Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 28 August 2019

Wed Aug 28 04:21:45 CAT 2019

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 28 August 2019

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*  Kenya Airways' problems continue as first-half losses double

*  Mozambique formally launches restructuring offer for 2023 Eurobond

*  Strike action pushes miner Sibanye into the red in first half

*  Africa's biggest bank targets its smallest shops in fintech deal

*  South Africa's rand weaker in cautious trade

*  Relaunched Uganda Airlines hopes to win slice of East African travel

*  South Africa's 2019 maize output seen slightly up from previous estimate

*  Imperial to exit S.Africa consumer business by Sept, mulls Europe shipping unit disposal

*  Algerian economy creaks at the seams after six months of turmoil

*  Remittances from Egyptians working abroad rose to about $3 billion in May

*  Purdue Pharma 'offers up to $12bn' to settle opioid cases

*  Tobacco giants Philip Morris and Altria in $200bn merger talks

*  Oil giant BP to pull out of Alaska as sells business for $5bn

*  Ex-Google and Uber engineer charged with theft

*  Google faces EU investigation over job-search tool

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

Kenya Airways' problems continue as first-half losses double

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya Airways, which is being renationalised to save it from mounting debts, saw its first-half pretax loss more than double from a year earlier to 8.56 billion Kenyan shillings ($83 million), its results statement showed on Tuesday.

Kenya’s parliament voted in July to renationalise the loss-making airline, which is labouring under a mountain of debt and has had three changes of chief executive in the past five years as it struggles to compete with regional rivals.

The government plans to buy out minority shareholders including Air France-KLM’s 7.8% stake.

The carrier said its first-half revenue rose 12.2% from a year earlier to 58.55 billion shillings, which Chief Financial Officer Hellen Mathuka attributed to the launch of new routes and more frequent flights.

However, the airline’s operating costs rose to 61.45 billion shillings, from 53.22 billion shillings in the same period last year, Mathuka said. That was partly due to two Boeing 787 planes that had been sub-leased to Oman Air being returned during the first half of the year, she said.

The government will take at least 21 months to take back full control of Kenya Airways, buying out minority shareholders and converting shares held by banks into Treasury bonds, a lawmaker briefed on the transaction told Reuters in July.

($1 = 103.2000 Kenyan shillings)

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

Mozambique formally launches restructuring offer for 2023 Eurobond

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The Mozambican government formally launched an exchange offer for its defaulted 2023 Eurobond on Tuesday, seeking the consent of bondholders for a restructuring that would ease pressure on its strained public finances.

Mozambique said in May it had agreed a restructuring deal “in principle” with the majority of the holders of the dollar-denominated bond, one of the instruments at the centre of a hidden debt scandal that triggered a currency collapse.

In the exchange offer, Mozambique said settlement of the restructuring of the bond was expected to occur on Sept. 30, if the offer was approved by at least 75 percent of bondholders.

Strike action pushes miner Sibanye into the red in first half

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Precious metals producer Sibanye-Stillwater said on Tuesday it fell into the red in the first half of the year due to a five-month strike at its South African gold operations.

Gold production was hit by the strike over pay and job cuts that ended in April and cost Sibanye more than $100 million in lost revenue.

The diversified miner, which is due to release its first-half results on Thursday, said it expects a headline loss of 54 cents per share for the six months to June 30, compared with headline earnings per share of 4 cents in the year ago period.

As a result, it expects to report an attributable loss of 265 million rand ($17 million) for the period compared with an attributable profit of 77 million rand during the same period a year ago.

($1 = 15.2369 rand)

Africa's biggest bank targets its smallest shops in fintech deal

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s Standard Bank has taken a stake in local fintech firm Nomanini to offer credit to potentially millions of small shop owners and other informal retailers across Africa that have limited access to banking services.

Africa’s biggest bank by assets has invested $4 million in Nomanini, which connects informal merchants with distributors via an e-wallet, and aims to roll the service out across 14 African countries by early 2021.

Nine out of 10 retail transactions in Africa are conducted in cash or via informal channels like kiosks and open-air markets, according to a 2017 report by audit firm Deloitte.

