costs.

 

PPC spent most of 2017 in merger discussions with cement and investment suitors including local rival AfriSam, Nigeria’s Dangote Cement and Irish building materials group CRH.

 

In December it concluded that it was no longer interested in selling or buying assets, ending talks about a possible takeover by Swiss group LafargeHolcim.

 

The South African leading cement group has plants in Botswana, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

 

($1 = 13.4245 rand)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

 

 

South Africa's rand firmer; focus CPI, current account data

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand firmed slightly early on Monday, pulling away from a six-month low hit in the previous session, with investor focus on consumer price inflation and current account data due later in the week.

 

At 0633 GMT, the rand traded at 13.4050 per dollar, 0.22 percent firmer than its close on Friday.

 

The currency hit a six-month low of 13.4975 on Friday as global trade war fears rattled emerging markets, while locally the country suffered power outages as workers protested over wages at national electricity provider Eskom.

 

Statistics South Africa publishes May CPI figures on Wednesday and the central bank will release first-quarter current account numbers on Thursday.

 

In fixed income, the yield for the benchmark government bond due in 2026 was down one basis point to 9.005 percent.

 

 

South Africa's NUM wants Eskom wage talks delayed to next week

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is seeking a postponement in wage talks with state-run power utility Eskom until next week because it is holding a national congress from Wednesday to Friday, a union source said on Monday.

 

The source, who asked not to be named, also said that the union is now open to pay increases linked to inflation plus a certain percentage instead of its initial demand of 15 percent.

 

South Africa has suffered power outages because of what Eskom has said was “illegal protest action” by the NUM and other unions.

 

There were expectations that wage talks would resume this week after Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said late on Friday that Eskom would make a pay offer after initially saying it could not afford any increases. [nL8N1TH0LG]

 

 

UAE to give Ethiopia $3 billion in aid and investments

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates pledged a total of $3 billion in aid and investments to Ethiopia on Friday, an Ethiopian official said, a major show of support for the new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed.

 

The UAE will deposit $1 billion in Ethiopia’s central bank to ease a severe foreign currency shortage, government spokesman Ahmed Shide told Reuters at a palace in Addis Ababa after Abiy met with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed.

 

No officials from the oil-rich Gulf state briefed journalists, but the UAE and its Gulf allies, in particular Saudi Arabia, regularly give large sums to cooperative governments in the broader region.

 

In 2013, the UAE was one of three Gulf monarchies that pledged a total $12 billion to the new government after the military ousted a president from the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

Abiy, a 41-year-old former intelligence officer, took up his position office in April after three years of unrest that had threatened the EPRDF coalition’s hold on power.

 

The coalition’s choice of Abiy, from an ethnic group that has long been marginalised, signalled its willingness to allow some political reforms, but he has already gone farther and faster than most had expected.

 

Two weeks ago the government said it would sell stakes in its lucrative telecoms monopoly and other assets including the national airline.

 

It also pledged to end a war with long-time enemy Eritrea, offering to implement a peace deal signed in 2000.

 

DAM DISPUTE

Last weekend Abiy visited the UAE’s ally, Egypt, and offered a newly conciliatory tone in a long and bitter row over a dam Ethiopia is building on the Nile, which Egypt fears threatens its water supplies.

 

Abiy had travelled to both Abu Dhabi and Riyadh shortly after taking office.

 

Shide said the UAE’s pledges would have a “significant impact” on Ethiopia’s foreign currency shortage.

 

Despite showing the fastest growth in Africa for the past decade, the landlocked country of 100 million people is heavily dependent on imports.

 

A hard currency crunch caused partly by spending on big infrastructure projects has reduced foreign currency reserves to less than one month’s worth of imports, according to analysts’ estimates. Foreign investors and local businesses say all sectors of the economy have been hit.

 

Abiy said in April that the government’s plans to continue expanding its infrastructure and the nascent manufacturing sector meant the currency crisis might last for 15 or 20 years.

 

A Ethiopian foreign ministry official said the other $2 billion from Abu Dhabi would be invested in tourism, renewable energy and agriculture.

 

On Friday afternoon, Abiy got behind the wheel of a white car and personally gave Sheikh Mohamed, the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates, sitting in the passenger seat, a tour of Addis Ababa.

