Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 27 December 2019

Fri Dec 27 04:30:14 CAT 2019

 <http://www.bulls.co.zw/> Bulls.co.zw        <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw?subject=View%20and%20Comments> Views & Comments        <http://www.bulls.co.zw/blog> Bullish Thoughts        <http://www.twitter.com/BullsBears2010> Twitter         <https://www.facebook.com/BullsBearsZimbabwe> Facebook           <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bulls-n-bears-zimbabwe/57/577/72> LinkedIn          <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw?subject=Unsubscribe> Unsubscribe

Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 27 December 2019

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

*  Zambia plans to compel copper miners to account for gold

*  Nigeria's NNPC to raise Chevron-operated GTL plant stake to 60%

*  Travis Kalanick and the four paths of ousted tech founders

*  Options Market is Losing Confidence in Bitcoin; This Could Spell Trouble for 2020

*  Early Bitcoin Adopter Throws Cold Water On Halving Narrative; Here’s Why

*  Tesla Confirms $1.6 Billion in China Bank Financing for Factory

*  Newly released documents show T-Mobile considered a merger with the media giant Comcast, in addition to its merger with Sprint, in a plan to create one of the biggest companies in the world

*  VCs from Accel and SoftBank talk Europe’s startup scene, what they expect in 2020, and the future of SoftBank

*  Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick steps down from board

*  Russia 'successfully tests' its unplugged internet

*  Lloyd's of London whistleblowing hotline was down for 16 months

*  Why didn't the Bank of England appoint a woman?

*  China is getting smarter - but at what cost?

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

Zambia plans to compel copper miners to account for gold

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia plans to make copper mining companies account for the gold they produce as it seeks to boost revenue from its mineral resources, a senior ministry of mines official said on Thursday.

Ministry of Mines Permanent Secretary Barnaby Mulenga told a news conference that Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, was missing out on a lot of revenue because only one large mine was declaring its gold output.

First Quantum Minerals’ Kansanshi Mine, the only mine that has been declaring its gold production, produced 4,200 kg of gold last year.

Mining accounts for more than 70 percent of Zambia’s foreign exchange earnings and other companies operating in the southern African nation include Barrick Gold Corp, Glencore and Vedanta Resources. 

Mulenga said Zambia’s target for gold production next year was 40,000 kg and that would come from primary and secondary sources, including artisanal and small-scale miners.

Mulenga said some mining companies had not been declaring any gold production, arguing that the quantities mined were very insignificant and therefore sold as copper.

“Some mining companies have been claiming that it is more of an impurity but gold is precious and can’t be an impurity,” he said.

“What has been happening is that in some cases the gold has been hidden in the copper blisters or copper cathodes. A system will be put in place to ensure that we account for that gold,” he said.

Zambia’s mining investment company ZCCM-IH would invest in exploration, mining, processing and trading in gold, its chief executive officer Mabvuto Chipata said at the same briefing.

ZCCM-IH had undertaken initial exploration work in northwestern Zambia in collaboration with the mines ministry and was likely to start mining in the first quarter of next year, Chipata said.

ZCCM-IH had also started to set up centres for buying gold in strategic areas with deposits as a first step in a bid to formalise artisanal and small scale miners, he said.

Chipata said ZCCM-IH would provide technical expertise to artisanal miners on mine planning and safety and give them access to earth moving machinery and processing plants.

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

Nigeria's NNPC to raise Chevron-operated GTL plant stake to 60%

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria’s state oil company said on Tuesday it will increase its stake in a Chevron-operated gas-to-liquid refinery to 60% as part of a cost dispute resolution with the U.S. oil major.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has a 20%stake in the plant some 60 miles (100 km) southeast of Lagos.

California-based Chevron, which is trying to sell some Nigerian assets in an effort to focus on its fast-growing U.S. production, did not immediately comment.

The 33,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) plant, which produces synthetic diesel, liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha from natural gas using technology from South Africa’s Sasol, cost around $10 billion to build, four times the original estimate, and its start-up in mid-2014 was years late.

Travis Kalanick and the four paths of ousted tech founders

Uber co-founder and long-time CEO Travis Kalanick left the company’s board on Tuesday after selling his last shares, severing his final formal ties with the ride-sharing business he drove to success.