Using Nomanini technology, Standard Bank will collect and analyse data on the retailers. Adrian Vermooten, Standard Bank’s head of digital in Africa regions, said data on just one primary product line, such as pre-paid airtime, was enough to proxy the risk associated to that shop, build up a financial profile and understand its ordering patterns.

This will allow the bank to pre-empt the trader’s re-stocking needs and send them alerts offering to arrange and underwrite its next order, for instance.

This could be done via Nomanini or Standard Bank devices supplied to the traders or by leveraging other existing networks or devices from third parties - whatever fits best in each market.

Vermooten pointed to tens of thousands of informal traders who currently act as mobile money agents in African countries. “Those are all small little businesses that we find really attractive,” he said.

At a later stage, the bank will look to help those retailers offer financial services, like cash deposits and withdrawals, to their customers.

Vahid Monadjem, founder and CEO of Nomanini, said even just 100,000 retailers could reach between 50 million and 150 million people.

Standard Bank hopes that its licences to lend and offer other products, such as insurance, will give it the edge over mobile operators that currently dominate financial services in markets like Kenya.

Kenyan telecom company Safaricom has pioneered offering Kenyans without bank accounts a network to transfer cash via mobile phones with its M-Pesa mobile payment service platform.

Standard Bank will also face competition from traditional rivals such as FirstRand, which has also teamed up with a fintech firm to target informal businesses.

New players are entering the fray too. Digital-only lender TymeBank, which launched this year, is planning to offer business accounts, while a bank set up by money transfer service Hello Paisa and lender Sasfin is specifically targeting informal retailers.

Hello Paisa’s Managing Director Ahmed Cassim told Reuters in an interview on Monday that the bank, launched in June, would offer retailers point-of-sale devices in order to collect data that would allow it to sell them products like loans and insurance - a strategy similar to Standard Bank’s.

“I think the penny has dropped that the opportunity exists,” Cassim said, adding that moving a retailer away from cash also allows its customers to shift towards other methods of payment, further expanding the addressable market for financial services.

LONG-TERM OPPORTUNITY

Africa is the world’s second-fastest growing banking market, according to a 2017 McKinsey report.

Standard Bank and Nomanini will roll out their service in South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, eSwatini and Lesotho.

Other products it will offer the retailers include short-term savings and insurance.

Nomanini is open to partnerships with other banks elsewhere, but says its partnership with Standard Bank alone will give it substantial geographical reach and product range.

“The scale of the opportunity for Nomanini within Standard Bank’s footprint can keep us busy for a very, very, very long time,” Manadjem said.

South Africa's rand weaker in cautious trade

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand weakened early on Tuesday, giving up small overnight gains as concerns about the U.S.-China trade war and the knock-on effect on global growth weighed on risk sentiment.

At 0630 GMT the rand was 0.21% weaker at 15.3100 per dollar, compared with an overnight close of 15.2825.

The rand had strengthened briefly beyond the 15.2500 mark in Asian trading after U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday flagged the possibility of a trade deal with China, days after both sides announced new tariffs. [nL3N25M235]

But the relief did not last, with traders wary about the next bout of volatility and a potential emerging market-wide selloff, with the Brazilian real seen as the likeliest catalyst after Latin America’s largest economy saw its current account deficit widen sharply. [nE6N252024]

With no major local data due, the focus is likely to be on the ongoing political storm around South Africa’s top anti-corrpution official, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, whose performance was set to be discussed in parliament on Tuesday.

Mkhwebane is in a court battle with President Cyril Ramaphosa after she published a report saying he “deliberately misled” parliament about the 500,000 rand ($32,500) donation for the 2017 campaign for leadership of the ruling party.[nL8N2581BM]

Bonds were weaker, with the yield on the benchmark government paper due in 2026 adding 2.5 basis points to 8.29%.

In equities, Imperial Logistics reported a 7% slump in full-year earnings. The firm said it incurred writedown costs from exiting its consumer packaged-goods business at home.