 

Shide said the crown prince’s delegation included investors interested in real estate and hospitals.

 

 

Brexit barriers could cost households £1k each, report argues

Households could be left up to £1,000 a year worse off because of Brexit trade barriers, a report will suggest.

 

Global consultancy firm Oliver Wyman will say that under the most negative scenario of high import tariffs and high regulatory barriers the cost to the economy could total £27bn.

 

Business profits for supermarkets and restaurants could be wiped out because of supply chain disruption.

 

A rise in costs would likely be passed on to consumers, the report will argue.

 

The analysis, to be published next week and seen by the BBC, will make clear that even under the most favourable scenario of no tariffs and few regulatory barriers, there are likely to be increased "red tape" costs.

 

It will suggest that increased paperwork and delays for customs checks are likely to increase household costs by 1% a year, or £250 per household. The total cost to the economy would be £6.8bn.

 

Economists who support Brexit said that reports of significant economic costs post-Brexit were "alarmist" and that by focusing on the domestic economy, Britain outside the European Union could flourish.

 

The government has also made it clear that it wants a relationship with the EU that is as "frictionless" as possible when it comes to trade.

 

"While the outcomes of Brexit remain unclear, our analysis shows that any scenario will increase costs for UK households," said Duncan Brewer of Oliver Wyman, a consultancy firm that has done major pieces of work on the economic impact of Brexit for the financial services sector and retailers.

 

It has also worked for the government.

 

"A Brexit deal that results in no new tariffs with the EU is still likely to increase the red tape costs of imports, driving down profits for businesses, and driving up prices for consumers," Mr Brewer continued.

 

"Looking across the whole supply chain and taking into account multiple different Brexit outcomes, one thing is clear: Brexit will decrease profits for consumer businesses.

 

"The only question is by how much, which will depend on what deal is negotiated.

 

"While businesses will do all they can to absorb rising costs, we expect they will be forced to gradually put up prices for shoppers. If they don't, profits could vanish."

 

The Oliver Wyman analysis looks at different sectors and the possible consequences of Britain's new relationship with the EU.

 

It will suggest that a supermarket chain with annual takings of £10bn would see profits fall by a third under the most benign Brexit scenario modelled.

 

Prices would need to rise by 2.3% to compensate and ensure the business made as much profit as it did pre-Brexit.

 

'Too pessimistic'

The report follows a number of studies, including by government officials, that say there is likely to be a negative economic impact from Brexit.

 

The Bank of England has also said that the Brexit process has already cost households money.

 

Gerard Lyons, of the Economists for Brexit group, which supports Britain leaving the EU, said that although there might be a short-term "hit" from leaving the EU and the political process had not been "ideal", the greater room for manoeuvre for Britain once out of the union would have economic advantages.

 

"We need pro-growth policies, and should remember that 90% of global growth in the future will come from outside the euro-area," said Mr Lyons, a former chief economist of Standard Chartered bank and now chief economic strategist for Netwealth.

 

He said: "Judgements such as this [by Oliver Wyman] are far too pessimistic.

 

"Without the constraints that come from being a member of the EU, our economy can flourish."--BBC

 

 

General Electric faces fines over French jobs pledge

France is threatening to take the unusual step of fining General Electric if it fails to create a set number of jobs in the country.

 

It is claimed the US industrial giant will renege on a pledge to produce 1,000 new jobs by the end of the year.

 

The Labour minister Muriel Penicaud said GE would face a €50,000 penalty for every job not created.

 

The move could be a test of President Emmanuel Macron's bid to push through more business-friendly policies.

 

GE had committed to create a net 1,000 new jobs by the end of this year when it bought the energy business of France's Alstom in 2014. The US company was in competition for Alstom with Siemens of Germany.

 

But GE had created only 323 jobs by the end of April, the finance ministry said last week.

 

GE chief executive John Flannery informed French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire last week that the target was now "out of reach" because of difficult market conditions.

 

The minister urged GE to "take all necessary measures to comply to the best of its abilities".

 

On Sunday, Ms Penicaud went further, telling BFM television: "The [Alstom] contract called for a €50,000 penalty for every job not created."

 

Hire and fire

And, according to Reuters, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, added: "Sanctions must set an example. €50,000 should be applied by the end of the year if GE does not stick to its commitments."