Kalanick co-founded Uber in 2009, then took over as CEO the following year. Investors ousted him from the top spot in 2017 after a series of missteps, including revelations that he’d allowed a culture of bullying and harassment toward women to fester, and an intellectual property lawsuit over self-driving cars from Google’s parent company, Alphabet. He stayed on the board long enough to help select his replacement, then began selling off his stock earlier this year.

So what’s next? The tale of the ousted founder has played out many times before in Silicon Valley, and typically ends in one of four ways:

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs set unrealistic expectations for all other ousted tech founders when he returned to Apple in 1997 as the company was weeks away from bankruptcy. He undid some bad decisions, culled underperforming product lines mercilessly, then oversaw a hit parade of products — the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad — that eventually turned Apple into the most valuable company in the world. A decade before his return, he took a majority stake in Pixar, which set the stage for his biggest financial windfall. 

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey performed a similar feat, reclaiming the helm of the social media company in 2015 (first as interim CEO, later permanent) after being pushed out of the top spot in 2008. Since he took over, Twitter’s core business has improved slightly — annual revenue rose only 37% between 2015 and 2018, while non-GAAP net income more than tripled — even as its average number of users per month stalled at around 325 million (the company has since shifted metrics and now reports average daily monetizable users).

Jobs and Dorsey both spent significant time away, building new companies and acquiring new perspectives along the way. Like them, Kalanick plans to spend his time building a new start-up, CloudKitchens, which creates and oversees centralized kitchens to cook meals for food delivery apps. If Uber continues to stumble — the stock is down more than 30% since its IPO — and Kalanick learns how to build a profitable business without falling into the same traps that hurt Uber during his tenure, he could become the rare comeback CEO.

The second act

Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz, speaks at Recode’s 2017 Code Conference.

Few founders create two runaway successes, although Dorsey was arguably in this category with his second company, Square, before he rejoined Twitter. Some successful founders play the role of entrepreneurs within the same company, such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos parlaying his e-commerce dominance into the creation of one of the world’s biggest enterprise software companies, Amazon Web Services.

Marc Andreessen is one example of a true second act founder. As the creator of the first popular web browser, Netscape Navigator, Andreessen co-founded one of the most successful companies of the dot-com boom. But Microsoft crushed the company by building a web browser into Windows, and AOL later snapped up Netscape for a song.

Then, a decade ago, Andreessen co-founded Andreessen Horowitz, where he used his hard-gained knowledge as an entrepreneur to build one of the most successful venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Other big-name entrepreneurs to make the leap to venture investing include LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, who’s now at Greylock Partners, and AOL’s Steve Case, who co-founded Revolution Partners. 

CloudKitchens could succeed, or Kalanick could take his knowledge and billions and turn them toward another completely unrelated business.

The eccentric billionaire

AP: Paul Allen 010717

In this July 17, 2001 file photo, Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen appears in a suite in the team’s stadium in Seattle. Allen, billionaire owner of the Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks and Microsoft co-founder, died Monday, Oct. 15, 2018 at age 65.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen left the company for health reasons in 1982, merely seven years after it was founded. But he held most of his Microsoft stock and it turned him into a billionaire many times over. Along the way, he devoted himself full-time to a diverse array of interests, including the purchase of the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers and NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, while snatching up huge swaths of real estate in Seattle, and founding an institute devoted to researching the human brain. He also bought one of the world’s largest yachts with an attached mini-submarine, and became a passable rock guitarist before starting a museum devoted to his musical hero, Jimi Hendrix. He died of cancer in October 2018.

By most accounts, Kalanick was maniacally single-minded about Uber, and doesn’t seem to have the diversity of interests that Paul Allen enjoyed. Moreover, Allen’s net worth peaked around $30 billion in 1999, and he was worth around $20 billion when he died. Kalanick sold less than $3 billion worth of Uber stock, which barely buys an NBA team these days.

While comebacks and second acts are interesting, they’re also exceptional. Most company founders — like most people — get one big break. They may go on to have productive and successful lives after they leave, but they seldom re-renter the public consciousness like the companies they founded.

For instance, only the most astute students of the tech industry history know the names Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, who founded Cisco and were ousted after the company went public in 1990. Cisco didn’t become a household name — and, briefly, the most valuable tech company in the world — until after 1995, when John Chambers took over as CEO.