Relaunched Uganda Airlines hopes to win slice of East African travel

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda on Tuesday relaunched its national carrier, Uganda Airlines, hoping to take a slice of the East African aviation business that is dominated by Ethiopian Airlines

The country is banking on its emerging oil industry and the traditional tourism sector to generate international traffic to sustain the airline.

Though air traffic in Africa is forecast to grow 6% a year, twice as quickly as mature markets, over the next two decades, most state-owned flag carriers on the continent are losing money. The notable exception is Ethiopian Airlines, which analysts say has avoided the mistakes of other regional carriers and not fallen prey to political interference.

“We undertake to be a world class airline that will exceed customer expectations through high quality service,” Ugandan Airlines CEO Ephraim Bagenda said at a ceremony at Entebbe, the country’s sole international airport, south of the capital Kampala.

The airline will initially fly to seven regional destinations in Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan, and Burundi, the CEO said ahead of the inaugural flight to Kenya’s capital Nairobi.

In November, the airline would launch flights to destinations in south and central Africa, he said.

But Uganda Airlines will face stiff competition not only from Ethiopian Airlines, but also from Rwanda and Tanzania which have also poured cash into their flag carriers in the past few years, though with far less success than Ethiopia. Another rival regional carrier Kenya Airways has also faced challenges in its efforts to expand. It became loss-making in 2014 after buying a number of aircraft which coincided with a slump in tourist and business travel to Kenya blamed on a spate of attacks by Somalia-based Islamist militants. The airline has not recovered and was renationalised in July in what analysts said was a last-ditch effort to save it.

Uganda Airlines, founded by the country’s former dictator Idi Amin in 1976, was liquidated in 2001 during a push to privatise state firms.

Its revival will “reduce the cost of air transport and ease connectivity to and from Uganda,” Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said at the ceremony.

Ugandans spend about $450 million annually on foreign travel and the state-owned airline would help keep some of this cash within the national economy, Rugunda said.

Citizens would also benefit from direct flights from their capital over expensive, indirect routes on rival airlines, the prime minister said.

The airline received its first two CRJ900 planes from Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier in April. Two more of those planes are expected next month, according to the airline.

It expects to receive an Airbus A330 Neo in late 2020, then a second in early 2021, the CEO told Reuters in July, adding that the two wide-body planes will enable the airline to expand to destinations in the Gulf and China.

Each Bombardier cost around $27 million while the carrier will pay about $110 million for each of the Airbus aircrafts.

The airline is wholly publicly funded and forecasts that it will be self-financing after two years, the CEO told Reuters in July.

South Africa's 2019 maize output seen slightly up from previous estimate

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa is expected to harvest more maize in 2019 compared with the previous month’s forecast after higher crop yields in Limpopo, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, the government’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said on Tuesday.

The CEC, which gave its seventh estimate for the 2018/2019 season, estimated production at 11.016 million tonnes compared with the July estimate of 10.913 million tonnes.

The harvest is projected to consist of 5.572 million tonnes of the food staple white maize and 5.444 million tonnes of yellow maize which is primarily used for animal feed, said the CEC.

The estimate for the 2018/2019 season is 13.56% less than the 12.510 million tonnes harvested in the 2017/2018 season after dry weather delayed plantings.

The harvest is 4.32% higher than projected by the Reuters survey of traders and analysts, which pegged the harvest at 10.56 million tonnes.

Imperial to exit S.Africa consumer business by Sept, mulls Europe shipping unit disposal

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Imperial Logistics Ltd expects to wind up its loss-making consumer packaged-goods (CPG) business in South Africa by the end of September and is also considering disposing of its shipping unit in Europe as it overhauls its operations.

The ground freight firm is battling weak economic conditions in South Africa, fuel price volatility and rolling power cuts. Earlier on Tuesday it reported a 7% fall in earnings and incurred writedown costs from exiting the CPG business.

Chief Executive Mohammed Akoojee has drawn up a further restructuring and rationalisation plan for the group that includes exiting unprofitable contracts, consolidating operations and properties and reducing fleet and overheads.

Imperial decided at the end of May to exit the CPG business and sell assets and said on Tuesday that the model had become uncompetitive and unsustainable as retailers centralise their distribution networks.