 

While the sums involved are small for a company the size of GE - perhaps a total maximum of €34m - the move runs counter to the government's bid to liberalise labour markets.

 

Mr Macron, a former investment banker, has vowed to make France more attractive to foreign companies, pushing through reforms to make it easier for businesses to hire and fire workers.

 

The agreement to create the jobs was secured by France's previous Socialist government, and opposition parties are also now urging Mr Macron to apply the fine.

 

GE agreed to the job creation as part of its purchase of Alstom's power and electrical grid businesses, including its prized gas turbine operations, for €12.4bn (£10.8bn).

 

Shortly after the takeover GE announced plans to cut 6,500 power jobs in Europe because of falling oil and gas prices, and a further 12,000 job cuts in the sector were announced last December.--BBC

 

 

 

Virgin Money bought by CYBG for £1.7bn

The owner of Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, CYBG, has agreed to buy Virgin Money for £1.7bn.

 

Under the deal, all the group's retail customers will be moved to Virgin Money over the next three years.

 

It will be the UK's sixth-largest bank, with about six million customers, but 1,500 jobs are likely to go.

 

CYBG said it had agreed with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group to license the Virgin Money brand for £12m a year, rising to £15m later.

 

Virgin Group is Virgin Money's biggest shareholder with a 34.8% stake in the business.

 

Under the terms of the deal, Virgin Money shareholders will get 1.2125 new CYBG shares for every Virgin Money share they hold, and will end up owning about 38% of the combined business.

 

CYBG said the combined group would have about 9,500 employees, but it intended to reduce that total by about one-sixth, suggesting about 1,500 jobs would go.

 

It said some of those job losses would be achieved "via natural attrition".

 

Virgin Money, which was founded in 1995, expanded its business in 2011 when it bought the remnants of Northern Rock for about £747m.

 

Nimbleness and the ability to attract customers through new technology have been seen as challenger banks' main attributes.

 

That is why the Open Banking scheme - opening traditional accounts to specialist services from smaller players - appeared to be a potential game changer for fintechs and banking upstarts.

 

But the TSB fiasco may well have damaged consumer confidence in these companies being able to provide more customer-friendly tech than the big banks.

 

With this deal, the focus shifts to a more traditional form of competition - growing a business to a sufficient size to take on the incumbents at their own game.

 

CYBG said the takeover would "bring together the complementary strengths of two successful challenger banks to create the UK's first true national competitor to the large incumbent banks".

 

Its chief executive, David Duffy, told the BBC's Today programme: "We're going to become a competitor of scale."

 

He added that "technology and agility" were the factors that would decide the future of banking.

 

"I think we have sufficient scale - the brands, the product and the technology," he said.

 

"We can be agile enough to deliver a much better deal for the customer."

 

Mr Duffy will retain his current position in the combined group, as will CYBG chairman Jim Pettigrew.

 

Virgin Money chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia has agreed in principle to stay on as a consultant for a limited time after the deal goes through.--BBC

 

 

Trade tariffs: Chinese media in Trump 'fools build walls' jibe

Chinese media have mocked US President Donald Trump over plans to impose 25% tariffs on $50bn worth of Chinese goods, saying "wise men build bridges but fools build walls".

 

Mr Trump announced the tariffs on Friday, accusing Beijing of intellectual copyright theft.

 

China retaliated, saying it would impose an additional 25% tariff on 659 US goods worth $50bn.

 

Stock markets fell after the announcements amid fear of a trade war.

 

The US had earlier warned that it will impose even more tariffs should China retaliate.

 

Mr Trump said the tariffs were "essential to preventing further unfair transfers of American technology and intellectual property to China, which will protect American jobs."

 

The Chinese product lines that have been hit range from aircraft tyres to turbines and commercial dishwashers.

 

State-controlled media made a concerted attack on the new US measures.

 

"Following the path of expanding and opening up is China's best response to the trade dispute between China and the United States, and is also the responsibility that major countries should have to the world," said an editorial in Xinhua news agency.

 

"The wise man builds bridges, the fool builds walls," it commented.

 

Social media users were quick to make light of the comment, with many making reference to the Great Wall of China.

 

Elsewhere official Communist Party newspaper the People's Daily condemned what it described as the US administration's "obsession with playing the disgraceful role of global economic disruptor".