The same goes for Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who founded an electric car company in 2003 and were helped along by an early investment from former PayPal exec Elon Musk. Tesla struggled for years but finally became a significant automaker — and iconic brand — under Musk’s eccentric leadership.

Kalanick has built a different profile than his predecessors, more famous than some, more infamous than all of them. And Uber is a much bigger and more valuable company than the others were when their founders departed. Even so, if Uber itself fades in importance — the company still generates massive losses, and investors are torn whether to believe in the company’s plan for eventual profits — Kalanick could find himself as no more than a very wealthy footnote from a particularly mediocre period in Silicon Valley history.--cnbc.com

Options Market is Losing Confidence in Bitcoin; This Could Spell Trouble for 2020

Bitcoin (BTC) has been able to incur some tempered bullishness today after a multi-day period of hovering around its support at $7,200. Today’s slight gains have come about in the face of a strong down trend, however, which could mean that these gains will ultimately prove to be fleeting and followed by further downside.

One factor that analysts are pointing to as support for the idea that the macro-bear trend is still far from being over is the fact that the options market is losing faith in BTC, which – in combination with other factors – could spell trouble for the crypto in the coming months.

Bitcoin Caught in Trading Range as Analysts Eye Movement to $6,000 

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading up just over 1% at its current price of $7,340, which marks a notable climb from its daily lows of just over $7,100 that were set earlier this week when bears attempted to push the crypto below its support at $7,000.

The lower-$7,000 region has been an important support level for the cryptocurrency in the time since it retraced from its late-October highs of $10,600, and the break below this level is what sparked the capitulatory drop to lows of $6,400 earlier this month.

Cantering Clark, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet that he believes BTC’s current bout of sideways trading will ultimately result in another drop down to the $6,000 region, as buyers have struggled to move the crypto’s price, signaling that the current selling pressure is aggressive.

“1- Getting involved in mid-range for many is a coinflip, and a sure way to get flatfooted if you don’t have a clear edge. 2- Looks like all positioning metrics I observe along with CVD indicate buyers committing with no results to show for it. Send it back to 6k range,” he explained.

1- Getting involved in mid-range for many is a coinflip, and a sure way to get flatfooted if you don’t have a clear edge.

2- Looks like all positioning metrics I observe along with CVD indicate buyers committing with no results to show for it.

Send it back to 6k range.$BTC

— Cantering Clark (@CanteringClark) December 26, 2019

What Does the Options Market Currently Say About BTC?

Clark further explains in another tweet that the inability for Bitcoin’s bulls to sway the crypto’s price is not the only bearish sign, as the options market is also flashing signs that investors are losing faith in the cryptocurrency, signaling that a capitulatory movement could be imminent.

“Again, with the space maturing $BTC options mkt will be just as important to observe as it is in other markets. Short term 25 Delta RR showing that market is not very confident about the near future. Puts trading more expensively from an IV standpoint. Further out still NEG,” he said while pointing to the chart seen below.

Again, with the space maturing $BTC options mkt will be just as important to observe as it is in other markets.

Short term 25 Delta RR showing that market is not very confident about the near future.

Puts trading more expensively from an IV standpoint.

Further out still NEG. pic.twitter.com/Pi4HnF0GmM

— Cantering Clark (@CanteringClark) December 26, 2019

Although low market sentiment can be a counter indicator, the option market’s lack of confidence in combination with other bearish factors could mean that the first part of the new year will be bearish for BTC and the aggregated crypto markets.--newsbtc.com

Early Bitcoin Adopter Throws Cold Water On Halving Narrative; Here’s Why

As NewsBTC has covered over the past few weeks, a debate has erupted around Bitcoin’s impending block reward reduction. Informally known as the “halving” or the “halvening,” every four years the number of BTC issued per block (every 10 minutes or so) gets cut in half, resulting in a negative supply shock on the market.

Analysts are currently divided over whether or not it will affect the underlying BTC price in a positive way — we just published another report on why the halving isn’t priced in from a derivatives perspective.

While bulls have a good argument due to the Stock to Flow model popularized by pseudonymous quantitative analyst PlanB, a prominent early Bitcoin adopter recently came out in the side of bears, arguing that the halving will not help BTC investors.

Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin evangelist who invested in Blockchain.com, Bitcoin.com, BitPay, amongst other crypto companies, recently remarked that he sees a “very real possibility the price of Bitcoin Core (BTC) does not go up after the halving.” This comment was made echoing a remark made by Melem Demirors of CoinShares, who cited financial derivatives as a potential dampener on the positive effects of the halving.

The now Japan-based Ver, trying to build out his own thesis on the matter, remarked that he thinks the price won’t up because ” the blocks are full and there is no room for additional commerce to take place on chain.” With this, he is seemingly referring to the sentiment that the economic activity of a chain will affect the price of the asset that is based on top of it.

There is a very real possibility the price of Bitcoin Core does not go up after halving.

For the first time, the blocks are full and there is no room for additional commerce to take place on chain.

Ver’s latest comments on the Bitcoin halving come shortly after he remarked in two mainstream media interviews that he expects for BCH to rapidly appreciate against BTC.

Christmas comes early at mBitcasino! 75 BTC in Bonuses and 3 Million Free Spins up for grabs for every player this December, only at mBitcasino! Grab your bonuses now!

Per previous reports from NewsBTC, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur and investor told CNBC in an interview that he thinks the market capitalization of Bitcoin Cash is poised to appreciate by over a “thousands of times where it currently is because it’s looking to become peer to peer electronic cash for the entire world.” For some context, BCH would be trading $191,000 apiece if it was trading 1,000 times higher than what it is trading at now.

He doubled down on this opinion in an interview with Forbes, saying that he expects for BCH’s market capitalization to supplant that of BTC:

“Bitcoin.com is partnering with more household names to bring BCH usage to actual commerce for real people and real businesses. As that adoption of BCH-based commerce grows, so will its market cap.”

While Ver has belief in this sentiment, not everyone is convinced that Bitcoin Cash will outperform BTC by that much, if at all.

In the wake of his aforementioned interview on CNBC, the crypto community erupted, pledging not to take Ver’s rhetoric lying down. Dan Hedl, a long-time Bitcoiner and industry executive/entrepreneur, wrote on Twitter:

“Hey @JoeSquawk whats up with this reporting on bcash by CNBC? Roger is saying factually incorrect information about adoption and identity.”--newsbtc.com

Tesla Confirms $1.6 Billion in China Bank Financing for Factory

Tesla Inc. confirmed it’s lined up 11.25 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in financing from local banks for its Shanghai factory as it prepares to begin deliveries of China-made Model 3 sedans to local consumers.

The carmaker last week entered into a 9 billion yuan term loan facility secured by the plant and surrounding land, plus an unsecured revolving loan facility of up to 2.25 billion yuan, according to a regulatory filing.

Tesla shares finished up 1.3% to close at a record close of $430.94 on Thursday. Bloomberg News reported on the financing earlier this week.--bloomberg.com

Newly released documents show T-Mobile considered a merger with the media giant Comcast, in addition to its merger with Sprint, in a plan to create one of the biggest companies in the world

T-Mobile's planned merger with Sprint faces ongoing scrutiny from federal regulators, and the "Un-carrier" is reportedly renegotiating terms of the deal.

T-Mobile has been working on a merger with Sprint for several years, but that's not its only step in its plan to become one of the biggest companies in the world, according to a recently published company road map.

Internal T-Mobile documents made public as part of its investigation by federal regulators, first published by The Verge, revealed that at the end of 2015, the company was considering an acquisition by an especially notable suitor: Comcast.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

T-Mobile has been planning a merger with Sprint for years in a bid to better compete with competitors like Verizon and AT&T. The merger was given the green light by the Federal Communications Commission in November, but it has been met with intense pressure by state and federal regulators. 

As part of the scrutiny into T-Mobile, new documents made public on Monday, and first reported by The Verge, revealed a road map for the company, including a potential merger with the telecommunications and media giant Comcast.

The documents from December 2015 show that T-Mobile had considered a two-step merger: First, merge with Sprint, then merge with a cable company, the top choice being Comcast. 

The road map, titled "Defining a Winning Business Position for the US Business Model," appeared to be presented to executives of the company and was compiled in part with the management-consulting company McKinsey & Co. T-Mobile initially tried to withhold the documents from the public, arguing that the report's authorship by a third party, McKinsey, required confidentiality. That argument was not accepted, and the documents were made public on Monday.

