Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 16 August 2019

Fri Aug 16 04:12:22 CAT 2019

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 16 August 2019

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*  S.Africa debt "becoming uncomfortable", but no bailout requested - IMF

*  Vedanta fails to stop KCM liquidation in meeting with Zambia's president

*  Nigeria central bank eyes second debt sale in a week to lure foreign
investors

*  South Africa's Harmony Gold expects higher annual profit

*  Kenyan bank KCB Group H1 profit rises, parks more money for bad loans

*  Kenya approves issuance of first green bond

*  Implats expects annual profit helped by metals prices

*  Uganda central bank holds key lending rate, credit growth to support
economic expansion

*  Egypt's top cigarette maker raises prices

*  General Electric: Madoff investigator alleges $38bn fraud

*  Hong Kong protests: Brand 'witch hunt' takes over Chinese internet

*  Stock markets stable after China trade warning

*  Data regulator probes King's Cross facial recognition tech

*  'How I lost £25,000 when my cryptocurrency was stolen'

*  Olympics power firm Aggreko challenged to cut carbon

*  Capital One accused 'breached 30 other organisations'

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

S.Africa debt "becoming uncomfortable", but no bailout requested - IMF

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s public debt, which is approaching
rating agencies’ red line of 60% of economic output, is reaching
uncomfortable levels, an IMF official said on Thursday.

Public finances in Africa’s most industrialised economy are under strain as
growth has proved weaker than expected and a clutch of state companies have
needed large cash injections.

In July, the government said it would give power utility Eskom 59 billion
rand ($4.1 billion) of additional financial support over the next two years,
on top of an already-promised bailout of 230 billion rand spread over the
next decade.

That spooked investors and credit agencies.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni warned shortly afterwards that this and other
bailouts for state firms would almost certainly push up the budget deficit
as well as state borrowing, raising the prospect of emergency external
loans.

“South Africa has not requested an IMF-supported programme. We do not see a
balance of payments need ... so as far as we are concerned there’s no need
for South Africa to approach the IMF,” the lender’s senior resident
representative in South Africa, Montfort Mlachila, told a conference in
Johannesburg.

Mlachila, however, said the debt trajectory, forecast at 55% of GDP in
February by treasury but likely to be revised upwards at the October
mini-budget, was worrying.

“South Africa has the highest level of debt in its history,” he said. “This
is actually quite concerning without a doubt ... The public debt trajectory
is not favourable and becoming uncomfortable.”

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

Vedanta fails to stop KCM liquidation in meeting with Zambia's president

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu met with the
chairman of Vedanta Resources to discuss the disputed liquidation of its
Konkola Copper Mines, a statement issued by the Zambian State House said on
Wednesday.

Vedanta has been locked in a dispute with the Zambian government since May
when Lusaka appointed a liquidator to run KCM, which is 20% owned by
Zambia’s state mining company ZCCM and the rest by Vedanta. Zambia accused
KCM of breaching the terms of its licence, which Vedanta denies.

The statement said that at the request of Vedanta, the president had met
with Chairman Anil Argawal who expressed the company’s desire to continue
running the asset and, among other things, pay debts owed to suppliers and
contractors, reinvest in the mine and restructure its shareholding.

However, the statement said while the president agreed to listen to
Argawal’s position it did not change his mind.

“The president stated that the position the government has taken has the
support of the people of Zambia, and the meeting will not affect the ongoing
liquidation process,” the statement said.

Vedanta confirmed it had requested the meeting and that Argawal had
travelled to Lusaka on Wednesday.

“The meeting was constructive and Vedanta looks forward to further positive
engagement,” the company said in a statement.

The dispute in Africa’s second-largest copper producer has intensified
concerns among international miners about resource nationalism in Africa.

Mumbai-listed Vedanta has taken the matter to arbitration and tried to block
KCM’s liquidation in the meantime via courts in both South Africa and
Zambia. However, the government has continued with the process and said in
July it expected numerous bids for KCM within weeks.