 

The Global Times, meanwhile, said Mr Trump was disrupting the world order to appeal to voters who think he's fighting for them.

 

However, the English-language China Daily said it hoped the worst could still be avoided.

 

"Given the frequent flip-flopping of the Donald Trump administration, it is still too early to conclude that a trade war will start," it said.

 

The media response came as China announced tariffs on $34bn of US goods including agricultural products, cars and marine products which will also take effect from 6 July.

 

Tariffs on other US goods will be announced at a later date, Xinhua said.

 

 

US tariffs that affect more than 800 Chinese products worth $34bn in annual trade are due to come into effect on 6 July.

 

The White House said it would consult on tariffs on the other $16bn of products, and would apply these later.

 

The US wants China to stop practices that allegedly encourage transfer of intellectual property - design and product ideas - to Chinese companies, such as requirements that foreign firms share ownership with local partners to access the Chinese market.

 

However, many economists and businesses in the US say the tariffs are likely to hurt some of the sectors the administration is trying to protect, which depend on China for parts or assembly.

 

Who is losing out from Trump's tariffs?

Is the Trump administration losing the China trade war?

The US announced plans for tariffs this spring, after an investigation into China's intellectual property practices.

 

It published a draft list of about 1,300 Chinese products slated for tariffs in April. The list released on Friday is slightly shorter, incorporating feedback and criticism received in the ensuing weeks.

 

The plans have elicited a mixed political reaction, drawing praise from Democrats and opposition from Republicans, who typically favour free trade policies.

 

The best way to get news on the go--BBC

 

 

 

Google diversity figures show little change

A new report from Google has revealed that little has changed despite a commitment to increasing diversity among staff employed by the tech giant.

 

Overall nearly 70% of Google staff were men, as has been the case since 2014.

 

In the US almost 90% were white or Asian, 2.5% were black and 3.6% Latin American.

 

The figures also showed that black and Latin American employees had the highest attrition rate in 2017 - those choosing to leave.

 

"....despite significant effort, and some pockets of success, we need to do more to achieve our desired diversity and inclusion outcomes," wrote Danielle Brown, diversity vice-president, in the report.

 

Ms Brown said the firm would increase transparency and include senior leaders in diversity-related work in order to try to drive progress.

 

Other figures from the report included:

 

*         Just over 25% of leaders were women in 2018, up nearly 5% since 2014.

*         Of the overall US staff hired in 2017, 31.2% were women, although this dropped to 24.5% for tech new recruits

*         In the US, just under 67% of leadership positions were held by white staff and 2% by black employees

*         White and Asian staff make up the vast majority of the workforce in all areas listed: tech, non-tech, leadership and overall

*         Last year a former Google employee, James Damore, was fired after writing an internal memo arguing there were few women in top jobs at the firm because of biological differences between men and women.

 

"We need to stop assuming that gender gaps imply sexism," he wrote.

 

While it is the first to release figures for 2018, Google's figures are broadly in line with other big players in the tech sector, which has long struggled to broaden the diversity of its workforce.

 

Microsoft's diversity figures in 2017 revealed a gender divide of 81% men and 19% women in both its leadership and tech divisions.

 

In leadership 66.8% were white and 2.2% black or Afro-American, in tech those figures were 53% and 2.7%.

 

Facebook revealed that 28% of its global senior leadership staff in 2017 were women, and in the US 71% of leaders were white, 3% black.—BBC

 

 

Fears mount over WhatsApp's role in spreading fake news

Abijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das were driving back from a visit to a waterfall in the Indian province of Assam earlier this month when they stopped in a village to ask for directions. The two men were pulled out of their car and beaten to death by a mob who accused them of stealing children.

 

“The villagers got suspicious of the strangers as for the last three or four days messages were going around on WhatsApp, as well as through word of mouth, about child lifters roaming the area,” Mukesh Agrawal, a local police officer said.

 

Indian police have linked dozens of murders and serious assaults to rumours spread on the messaging service in recent months.

 

In Brazil, WhatsApp has been blamed for a yellow fever outbreak after being used to spread anti-vaccine videos and audio messages. In Kenya, WhatsApp group admins have been described as a major source of politically motivated fake news during recent elections. And there are signs that the messaging service is being used as a conduit for misinformation in the UK.