T-Mobile internal documents

A slide from a December 2015 internal T-Mobile document details a potential Comcast merger. T-Mobile

The logic T-Mobile provided for a subsequent merger with Comcast offers a rare candid look into how the company thinks about its US business in the long term.

The document points to T-Mobile's worth to Comcast: "Move into mobile might be only natural option for Comcast to grow," it said. "Preferred Comcast moves are unlikely to get approval."

In layman's terms, T-Mobile sees its value to Comcast as a means of skirting federal regulators' concerns with conglomerates. Rather that Comcast having to move into mobile markets itself, the cable giant could simply merge with T-Mobile as a side door in.

The document showed that the mobile carrier also considered mergers with other major names in cable, including Bright House and Charter. However, it's unclear how — or if — the company's position has changed since late 2015, when the report was issued, or how seriously the report was taken by the company at the time. T-Mobile representatives did not respond to a request for comment.--businessinsider.com

VCs from Accel and SoftBank talk Europe’s startup scene, what they expect in 2020, and the future of SoftBank

If you haven’t noticed, Europe’s startup scene is in full bloom, with more than $30 billion deployed in startups across the continent over the last 12 months and more than 20 countries now home to a so-called unicorn company.

Investors around the globe are jumping into the pool, too. Consider that the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) is currently investing a €300 million fund in Europe. Abu Dhabi’s state investor, Mubadala, last year announced it was launching a $400 million fund to back European startups. And that’s saying nothing of the many Europe-based venture investors who are either raising new funds or recently closed them.

Atomico, for example, one of the continent’s biggest early-stage firms, closed its most recent fund with $765 million in 2017 and is reportedly out fundraising again. Others of all different sizes have recently announced new vehicles, including Balderton Capital, which last month closed a new $400 million fund; United Ventures, a 6.5-year-old, Milan-based early-stage venture capital firm that last week closed its second fund with €120 million in capital commitments (nearly double the €70 million it raised for its debut fund); MiddleGame Ventures, a 1.5-year-old, Luxembourg-based fintech-focused investment firm that recently held a first close on a fund that’s targeting €150 million altogether; Northzone, a 23-year-old, London-based venture capital firm that closed on $500 million in capital commitments for its ninth fund (its largest to date); Ada Ventures, a new London-based seed-stage venture firm that just closed its debut fund with $34 million; and Dawn Capital, a nearly 13-year-old, U.K.-based early-stage venture firm that in summer raised $125 million for an opportunities-type fund.

To find out more about what’s happening on the ground, we sat down at Disrupt Berlin earlier this month with two London-based investors —  Carolina Brochado, who late last year left Atomico to join SoftBank’s Vision Fund, and Andrei Brasoveanu of Accel — to discuss where the money is coming from, which European cities are becoming more interesting to both of them, and some of the challenges they face in covering so many different regions.

We also talked specifically with Brochado about whether SoftBank is changing up its tactics in light of some bets that aren’t panning out as intended — and whether she has any qualms about the outfit’s biggest investor. Our conversation, edited lightly for length and clarity, follows.

TC: We’re all meeting for the first time, and I thought we could do everyone here a service who wants to understand both of you better by talking a little bit about who you are and what you focus on. Do you want to start Carolina? I know you studied in the U.S…

CB: Yes, so I’m originally from Brazil. I moved to the U.S. for university, spent over 10 years in the U.S., [and I] have worked in in large cap private equity, have worked at a pre launch, launch, [then failed] startup, and then have spent a lot of my time in Europe, which has been seven years now, at an earlier stage VC firm called Atomico . . . and for the last year, I’ve been at SoftBank Vision Fund, investing at the growth stage.

AB: I’ve been with Accel for six years. I’m originally from Romania and spent 10 years in the states like Carolina, studying and working in New York in high frequency trading. At Accel, I’ve been focused most of my time on enterprise software and financial services and I’ve been very excited to back European founders from London all the way to Bucharest. Accel is one of the few Valley-based venture firms with on-the-tground presence in Europe. We’ve been here for 20 years, and we really believe in having a local approach to investing.

TC: Carolina, you switched from Atomico to SoftBank this year. Why?