Nigeria central bank eyes second debt sale in a week to lure foreign
investors

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria’s central bank plans to auction 150 billion naira
($489.5 mln) of open market bills on Thursday, traders said, its second bill
sale in a week as the country seeks to attract more foreign investors.

The bank last month shifted policy to try to force banks to lend to help
revive an economy stuck with low growth after a recent recession. But with
falling oil prices and foreign investors taking profits, the naira is
regaining focus.

The central bank planned to sell the bills with maturities from 84-day to
350-day, traders said, after the bank auctioned 34.4 billion naira in
treasury bills on Wednesday at higher rates. Last week, the bank sold 100
billion naira in bills.

Pressure has been building on the naira currency as oil prices drop and
foreign investors book profits on local bonds in response to yields which
have fallen from as high as 18% a year ago.

In a further sign of pressure on the currency, President Muhammadu Buhari
told the central bank on Tuesday to stop providing funding for food imports,
his spokesman said.

The naira was quoted at 364 on Thursday on thin liquidity, traders said, a
level where it has traded this week. It eased to 364 per dollar on Friday,
from a quote of 363.50 as falling oil prices tightened liquidity on the
currency market.

A dollar shortage was initially caused by a slowdown of foreign inflows
after local debt market yields declined.

Nigeria operates a multiple exchange rate regime that it has used to manage
pressure on the currency. The official rate of 306.90 is supported by the
central bank but the traded rate of 364 is widely quoted by foreign
investors and exporters.

($1 = 306.45 naira)

South Africa's Harmony Gold expects higher annual profit

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African bullion producer Harmony Gold
full-year profits are expected to rise by as much as 32% boosted by
increased production and profit from its from Moab Khotsong and Hidden
Valley operations and lower impairments.

Headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the financial year ended June 30 is
expected to be between 191 and 226 cents, up from 171 cents a year earlier.

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

Harmony will publish its financial results on August 20.

Kenyan bank KCB Group H1 profit rises, parks more money for bad loans

NAIROBI (Reuters) - KCB Group, Kenya’s biggest lender by assets, on Thursday
posted a 5% rise in first-half pretax profit boosted by growth across
segments, and said it set aside more money to cover bad loans.

The bank, which posted a pretax profit of 17.93 billion shillings ($173.82
million), said in a statement it boosted its provisions for bad debts to 3
billion shillings during the period, from 0.8 billion shillings a year
earlier.

“This big increase in loan provision is mostly due to impact of day 1
adjustments done during implementation of IFRS 9 last year,” said Lawrence
Kimathi, the group’s chief financial officer, referring to a new accounting
standard.

Non-performing loans dropped to 7.8% of the total loan book, from 8.4% in
the same period last year, and well below the industry average of 12.7%,
said KCB, which also operates in Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and South
Sudan.

Net interest income rose by 5% to 25.4 billion shillings mainly due to a 14%
expansion in lending.

“We had a strong second quarter and witnessed continued growth across our
businesses segments,” said Chief Executive Joshua Oigara.

It expects to complete its takeover of National Bank of Kenya (NBK) in a
share-swap transaction by the end of this quarter, it added.

Lawmakers put a dampener on the deal last week when they recommended that
the deal, which is already open to NBK’s shareholders, be rejected by the
government, which is NBK’s biggest shareholder.

Market regulator CMA said the fate of the transaction will depend on KCB
attaining the minimum threshold of 75% of acceptance by NBK’s shareholders,
who will get 1 KCB share for every 10 NBK shares.

KCB recommended an interim dividend of 1.00 shillings per share.

($1 = 103.1500 Kenyan shillings)

Kenya approves issuance of first green bond

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya has approved its first ever issuance of a green
bond, which will raise 5 billion shillings ($48.45 million) for student
accommodation, the capital markets regulator CMA said on Thursday.

So-called green bonds are fixed income securities that raise capital for
projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency, green transport and
waste-water treatment.

The bond, to be issued by a Nairobi-based property developer called Acorn,
comes after authorities unveiled new rules in February designed to guide the
issuance of green bonds.