 

 

New analysis by the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute found that consumers around the world are reading less news on Facebook and are increasingly turning to WhatsApp – which has 1.5 billion active users worldwide – to share and discuss news stories.

 

“In some sense it’s not that dissimilar to ordinary conversations but what makes it different is the speed with which these things can spread,” said Nic Newman, who co-wrote the report. “The reasons why people are moving to these spaces is because they get more privacy. If you’re in an authoritarian regime you can use it to talk safely about politics – but it can also be used for nefarious means.”

 

Newman said WhatsApp’s privacy settings make it difficult to ascertain the scale of misinformation on the service: “It’s very early days but I’ve got a hunch this is going to become a much bigger story.”

 

 

WhatsApp lets users send messages, links, pictures and videos to other users. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it has no algorithm deciding which content is shown to users, no ability for outside companies to buy adverts and discussion happens within private groups.

 

This should in theory make it harder to manipulate and there is little chance of a large-scale Cambridge Analytica-style scandal. But its use of end-to-end encryption means that no one – not even the creators of the app – can intercept and monitor messages between users.

 

This has angered government officials around the world – including in Britain – who want to have the ability to monitor potentially illegal behaviour. But it also makes it near-impossible for WhatsApp to intercept misinformation being shared.

 

Even measuring how a story spreads on WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook but run as an independent business, is nearly impossible.

 

“People don’t want to put themselves in the public domain by putting something publicly on Facebook and Twitter, but there’s still need for humans to gossip and share communication,” said Camilla Wright, who has run the Popbitch email newsletter since 2000 and tracked the evolution ofonline gossip.

 

“People are sending things to each other on email again and on WhatsApp,” she explained, drawing parallels with the round-robin letters and private forums that existed before Facebook and Twitter. “It’s much more in tune in with how humans have evolved to gossip because it feels like you’re telling people on a one-to-one level. The closed WhatsApp group is the modern water cooler or school gate.”

 

The sense that news is being provided in secret by a friend – who got it from their friend, who claims to have got it from their friend, who claims to be in the know – is part of the appeal and only adds to the credibility of rumours.

 

British users got a taste for this recently when a rumour spread that David and Victoria Beckham were about to announce their divorce. Much of the speculation, which was strongly denied by the Beckhams, came from a series of screengrabbed messages that spread through WhatsApp, allegedly from people in the PR industry who had the inside track.

 

“My sister’s friends sister works in a PR agency in London and apparently they are pulling an all nighter tonight in advance,” claimed one of the widely distributed messages, with no supporting evidence. Another featured a now-suspended junior employee at London PR firm the Communications Store who used her work email to tell her family members that the “news is being broken in the papers today/tomorrow”.

 

The agency has since made it clear that she was not the original source for the rumour and was only passing on gossip she had heard on Twitter. But taken together, the two images appeared to provide double-sourcing from people who could conceivably know the real story. Within hours they had been widely shared around the world, in an impossible-to-track manner.

 

 

For its part the messaging service is aware that it is dealing with a growing problem, which has already prompted the growth of fact-checking services in countries such as Mexico.

 

A WhatsApp spokesperson said some people used the app to spread harmful misinformation. “We’ve made it easy to block a phone number with just one tap – and are constantly evolving our tools to block automated content. We’re working to give people more control over private groups, which remain strictly limited in size. We’re also stepping up our education efforts so that people know about our safety features, as well as how to spot fake news and hoaxes.”

 

 

But veterans of the online news business see the private nature of the service as being perfect for unmediated gossip. “People feel much more comfortable sharing important things through WhatsApp,” said Wright. “It’s that feeling of being in on a secret that people love.”--theguardian

 

 

 

Elon Musk e-mails Tesla employees urging 'radical improvements' to hit quarterly targets

Elon Musk e-mailed all Tesla employees on Friday night congratulating them on progress manufacturing Model 3s, but called for "radical improvements" in the next two weeks.

Tesla is trying to hit a weekly Model 3 production rate of 5,000 cars by the end of this month.

In May, the Model 3 became the best selling mid-sized premium sedan in the U.S.

Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc.

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc.

An e-mail sent to all Tesla staff from Elon Musk on Friday night congratulated employees for the progress they've made on Model 3 vehicle production recently — but also said "radical improvements" are still needed in manufacturing to hit the company's quarterly targets.