Akoojee told Reuters in a telephone interview that Imperial aimed to retain key contracts which it would accommodate in other business units under a different commercial model.

“That business model of playing the middle man between a retailer and a fast-moving consumer goods company is no longer relevant,” he said.

The revamp would lead to an impairment of 1.44 billion rand ($94.51 million), including provisions for closure costs.

The rest of the consumer business, which caters for the likes of food and fashion retailer Woolworths and British American Tobacco South Africa will remain, he added.

SAVINGS

The South African division, excluding the CPG unit, saved about 140 million rand ($9.19 million) of fixed overhead costs per annum, the firm said.

The international business also saved about 245 million rand of fixed overhead costs, mainly from consolidating head offices and support functions.

Imperial, which traces its roots to a single car showroom in Johannesburg in the 1940s, is also considering disposing off its shipping firm in Europe.

“It cannot be scaled further in our target markets and the significant capital expenditure it requires to participate in the growth opportunities would be better deployed elsewhere to facilitate our strategic growth plans,” the firm said.

Imperial is also considering further disposals of non-core and low-return businesses under its international division in the short to medium term, such as the road liquid logistics business, Akoojee said.

In the rest of Africa, Imperial wants to expand into French speaking West Africa in the pharmaceutical sector and in the consumer sector in existing West African markets, Akoojee said.

It expects to reap the benefits of the overhaul and cost cuts, the exit of unprofitable businesses and new contract gains and acquisitions from the 2020 financial year.

As a result, it sees low double-digit operating profit and headline earnings per share (HEPS) growth and high single-digit revenue rise in the year ended June 2020.

HEPS is the most-watched profit figure in South Africa and excludes one-off items.

Besides the 7% decline in HEPS for the year ended 30 June 2019, operating profit also fell 9% due to exceptionally low volumes, depressed consumer demand and one-off costs.

($1 = 15.2369 rand)

Algerian economy creaks at the seams after six months of turmoil

ALGIERS (Reuters) - On the face of it, Algeria’s state-dominated economy has weathered six months of turmoil well, with flightloads of public sector workers heading abroad for holidays even as protesters who ousted the veteran president in April now target his allies.

But business, and leisure, as usual for the North African country’s army of state employees masks a growing economic drama behind the standoff between political, business, labour and military elites and those determined to force them out.

The country’s rich oil and gas resources are still flowing, but thousands of jobs are on the line and growth is stuttering in an economy where official data shows one in four of the under-30s, who form 70 percent of the population, is unemployed.

The resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April was followed by the appointment of an interim president overseen by the military, and corruption investigations have been opened into some of those around the former leader.

Putting tycoons close to Bouteflika behind bars was a key demand of the protests. But while investigations drag on, five big firms across sectors from sugar to cars are almost paralysed as their owners struggle to sign pay checks or orders to import materials because their bank accounts have been frozen.

Malik, one of 15,000 employees of detained businessman Ali Haddad, said he had just been sacked as a reporter for Dzayer TV. “The managers told me there is no more money,” he said, withholding his second name for fear of repercussions.

Haddad denies wrongdoing and the interim government says it will find ways to safeguard jobs, but after three months without pay, hundreds of his workers have joined tens of thousands of demonstrators who gather weekly in the capital Algiers.

Elections for a successor for Bouteflika have been postponed indefinitely, despite a dialogue between opposition parties and the non-party government managed by army chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah.

To limit further dissent, the interim government has held back planned reforms, initiated towards the end of Bouteflika’s 20-year rule, to wind down subsidies, open the economy to investment and create jobs outside bloated public services.

An energy law to cut red tape is on hold and inside Algeria’s sprawling state energy company Sonatrach, which is hoping to boost production by linking up with oil majors, there is growing concern.

“Output is ongoing at Sonatrach, but everything else is completely frozen including talks with Exxon and Chevron,” a Sonatrach source told Reuters, declining to be named due to the delicate political situation. Exxon declined to comment and Chevron was not immediately available. [nL8N2174F6] [nL5N2255YT] [nL2N2540VJ]

Any deal with a foreign firm is sensitive in Algeria and needs the support of a permanent president, not a caretaker: the source said it was not clear when the talks may restart.