“The issuance is a critical step in advancing the development of an
effective ecosystem to support the establishment of green capital markets in
Kenya,” the CMA said in a statement.

Acorn’s issue, which will not be listed, will finance the construction of
“sustainable and climate-resilient student” hostels, CMA said.

It will be structured as “restricted public offer”, meaning the issuers will
target sophisticated investors who will get a 50% guarantee from credit
guarantees provider Guarantco on both their investments and the interest,
CMA added.

Acorn was not immediately available for comment.

In January, HSBC said global green bond issuance is seen at $140-$180
billion this year, from $149.2 billion in 2019.

($1 = 103.2000 Kenyan shillings)

Implats expects annual profit helped by metals prices

(Reuters) - South Africa’s Impala Platinum (Implats) said on Thursday it
expects to swing into profit this year boosted by higher sales, rhodium and
palladium prices and improved performance at its Rustenburg operations.

It expects headline earnings per share (HEPS) of 406 to 440 cents for the
year which ended June 30 versus a loss of 171 cents a year earlier, it said
in a trading statement.

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

Implats said gross profit is expected to rise to 6.8 billion rand from a
restated figure of 1.1 billion rand a year earlier.

Implats will release its annual results on Sept. 5.

($1 = 15.3509 rand)

Uganda central bank holds key lending rate, credit growth to support
economic expansion

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda’s central bank kept its main interest rate at
10.0% on Thursday and said an economic expansion had slowed in the first two
quarters of this year but higher credit growth and public infrastructure
spending supported the outlook.

It is the fifth time in a row that the bank has left its key lending rate
unchanged.

Inflation was 2.6% year-on-year in July, down from 3.4% in June, while core
inflation was down to 3.5% from 4.9% in June.

Bank of Uganda Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile said economic growth the
year through next June was projected at 6% to 6.3%, also supported by strong
domestic demand and an improved agriculture performance.

He said there were downside risks, however.

“Weather-related constraints to agricultural production and delays in
implementation of public investment programmes could dampen economic
activity,” he told a news conference.

Major infrastructure investments in the East African country include a crude
oil pipeline and domestic refinery, hydropower dams, expressways and
construction and expansion of airports.

Tumusiime-Mutebile said annual core inflation was projected to edge up and
peak at about 6.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020, driven by stronger
domestic demand.

The Bank of Uganda’s monetary policy targets a medium-term core inflation
rate of 5%.

Risks to a favorable growth outlook, he said, could come from low demand for
Uganda’s exports “due to a depressed global economy” that could weigh on
investment flows and services such as tourism.

Egypt's top cigarette maker raises prices

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt’s top cigarette maker, Eastern Tobacco Company, said
on Thursday it had raised prices of some of its cigarettes by 4.5% to 6%,
citing higher labour costs.

The retail price for its Mondial cigarettes will rise to 17.50 Egyptian
pounds ($1.06) from 16.50 pounds, it said in a statement.

Managing Director Hany Aman told Reuters that the increase in prices is due
to higher labour and production costs.

The company has a market share of about 70% and foreign companies hold the
remainder.

($1 = 16.5300 Egyptian pounds)

General Electric: Madoff investigator alleges $38bn fraud

A private financial investigator who flagged warnings about Bernard Madoff's
$65bn Ponzi scheme is now targeting one of America's blue chip companies.

In a 175-page report Harry Markopolos claimed General Electric (GE) was
hiding an accounting scandal.

He accused GE of concealing $38.1bn in potential losses and alleged the
company's cash situation was far worse than disclosed.

GE called it "meritless, misguided and self-serving speculation".

Chief executive Lawrence Culp also accused Mr Markopolos of "false
statements of fact" and said he had not checked his facts with GE before
publishing.

Mr Markopolos's analysis of GE's financial position, called General
Electric: A Bigger Fraud Than Enron, claims: "The $38bn in accounting fraud
amounts to over 40% of GE's market capitalization, making it far more
serious than either the Enron or WorldCom accounting frauds."