CB: There’s a lot of push and pull with these sort of things. Europe is such an incredibly exciting place right now, and to be totally honest, back [when I moved here] in 2013, I didn’t totally see it, but over the years, you realize how many incredible entrepreneurs [are here], how many incredible teams, and the opportunity that lies ahead. And firms like Accel and Atomico were paving the path of the capital structure in Europe, which is actually very young; maybe the past 15 years, there’s been VC in Europe, and now you starting to see the fruits of that and the exits.

So for me, part of it was while there are great funds at the early stage, there’s still a lot of underfunding at that later stage, so I was really excited about doing growth in Europe and putting significant amounts of capital behind founders who want to go for the really big outcomes.

TC: You now have an insider’s view of these two very important firms. What are some of the biggest differences between Atomico and SoftBank, aside from the different stages at which they invest — how do maybe the processes differ?

CB: There’s obviously a difference in size — Atomico was 70 people and SoftBank is a 500-person organization. There is an interesting founder-led approach to both organizations. They are both very mission- driven by founders who want to change the world and by founders who want to be the best at what they do, which is really exciting.

One of the key differences at SoftBank is that it’s really global firm [with] offices everywhere. We have offices in the U.S. We have offices in Asia. We have offices in Europe. For me, it has been a really interesting platform to see what other great founders are doing in other places of the world.

And then, just because of the sheer size of the organization, you have a group of 50-plus operating partners who may have really deep areas of domain expertise like talent but who are also helping our companies do business development, and who can look at our ecosystem — which today is over 85 portfolio companies —  and make connections, and win business and actually win profitability for companies across and within that ecosystem.

TC: You’re both [in Berlin right now] from London. Andrei, do you run into each other in deals, or are your worlds vastly different?

AB: I would say we have quite different focus areas, we’re very much early-stage focused as our sweet spot [though] some of our companies, when they get to that mature stage, may benefit from working with SoftBank.

CB: We try to stay very close to the great companies at Accel, so they’ll nudge us [when it’s the right time].

TC: Who are you seeing coming into deals who you might not have when you joined Accel in 2014?

AB: It’s interesting. Since I joined Accel, the quality of investors in Europe has increased dramatically. So we’ve seen quite a few former operators, for example, [meaning] very successful founders who are now starting the starting their own funds. We’ve seen more family offices enter the industry. We’ve seen more U.S. capital in the market. And in general, I think [all] has helped raise the bar in terms of the quality of capital available to founders across Europe. And many of these folks, especially the local players, have been good partners for us.-techcrunch.com

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick steps down from board

Uber's co-founder Travis Kalanick is to step down from its board at the end of the year.

The 43-year-old ousted the ride-hailing firm's original chief executive within a year of its creation, but was himself forced to stand down six-and-a-half years later in 2017 after a number of scandals.

He had, however, remained involved as one of its nine directors.

Mr Kalanick also recently sold off most of his shares in the company.

In the past two months he has liquidated about $2.5bn (£1.9bn) worth of stock, representing more than 90% of his earlier stake in the business.

"At the close of the decade, and with the company now public, it seems like the right moment for me to focus on my current business and philanthropic pursuits," said Mr Kalanick in a statement issued by Uber.

"I will continue to cheer for its future from the sidelines."

Mr Kalanick currently heads up City Storage Systems. The Los Angeles-based start-up buys up land and establishes kitchens for use by delivery-only restaurants, which operate via apps including Uber Eats.

'Profound' legacy

The entrepreneur had previously declared: "I love Uber more than anything in the world."

However, investors pressured him to step aside in the run up to the company's flotation following a series of controversies.

They had involved:

a report that another executive had obtained the medical records of a woman who was raped by an Uber driver in 2014, and then shared them with Mr Kalanick among others

hundreds of complaints from staff about harassment and bullying

a legal dispute with Google's parent company Alphabet over the alleged theft of trade secrets related to driverless cars

an argument between Mr Kalanick and one of Uber's San Francisco drivers over fares, which was filmed and released to the media

Mr Kalanick had also repeatedly clashed with regulators, which had helped Uber overcome and sometimes ignore restrictions that would have otherwise prevented it entering some markets.