“No visibility for the short term as politics not economics is at the top of the agenda for now,” the source said. The company spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The country is a key gas supplier and security partner to Europe in a volatile region: Islamist militants are on the rise in West Africa and to the east, in Libya, two rival governments are fighting for control.

The government has given no growth forecast for this year, but Algiers University economics professor Abderrahmane Aya said the turmoil will cost this year’s GDP one percentage point of growth, which reached 2.3% in 2018, and could get much worse.

“No one can now imagine the magnitude of the economic problem,” he said.

NO STRATEGY?

Bouteflika’s fall came as authorities began trying to persuade citizens that a welfare state providing unproductive state jobs and guaranteeing cheap housing, petrol, food, drugs and free hospital treatment was no longer viable.

Oil and gas provide 94% of export earnings and 60% of the budget, but earnings fell 6.3% to $17.65 billion in Jan-June with rising energy consumption eating into gas exports.

Imports, averaging $50 billion a year, provide most of Algeria’s needs, legacy of a reluctance to allow foreign investment due to its 1954-62 independence war with France and once strong ties with the Soviet Union.

The trade deficit rose 12% in the first half of this year, customs data showed.

“Everything seems to indicate that we are going through a long period of economic uncertainty,” Abdelhak Lamiri, a former government economic adviser, wrote in the El Watan newspaper. “The government is not empowered to take strategic decisions.”

Houari Tigharsi, an economist and member of parliament’s finance committee, said investors were apprehensive and non-energy domestic production capacity was down 50 percent.

“If the crisis drags on, we will not only see a fall in growth but the economy will even face disaster,” he said.

Interim President Abdelkader Bensalah has resisted calls to quit from protesters who see him as symbol of the old regime. He says the only way out of the crisis is to hold elections “as soon as possible”.

CARS

Algeria had vowed to develop the car industry, but reduced quotas of car spare parts imports for private vehicle assemblies after the bill rose by a fifth to $1.234 billion in the first four months of this year. Importers get money in foreign currencies from state banks.

Foreign exchange reserves fell by $7.28 billion in the first four months to $72.6 billion. In 2014, when crude prices were at $100 a barrel, they were $178 billion.

Industry Minister Djamila Tamazirt told reporters the quota reductions were “transitional measures to adjust the balance of payments” and correct incentives aimed at the automotive sector.

Four private companies assembling cars are now cutting production, despite growing demand from the country’s 43 million people which may drive up prices of second-hand cars.

Family-owned firm Sovac, which runs an assembly plant with Germany’s Volkswagen, has suspended orders for this year. Sovac head Mourad Eulmi is being investigated for graft, which he denies.

Around 800 workers assembling vehicles under the Hyundai brand were given forced leave by their employer Tahkout Manufacturing in July due to lack of raw materials, according to state media.

While sectors like food, home appliances and mobile phones have been opened up to private companies, the non-energy sector grew by just 4% last year, up from 2.2% the year before.

Bureaucracy abounds and dominant state banks have little experience of commercial lending.

“We will need bank financing to expand our investment,” said Ziad Loucif, communication manager at Cuisinox, a private firm focused on kitchen equipment manufacturing, mainly for hotels. “We want the state to facilitate investment.”

Work on a 185-km (115-mile) railway line has stopped and some 200 employees were put on forced leave for a “lack of liquidity”. The project belonged to detained Bouteflika ally Haddad.

“The government is working to find legal solutions for these companies,” Finance Minister Mohamed Loukal told state news agency APS. “I can assure you that production tools and jobs at these companies will be safeguarded.”

Remittances from Egyptians working abroad rose to about $3 billion in May

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt received about $3 billion in remittances from Egyptians living abroad in May, up 43% from $2.1 billion in April, the central bank said on Monday.

Egypt received $2.6 billion in remittances in May 2018, the statement said. Remittances are a key source of foreign currency for Egypt.