The report highlights the conglomerate's exposure to long-term care
insurance in the US and its oil industry services business.

Mr Markopolos's referencing of two of corporate America's most notorious
frauds in the report was seen as potentially serious, as both led to
criminal prosecutions.

GE's share price fell 15% on Thursday following news of the report and an
appearance by Mr Markopolos on the CNBC television network. The stock closed
down 11%, GE's worse one-day fall in 11 years. As a sign of faith in his
company, Mr Culp bought $2m worth of GE shares, according to reports.

Mr Markopolos disclosed that he had given an advance copy of his report to
an unnamed hedge fund, and would receive a percentage of the profits from
any share price movement.

Some analysts dismissed the report, with John Hempton, co-founder of the
Bronte Capital hedge fund calling it "silly". However, Reuters noted that
there are Wall Street analysts who have long been concerned about claims of
GE's low cash flow, charges and asset writedowns, and alleged opaque
financial reports.

In the past two years GE has announced more than $40bn in writedowns and
accounting charges. The company has also disclosed that its accounting is
being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the
Department of Justice.

'Financially motivated'

Mr Culp told reporters in the US that Mr Markopolos' report contained
factual errors and constituted "market manipulation - pure and simple",
because the investigator stood to profit from short-selling tied to its
release.

Earlier, GE issued a robust response to Mr Markopolos: "We remain focused on
running our business every day and... will not be distracted by this type of
meritless, misguided and self-serving speculation."

The company said it "stands behind its financials" and operates to the
"highest-level of integrity" in its financial reporting.

"Mr Markopolos openly acknowledges that he is compensated by unnamed hedge
funds. Such funds are financially motivated to attempt to generate short
selling in a company's stock to create unnecessary volatility."

He is best known for alerting regulators in the early 2000s to signs that
money manager Bernard Madoff's investment firm was a Ponzi scheme, a
deception in which unusually high returns for early investors are generated
with money from later investors.

Madoff was arrested in 2008 and later sentenced to 150 years in prison for
the fraud.

Hong Kong protests: Brand 'witch hunt' takes over Chinese internet

As the protests intensify in Hong Kong, international luxury brands are
getting caught in the crossfire.

Global brands such as Versace, Coach, Calvin Klein, Givenchy, ASICS, and
Swarovski have all become tied up in controversy on the mainland this week
for listing Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as a separate countries or regions
- not part of China - on their official websites or brand T-shirts.

China's state media propaganda machine is running at full speed to counter
the anti-Beijing voices, and many Chinese social media users are now
involved in an online hunt for international companies seemingly not abiding
by the "one country, two system" principle, which states that while Hong
Kong enjoys "a high degree of autonomy" it is part of China.

Versace: How the ball started rolling

On 8 August, an image of a T-shirt by Italian fashion house Versace started
making the rounds on social media. One Chinese web user wrote: "I discovered
this recently, and wondered if the design of this T-shirt means that Versace
is supporting Hong Kong independence?"

By 11 August, the T-shirt was being called out by hundreds on Chinese social
media for seeming to list Hong Kong and Macau as independent countries.

The hashtag "Versace Suspected of [Supporting] Hong Kong and Macau
Independence" soon received more than three million views on Weibo, one of
China's most popular social media platforms.

Many commenters condemned the brand while others accused it of being "two
faced" and for profiting from Chinese money while disregarding Chinese
sovereignty.

The Versace brand issued a statement on its official Weibo account (link in
Chinese) on 11 August, saying the T-shirts - which also contained several
spelling errors - had already been recalled and destroyed in late July. It
"deeply apologised for the controversy" that it said was caused by a design
"error".

Versace said it "loves China" and "resolutely respects China's territorial
sovereignty".

The background you need on the Hong Kong protests

Hong Kong protests in 300 words

Why Cathay Pacific changed its tune on HK protests

Donatella Versace, designer and chief creative officer of Versace, also
issued a personal apology on Instagram: "Never have I wanted to disrespect
China's National Sovereignty and this is why I wanted to personally
apologize for such inaccuracy and for any distress that it may have caused."