But there was a perception that the company's image had been tarnished as a consequence, and that his replacement - Expedia's former chief Dara Khosrowshahi - would be seen as a less risky bet by the markets once the firm had listed.

But Mr Khosrowshahi has paid his own respects following the latest announcement.

"Very few entrepreneurs have built something as profound as Travis Kalanick did with Uber," he said.

"I'm enormously grateful for Travis' vision and tenacity while building Uber, and for his expertise as a board member."

Mr Khosrowshahi has faced issues of his own, including one of Uber's test self-drive cars killing a woman, and Transport for London (TfL) deciding not to renew the company's licence to operate in the capital.--BBC

Russia 'successfully tests' its unplugged internet

Russia has successfully tested a country-wide alternative to the global internet, its government has announced.

Details of what the test involved were vague but, according to the Ministry of Communications, ordinary users did not notice any changes.

The results will now be presented to President Putin.

Experts remain concerned about the trend for some countries to dismantle the internet.

"Sadly, the Russian direction of travel is just another step in the increasing breaking-up of the internet," said Prof Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey.

"Increasingly, authoritarian countries which want to control what citizens see are looking at what Iran and China have already done.

"It means people will not have access to dialogue about what is going on in their own country, they will be kept within their own bubble."

The initiative involves restricting the points at which Russia's version of the net connects to its global counterpart, giving the government more control over what its citizens can access.

"That would effectively get ISPs [internet service providers] and telcos to configure the internet within their borders as a gigantic intranet, just like a large corporation does," explained Prof Woodward.

So how would the government establish what some have dubbed a "sovereign Runet"?

Countries receive foreign web services via undersea cables or "nodes" - connection points at which data is transmitted to and from other countries' communication networks. These would need to be blocked or at least regulated.

This would require the co-operation of domestic ISPs and would be much easier to achieve if there were just a handful of state-owned firms involved. The more networks and connections a country has, the more difficult it is to control access.

Then Russia would need to create an alternative system.

In Iran, the National Information Network allows access to web services while policing all content on the network and limiting external information. It is run by the state-owned Telecommunication Company of Iran.

One of the benefits of effectively turning all internet access into a government-controlled walled garden, is that virtual private networks (VPNs), often used to circumvent blocks, would not work.

Another example of this is the so-called Great Firewall of China. It blocks access to many foreign internet services, which in turn has helped several domestic tech giants establish themselves.

Russia already tech champions of its own, such as Yandex and Mail.Ru, but other local firms might also benefit.

The country plans to create its own Wikipedia and politicians have passed a bill that bans the sale of smartphones that do not have Russian software pre-installed.

Technical challenges

One expert warned that the policy could help the state repress free speech, but added that it was not a foregone conclusion that it would succeed.

"The Russian government has run into technical challenges in the past when trying to increase online control, such as its largely unsuccessful efforts to block Russians from accessing encrypted messaging app Telegram," Justin Sherman, a cyber-security policy fellow at the New America think tank, told the BBC.

"Without more information about this test though, it's hard to assess exactly how far Russia has progressed in the path towards an isolatable domestic internet.

"And on the business front, it remains to be seen just how much domestic and foreign pushback Russia will get."

Local news agencies, including Pravda, reported the deputy head of the Ministry of Communications had said that the tests of the scheme had gone as planned.

"The results of the exercises showed that, in general, both the authorities and telecoms operators are ready to effectively respond to emerging risks and threats, to ensure the stable functioning of both the internet and unified telecommunication network in the Russian Federation," said Alexey Sokolov.

The state-owned Tass news agency reported the tests had assessed the vulnerability of internet-of-things devices, and also involved an exercise to test Runet's ability to stand up to "external negative influences".--BBC

Lloyd's of London whistleblowing hotline was down for 16 months

The Bank of England is to begin monitoring Lloyd's of London after it emerged that a whistleblowing hotline at the insurance market was out of service for almost a year and a half.

It meant about 1,000 staff had no way to anonymously report issues such as sexual harassment or bullying.

Lloyd's has been trying to clean up its image after a wave of female staff complained of being harassed at work.

The company said it was "disappointed" by the failure in its controls.

About 50,000 people work at the Lloyd's of London insurance market, where brokers and insurers meet to do business.

In February, the firm discovered its "Speaking Up" hotline - which was only open to directly-employed staff - had been out of action for 16 months.