 

During the company's annual shareholders' meeting earlier this month, Musk said it is "quite likely" Tesla will hit a weekly Model 3 production rate of 5,000 cars "by the end of this month."

 

Shortly thereafter, Tesla embarked on a broad restructuring. The company is cutting at least 9 percent of its workforce, but not employees involved in Model 3 production.

 

Many investors have faith in Musk's vision. Although Tesla has repeatedly set and missed production and delivery goals for the Model 3, the stock has trended higher since the shareholders' meeting. It even trended 4.5 percent higher through the week after Tesla announced layoffs on Tuesday June 12th.

 

This week, Elon Musk bought around 72,000 Tesla shares, spending nearly $25 million to do so. His purchase appears to have helped propel shares up from a closing price of $342.77 on Tuesday to a closing price of $358.17 on Friday.

 

In May, the all-electric Model 3 became the best selling mid-sized premium sedan in the U.S.

 

At the same time, Tesla remains one of the most shorted stocks on the market. Bears say the company needs -- but can't raise -- billions in new capital to hit its goals.

 

Below is Elon Musk's Friday night e-mail in its entirety, shared with CNBC by a current Tesla employee. (The note references the GA3, GA4, and EoL -- these are general assembly lines and end of line areas within the company's Fremont plant. It also references a man named Omead, presumably Omead Afshar, a project manager in the office of the CEO at Tesla.)

 

From: Elon Musk

 

To: Everybody

 

Subj. Only 8 days left to reach 700 cars/day or 5k/week

 

June 15, 2018

 

8:27 pm

 

It's getting very exciting! All parts of the Model 3 production system are now above 500 and some are almost at 700 cars already. Congratulations to all on making so much progress!

 

That said, radical improvements are still needed in paint shop output, GA3, bringing up the new GA4, End of Line and Module Zone 4 at Giga. We also need to achieve sustained, 700+ per week on the body line.

 

Wherever you are in the company, if you feel you can help out in any of those areas, please check in with Jat Dhillon on GA3, Jerome Guillen on GA4 and Omead on EoL and JB Straubel or Christ Lister on Module Zone 4.

 

I will be at our Fremont factory almost 24/7 for the next several days checking in with those groups to make sure they have as many resources as they can handle.

 

Thanks,

Elon--cnbc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2018

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


ZHL

AGM

Ophir Room, Monomotapa Hotel

20/06/2018 2:30pm

 


ZPI

AGM

206 Samora Machel Avenue

21/06/2018 12pm

 


RioZim

AGM

Head Office, 1 Kenilworth Road, Highlands

21/06/2018 10:30am

 


SeedCo

final dividend of 2.95c and special dividend of 1.48c and sets record date

22/06/2018

 

 


GB Holdings

AGM

Cernol Chemicals Boardroom, 11 Dagenham Road, Willowvale

26/06/2018 11:30am

 


MedTech

AGM

Head Office, Boardroom, Stand 619, Corner Shumba/Hacha Roads, Ruwa

27/06/2018 3pm

 


Dawn Properties

AGM

Ophir Room, Monomotapa Hotel

28/06/2018 10am

 


NicozDiamond

Scheme meeting

7th Floor, 30 Samora Machel Ave

28/06/2018 10am

 


ZBFH

AGM

Boardroom, Ground Floor, 21 Natal Road, Avondale

28/06/2018 10:30am

 


African Sun

AGM

Kariba Room, Holiday Inn Harare

28/06/2018 12pm

 


FBC

AGM

Royal Harare Golf Club

28/06/2018 3pm

 


Hwange

AGM

Royal Harare Golf Club

29/06/2018 10:30am

 


Fidelity Life

AGM

Great Indaba Room, Monomotapa Hotel

29/06/2018 11am

 


Barclays

EGM to consider the change of registered statutory name to First Capital Bank Limited

Meikles Hotel

03/07/2018 3pm

 


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> 

 


 

 


DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of Faith Capital (Pvt) Ltd for general information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. The information contained in this report has been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty is made or guarantee given as to its accuracy or completeness. All opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without notice. Securities or financial instruments mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors. Securities of emerging and mid-size growth companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any other member of Bulls ‘n Bears nor any other person, accepts any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this report or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Recipients of this report shall be solely responsible for making their own independent investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

 


 

 


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