One well-known entertainment blogger with more than four million fans,
@Yubapo, reacted on Weibo saying: "Versace apologised, but what's the use?
Why would such a large company have such a lack of general knowledge?"

Marketing crises: It's raining apologies

Over the past week, the Versace controversy has snowballed into a marketing
crisis for multiple international luxury brands, terrified of losing access
to the massive and lucrative Chinese market.

Chinese internet users began scouring websites in an online witch hunt for
any international fashion companies active in mainland China which did not
list Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Macau as being part of China.

Less than 24 hours after Versace's apology, Coach, Givenchy, ASICS, Samsung,
Calvin Klein, Swarovski and Fresh were also exposed online for their
erroneous geographic listings.

Many people vowed not to buy from these brands again. "They're openly
challenging our country's sovereignty," one legal blogger wrote. "We can't
tolerate it!"

Each of the companies issued apologies on Weibo on Monday and Tuesday,
reiterating their respect for China's sovereignty.

These apologies received much attention online - hashtag "Swarovski
Apologises" alone received more than 730 million views on Weibo.

What's behind the China-Taiwan divide?

With so many apology statements going around social media, some Chinese web
users claimed it was "international apology day".

"What brand is apologising today?" became a recurring sentence on Chinese
social media this week.

'Learn from their Mistakes'

On Tuesday Communist Party newspaper People's Daily said Western brands
should also "learn from their mistakes" in the long run, and cannot
disregard the "One China principle".

The newspaper published an illustration online showing the brands on top of
a crack in a "One China" picture. "This is common knowledge - and it's the
bottom line," the illustration says.

Although discussions about the Hong Kong protests were initially silenced on
Chinese social media, state media have recently started publishing many
articles and illustrations on the unrest.

Media outlets have strongly condemned protesters for causing chaos and have
consistently emphasised the idea that there is one China, and that Hong Kong
is part of it.

In the comment sections of various popular Chinese social media platforms,
thousands of web users show their support for this stance.

Although this week's witch hunt is an extreme display of Chinese consumers'
cyber nationalism, it is not the first time Chinese social media users have
collectively turned against foreign brands for political reasons.

Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana became the target of an online storm
in 2018 when it launched a promotional video for its China fashion show that
many Chinese labelled as racist.

In the same year, Mercedes drew criticism from Chinese web users for quoting
the Dalai Lama in an Instagram post. The company later apologised.

A Korean commercial by American footwear company K-Swiss also sparked
outrage on Chinese social media in 2016 for depicting a Chinese character in
a way many called "humiliating" to China.

In 2016, so many companies and celebrities were shamed into apologising that
an activist in Taiwan named Wang Yikai started an "Apologise to China"
contest.

The winner was a Hong Kong group's parody of the song "Sorry Sorry" by Super
Junior. In it, the group sings they are sorry for not loving China enough
because they don't own a made-in-China smartphone.

Celebrity brand flight

Although these kinds of marketing crises are often temporary, brands can
suffer a real blow from boycott campaigns and negative publicity.

This week saw Chinese actress Jelly Lin, Calvin Klein's brand ambassador for
the Asia Pacific region, announce an immediate termination of collaboration
with the American fashion house. Chinese star Yang Mi also ended her
relationship with Versace, while Chinese singer Jackson Yee and supermodel
Liu Wen terminated their partnerships with Givenchy and Coach.

Chinese actress Jiang Shuying, also known as Maggie Jiang, announced on
Tuesday that she would be ending her co-operation with Swarovski

China Fashion Week responded to the controversies this week, writing that
"all brands doing business in China should respect its national sovereignty
and territorial integrity".

Meanwhile, posts accusing foreign brands of disregarding China's borders are
still flooding social media.

As long as the unrest in Hong Kong continues, the controversies can be
expected to keep popping up.

Some commenters already sent out a warning message to foreign brands: "Are
you ready to apologise?"