Purdue Pharma 'offers up to $12bn' to settle opioid cases

Purdue Pharma, the opioid drug-maker owned by the billionaire Sackler family, is reported to be offering between $10bn and $12bn to settle thousands of lawsuits against it.

The firm is facing over 2,000 lawsuits linked to its painkiller OxyContin.

Purdue told the BBC it was "actively working" towards a "global resolution" but would not comment on the amount.

NBC, which first reported the news, said the settlement would involve the Sacklers giving up ownership of Purdue.

The firm said in a statement: "While Purdue Pharma is prepared to defend itself vigorously in the opioid litigation, the company has made clear that it sees little good coming from years of wasteful litigation and appeals.

"Purdue believes a constructive global resolution is the best path forward, and the company is actively working with the state attorneys general and other plaintiffs to achieve this outcome."

What are opioids and what are the risks?

Why opioids are such an American problem

The teachers battling opioid overdose fears

According to Reuters, there is currently no agreement and the settlement discussions could collapse.

Purdue is one of 22 opioid makers, distributors and pharmacies named in over 2,000 cases which are due to go to trial in October.

The cases, which have been bought by states, cities and counties, allege the company used deceptive practices to sell opioids and is responsible for fuelling an opioid addiction crisis in the US.

On average, 130 Americans die from an opioid overdose every day, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The firm has said that the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, approved labels for OxyContin that had warnings about the risks.

The Sacklers have argued they were passive board members who approved routine management requests and were not involved with the marketing of OxyContin.

Opioids were involved in almost 400,000 overdose deaths in the US from 1999 to 2017, according to its research.

On Monday, drugmaker Johnson & Johnson was ordered by a US judge to pay $572m (£468m) for its part in fuelling Oklahoma's opioid addiction crisis.

The company said immediately after the judgement that it would appeal.--BBC

Tobacco giants Philip Morris and Altria in $200bn merger talks

Tobacco giants Philip Morris International and Marlboro-maker Altria are in talks to re-unite, more than a decade after the two firms separated.

With Philip Morris worth some $120bn and Altria $88bn, a deal would create a $200bn-plus industry powerhouse.

The news hit the share prices of cigarette competitors, with British American Tobacco down 3%.

Altria, the biggest investor in e-cigarette market leader Juul Labs, spun off the Philip Morris business in 2008.

The companies' confirmation of the talks came a day after Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said Juul, 35%-owned by Altria, would have an ideal partner for its international expansion in Philip Morris.

Juul is investing in overseas growth at a time when it faces increased regulatory scrutiny over the health of its products in the US.

New markets

Both Altria and Philip Morris International (PMI) make Marlboro cigarettes, the world's best selling cigarette - Altria in the US and PMI in the rest of world.

PMI also makes the Parliament and Virginia brands, and has its own e-cigarette division which the company says on its website will eventually replace traditional tobacco.

Analysts said the rationale behind the tie-up was to face up to declining cigarette sales, which fell 4.5% globally last year according to research group Cowen.

"With disruption facing the world of tobacco, we can see some merit in a re-merger," said Bernstein analyst Callum Elliott. "The combined entity could present a united front."

Altria has diversified in recent years beyond traditional tobacco, taking stakes in wine, beer and cannabis companies, as well as Juul.

In April, Phillip Morris won approval to sell a heated tobacco product called IQOS in the US. Unlike combustible cigarettes, IQOS devices heat tobacco-filled sticks wrapped in paper, generating an aerosol that contains nicotine. They are different from Juul's e-cigarettes, which vaporise a nicotine-filled liquid.

Any merger deal would need to be approved by the companies' respective shareholders and regulators.--BBC

Oil giant BP to pull out of Alaska as sells business for $5bn

BP will no longer have any operations in Alaska after it agreed to sell its entire remaining business there to a private oil and gas firm.

Hilcorp will pay $5.6bn (£4.5bn) to buy all of BP's interests in the US state.

The firm has faced pressure from environmental groups to stop drilling in the area, but BP said its decision was not connected to this.

"We have other opportunities that are more closely aligned with our long-term strategy," BP's chief executive said.