Manya Koetse is the editor-in-chief of What's On Weibo, a website that
reports on what is trending on China's most popular social media
platform.--BBC

Stock markets stable after China trade warning

Stock markets around the world have stabilised, after fears of a slowing
global economy sparked a big sell-off on Wednesday.

The main US share indexes closed 3% lower overnight, but the benchmark Dow
Jones closed higher on Thursday.

This was despite a warning from China that it would take new countermeasures
against US trade tariffs.

However, the picture was more mixed in Europe, with London's FTSE 100
closing more than 1% down.

There was panic on European, US and Asian markets on Wednesday, after weak
data from Germany and grim signs in bond markets raised fears of a global
slowdown.

The yield on two-year and 10-year Treasury bonds inverted for the first time
since June 2007 in the UK and the US as investors dived into longer-term
investments.

Historically, such bond movements have been a reliable indicator of
recessions. For example, they preceded the last big global downturn more
than 10 years ago.

Markets saw a further dip early on Thursday after China's Ministry of
Finance said a US plan to impose fresh tariffs violated a consensus between
US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

Are markets signalling that a recession is due?

The ministry said China would "have to take necessary countermeasures"
against US tariffs.

Trade tensions between the US and China have weighed on stock markets for at
least the past year, with investors nervous that the dispute is dragging on
both economies.

By the end of the trading session on Thursday in Europe, Germany's Dax index
had lost 0.7% and the French Cac 40 was down 0.4%, while the pan-European
Stoxx 50 fell 0.2%.

In the US, the Dow Jones closed 0.4% higher and the S&P 500 gained 0.3%,
while the Nasdaq lost 0.1%.

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Kathleen Brooks from Minerva Analysis
said the sell-off may have been compounded by the fact many investors are on
holiday.

"People are away, so moves can be exaggerated in August," she said.--BBC

Data regulator probes King's Cross facial recognition tech

The facial-recognition system at King's Cross is to be investigated by the
UK's data-protection watchdog.

Media exposure of live facial recognition at the site prompted the
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to look into how it was being used.

The ICO will inspect the technology in place and how it is operated to
ensure it does not break data protection laws.

The regulator said it was "deeply concerned" about the growing use of
facial-recognition technology.

Fair and transparent

The Financial Times was the first to report a live face-scanning system was
being used across the 67-acre (0.3-sq-km) site around King's Cross station
in London.

Developer Argent said it used the technology to "ensure public safety" and
it was just one of "a number of detection and tracking methods" in place at
the site.

But the use of cameras and databases to work out who is passing through and
using the site has proved controversial.

So far, Argent has not said how long it has been using facial-recognition
cameras, what is the legal basis for their use, or what systems it has in
place to protect the data it collects.

In its statement, the ICO said: "Scanning people's faces as they lawfully go
about their daily lives, in order to identify them, is a potential threat to
privacy that should concern us all."

The regulator said it was keen to ensure that King's Cross developer was
using the technology in accordance with UK laws governing the use of data.

King's Cross developer quizzed on face recognition

Facial recognition use prompts call for new laws

"Put simply, any organisations wanting to use facial recognition technology
must comply with the law - and they must do so in a fair, transparent and
accountable way," said the ICO.

It must have documented how and why it believed its use of the technology
was legal, proportionate and justified, it added.

Argent has not yet responded to a request for comment by BBC News.

The mayor of London is also quizzing developer Argent about its use of
facial-recognition systems.

Sadiq Khan wrote to the company and said there was "serious and widespread
concern" about the legality of facial recognition.--BBC

'How I lost £25,000 when my cryptocurrency was stolen'

Monty Munford says the world of cryptocurrency is like a "savage bazaar"

It's bad enough realising that somebody's nicked £25,000 of your hard-earned
cash. It's even worse when you realise there's little chance of getting it
back.

This is the story of how I got my fingers burned in the murky of world of
cryptocurrency investment.

Be warned.

After a decade as a tech journalist, I liked to describe myself as a
"lunchtime-adopter", somebody who acted faster than many, but would never be
as smart as the early adopters.

So it was with cryptocurrencies. I had heard about Bitcoin, but it was one
of those technologies where I nodded my head sagely whenever I was in the
same room with those talking about it.

As for investing or speculating, I had absolutely no intention of doing so.

But as the Bitcoin price made its merry way to a peak of nearly $20,000
(£16,500) at the end of 2017 - a rise of more than 100,000% in seven years -
my curiosity got the better of me.

The problem with passwords - or private keys - is that they can be stolen

And it wasn't just Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies interested me, such as
Ethereum. I chose it not for any other reason than it was second to Bitcoin
by valuation and looked like it could emulate that 100,000% rise.

So in the middle of 2017, I made some investments, figuring that it was a
long-term plan and might even become a nest egg for a pension.

But doing so was utterly terrifying.

Even after a lot of tutorials from very patient friends, I pulled out three
times from completing my initial transaction. One wrong press of the key and
I thought I'd lose my money.

How prophetic that turned out to be.

There seemed to be two options: to store my crypto on an exchange, or in an
encrypted digital storage wallet.

When I researched the subject, there were stories of exchanges being hacked
for millions of pounds and going bust, so I decided to store it in a wallet
- myetherwallet.com.

I was given two keys, one private and one public, both of 40 random numbers
and letters. If I wanted to transfer money to my wallet, I used the public
key; to access my wallet I used my private key.

I was told to write down my private key and store it securely with other
financial documents. I was never to reveal it to anyone, or lose it.

So I printed it out, but also made the fateful decision to store it in my
Gmail drafts, so I could copy and paste it when I needed to make a
transaction rather than laboriously typing it out each time.

I deleted my internet history after every check of my wallet for extra
security.

When the price of Ethereum rocketed, I was soon sitting on a decent pile of
money.

Then that decent pile of money disappeared.

I hadn't used my private key to access my account for some time and was
getting the jitters when the price of all cryptocurrencies began to fall in
2018. Maybe it was time to take some out.

But when I tried to do so, I saw with horror that all of my Ethereum - about
£25,000's worth - had already been taken out; the cupboard was bare.

It had been moved to another private key address and there was absolutely
nothing I could do about it. There seemed to be no-one to complain to.

A transaction on Ethereum cannot be reversed and there is no safety net -
nothing like the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) that
guarantees up to £85,000 on UK bank accounts.

After contacting people in my extensive crypto network, I found out that my
Ether money had been taken to the Binance cryptocurrency exchange and,
according to Binance, moved again within 60 minutes.

Trying to get information from Binance was a Kafkaesque nightmare - just an
automated message saying it would respond within 72 hours when 72 seconds
would have been more useful.

Binance wouldn't disclose anything anyway until it has been contacted by law
enforcement, so I went to the Action Fraud website, reported my case, and
obtained a crime number.

But six months passed with no news on my stolen investments, so I went on
the offensive and contacted US bounty-hunters CipherBlade who work with the
FBI in Philadelphia to pinpoint thieves and track them down - in exchange
for a percentage of the bounty.

They discovered that my money had been deposited by the thief (or thieves)
in a "consolidation wallet" then divided up in to chunks and sent to four
different deposit addresses on the Binance exchange.

The police would need to contact Binance, they said, to find out who owned
these accounts, using email and IP addresses and any other personal details
the thieves may have given.

I sent CipherBlade's report to Action Fraud and things finally began to
move.

The following morning I was contacted by Sussex's cybercrime unit, my local
force, and within a week they had received useful information from Binance.
The unit tracked IP addresses to a telecoms company in the Netherlands, but
there weren't any personal identification details to be had - perhaps
unsurprisingly.

The investigations continue, and my money remains stolen.

Of course, I should never have stored my password anywhere on my computer.

Malware can scan keystroke movements and sniff out a private key - even if,
as I had done, you chop it up into separate blocks and store it in different
places.

But writing down a private key on paper can be just as hazardous. A house
fire, flood, hungry pet - simply a bad memory - can mean that huge amounts
of cryptocurrency are lost forever.