BP said the deal is part of its plans to raise $10bn over the next two years through asset sales to further strengthen its balance sheet.

The extreme cold and remoteness of some of the drilling regions of Alaska makes it expensive for firms to operate there.

BP's chief executive Bob Dudley said Hilcorp had the ability to "maximise its [the business's] value for the State of Alaska."

Mr Dudley said the funds from the sale would enable BP to "pursue new advantaged opportunities."

Prolific Prudhoe

BP began working in Alaska in 1959, and in the mid-1970s helped build the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline.

The Prudhoe Bay oilfield in the state - in which BP has a 26% stake - is the most prolific oil field in US history, and has produced over 13 billion barrels of oil, with forecasts suggesting it has the potential to produce more than one billion further barrels.

BP said about 1,600 employees were currently associated with its Alaskan business. It said it was "committed to providing clarity about their future as soon as possible as part of the transition process with Hilcorp."

Mr Dudley said the decision to sell its Alaskan business did not diminish its commitment to drilling in the US. "We remain very bullish on the US energy sector... and we will continue to look at further investment opportunities here," he said.--BBC

Ex-Google and Uber engineer charged with theft

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed criminal charges against a former senior engineer at Google's owner Alphabet alleging he stole car technology secrets.

Anthony Levandowski was charged with 33 counts of trade theft involving Alphabet's self-driving car technology.

He had left Alphabet's Waymo unit in 2016 and eventually ran Uber's self-driving car project, only to be fired.

Lawyers for Mr Levandowski, who now runs his own firm, have yet to comment.

Waymo and Uber were involved in a protracted lawsuit, which the taxi company eventually settled in 2018. Mr Levandowski was not party to that case, and did not publicly comment on the allegations.

The claim is that before leaving Waymo, Mr Levandowski downloaded thousands of files in 2015 related to Alphabet's self-driving car technology, including details related to Lidar, a crucial sensor technology for self-driving cars.

"All of us have the right to change jobs, none of us has the right to fill our pockets on the way out the door," US Attorney David Anderson said in a release announcing 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets. "Theft is not innovation."

Uber settles with Waymo on self-driving

Uber used 'undercover agents'

In the 2018 settlement, which underlined technology companies' race to lead the market in autonomous technology, Uber promised not to use Alphabet's technology and to give Waymo a 0.34% stake in Uber.

Mr Levandowski, aged 39, faces up to 10 years in jail and could be fined $250,000 per count, $8.25m in total.

He was a founding member of the group that started Google's self-driving car project. Mr Levandowski left Google in early 2016 to launch his own self-driving software start-up called Otto, which was later acquired by Uber.

Uber said it had "cooperated with the government throughout their [DoJ] investigation and will continue to do so."00bbc

Google faces EU investigation over job-search tool

Google's job-search tool is being investigated by the EU over claims that it is driving competitors out of the market.

EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager questioned whether it was fair the tech giant had "such control over the success or failure" of its rivals.

Google places a widget at the top of searches, circumventing the need to click through to job sites.

Twenty-three job-search sites urged Brussels to take action last month.

While Google does not charge a fee for its facility, its competitors fear the move is a ploy to gain market share before monetising its business model.

Ms Vestager has taken a tough stance against Google in the past, issuing fines totalling 8.47bn euros ($9.40bn; £7.64bn) in similar anti-trust cases.

"We're looking right now at whether the same thing may have happened with other parts of Google's business - like the job search business known as Google for Jobs," she told a conference in Berlin on Tuesday.

Google hit with €4.3bn Android fine from EU

Google claimed it had made changes to the tool following feedback in Europe.

It said the alterations included offering direct links to third-party job sites and linking directly to job offers available on a single site.

Earlier this month, the company announced it would prompt European users of its Android operating system to choose their own default search engine from 2020 following criticism from the European Commission.

Google was hit with a record 4.34bn-euro antitrust fine, which it is challenging.--bbc

INVESTORS DIARY 2019

Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

Companies under Cautionary

Bindura Nickel Corporation

Padenga Holdings

Delta Corporation

Meikles Limited

 <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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