You could hammer our your private key on to a fire and corrosion proof
titanium tag - check out Cryptotag's solution - and then store it in a bank
vault, but this is hardly convenient if you want to access your crypto
wallet regularly.

So I'm left with my fingers burned, feeling like I wandered in to a savage
bazaar where criminals can pick your pocket at will. And get away with it.

Please learn from my mistakes.--BBC

Olympics power firm Aggreko challenged to cut carbon

The global firm which helps keep the lights on at the Olympics and
Glastonbury music festival says it is being challenged by customers to cut
carbon.

Aggreko, which supplies temporary power generators to high-profile events
around the world, is putting 10% of its profits into new technology.

The Glasgow-based company has traditionally used diesel-power.

But it is now increasing the use of solar technology and storage batteries.

Robert Wells, who looks after Aggreko's events business, said clients
running events such as the Open golf competition and Rugby World Cup were
looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

'Rapid change'

"They are challenging us on a daily basis as to where can we introduce
renewable storage, solar, even renewable fuels," he told BBC Radio's Good
Morning Scotland programme.

"This year in the UK we have burned more hydrotreated vegetable oil than at
any other time."

Aggreko is already working on a £159m contract to supply temporary power for
the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Speaking from Aggreko's Dumbarton base, Mr Wells said: "We had some solar
hybrid units at a number of jobs this year the Open championship and
Glastonbury.

"Our new equipment - even if it's using traditional fossil fuels, has to be
at the forefront of emissions legislation.

"We're driving the engine manufacturers to give us cleaner engines as early
as possible."

Mr Wells also said the technology for storing renewably-generated power in
giant batteries was "evolving rapidly".

Aggreko's manufacturing chief Aine Finlayson said the company was focusing
on a mixture of traditional engines, batteries and solar.

"We have to design these so they're bespoke to what the customer needs,
whether its a mine in Australia, or in a remote territory in the Amazon,"
she said.

"More and more research and development is coming to the fore of what we do.
This business has invested about 10% of its profit per year on new product."

Mr Wells added: "You couldn't rely just on solar. Similarly you don't want
to rely just on fossil fuel generation.

"I expect next year we will have more greener hybrid solar solutions at our
events than we've had this year.

"One thing you've got to remember with events - it's great having it, but
one thing's for certain - they don't want the power to fail."--BBC

Capital One accused 'breached 30 other organisations'

A software developer accused of stealing data from finance company Capital
One took files from over 30 other organisations, prosecutors claim.

The alleged thief, Paige Thompson, was arrested after reportedly talking
online about taking Capital One data.

In court papers, the US Department of Justice claimed Paige Thompson had
"terabytes" of data in her possession.

It said she had "intruded" into servers belonging to companies, schools and
government agencies.

Legal challenges

Further charges against Ms Paige could result from the evidence gathered
during a search of her home, it said.

The FBI was working to identify all those who had had data taken so it could
alert them to the suspected theft.

And investigators were also looking at the types of information allegedly
taken.

The DoJ said there was no evidence yet that Ms Paige had tried to sell the
data she had allegedly taken from Capital One.

Ms Thompson is a former employee of Amazon and is alleged to have taken data
from cloud servers it runs.

The Capital One data breach involved personal information about more than
106 million of its customers.

Data taken included names, addresses and phone numbers of customers who had
applied for credit cards and other financial services.

Capital One said no credit card information was taken in the breach.

The legal document added the theft had left Capital One facing more than 40
cases of legal action in the US and eight in Canada.

The DoJ filed its court papers in a bid to ensure Ms Paige stays in prison
until the trial centring on the Capital One data beach begins.

It claimed she had a history of mental illness and threatening behaviour
that led to her being a "flight risk".

A hearing about the case is scheduled to take place on 15 August.--BBC

INVESTORS DIARY 2019

Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

Companies under Cautionary

Bindura Nickel Corporation

Padenga Holdings

Delta Corporation

Meikles Limited

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