Lloyd's of London staff told to behave at Christmas parties

'Lloyd's takes harassment crackdown to pubs

Lloyd's alerted the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to the fact at the time. It told the body, which oversees City firms, that it had forgotten to renew its contract with the external company that managed the line.

Staff could have used an email address and app to report issues, but not anonymously, the PRA said.

The City firm has now agreed to improve its reporting processes and will face "enhanced scrutiny", the PRA added.

Lloyd's has been trying change its male-dominated culture following a highly critical article in Bloomberg Businessweek magazine in March. It reported female workers had faced inappropriate comments as well as physical attacks from male colleagues.

A survey later commissioned by Lloyd's indicated that 8% of workers had witnessed sexual harassment over the previous 12 months.

To tackle the problem, the 330-year-old market has:

put curbs on daytime drinking

introduced life bans for anyone found to have behaved inappropriately

put posters up in the toilets of pubs near its offices in the City of London

urged staff to report sexual harassment.

Earlier this month, it also warned staff to behave during the Christmas party season.

Commenting on the hotline, a spokesman said: "We are extremely disappointed by this failure in our internal controls, which serves to remind us all about the need for constant vigilance when it comes to these essential services.

"Lloyd's employees can feel confident that we now have all the right mechanisms in place for them to report any wrongdoing, and that these systems are regularly monitored."--BBC

Why didn't the Bank of England appoint a woman?

While many have welcomed Andrew Bailey's appointment as the new governor of the Bank of England, some suggested he has one key flaw: he is a white male.

In different circumstances that might not have raised hackles. As boss of City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority, Mr Bailey has lots of experience and is well qualified for his new job.

However, the Bank has repeatedly come under fire for not being representative of the population over which its policies have so much influence.

And as Mr Bailey becomes the 121st governor he highlights an uncomfortable truth. Not once in the institution's 320-year history has it picked a woman to be its leader.

For Dominie Moss, the founder of Return Hub, a City recruitment firm, it points to a serious problem not just at the Bank but in the world of finance as a whole.

"When the intake level is broadly equal and the board level is anything but, we have to be honest that there is a culture problem in financial services."

Andrew Bailey was appointed by the government, not the Bank: chosen by Chancellor Sajid Javid and approved by the prime minister.

Mr Bailey was picked because he was the right man for the job, says Bev Shah, the founder of City Hive, which promotes diversity in the City.

But she asks: "Why was there no right woman for the job?"

Ms Shah says his appointment highlights "significant structural issues" in the pipeline of talent at the Bank.

"The role should never have been given to a woman just because of her gender," she says.

But she thinks the "entire structure" of the Bank - including those on its committees who could one day become governor - is "not very diverse".

Does the Bank of England have a woman problem?

Bailey named as new Bank of England governor

The Bank admits it could do better. In its annual report this year, the it said it was set to miss its own diversity targets, despite efforts to recruit and retain more women and black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) staff.

It had hoped all non-senior jobs would be equally shared by men and women by 2020, but the proportion this year was just shy at 46%.

Women now hold almost a third of senior management roles, a big improvement from 17% in 2013, but still below the target of 35%. Meanwhile, only 5% of senior Bank staff identify as Bame.

The statistics suggest the Bank is doing better than the economics profession overall. But, as a recent picture of the nine members of its Monetary Policy Committee shows, the lack of diversity at the top is glaring.

The nine-strong committee - which sets the UK's official interest rate - comprises eight white men and just one (white) woman.

It was for this reason that the Treasury promised to make diversity a priority when choosing the new governor. It even hired a headhunting firm that specialises in placing women in top roles.

For a while, Dame Minouche Shafik - a former deputy governor of the Bank and a director of the London School of Economics - was tipped as the government's favourite. But in the end Mr Bailey won the day.

Some think a deeper systemic trend is to blame for the reluctance to pick women: the startling lack of female economists in the world.

Most top roles in finance go to people with degrees in economics. But economics courses have long skewed male, with some arguing that women are put off because of the profession's male-oriented image.

It has made it doubly hard for women who do specialise in the subject to rise to the top in their careers. Last year the American Economic Association, which promotes the study of economics, surveyed current and former members including academics and working economists. It received 9,000 responses.

Nearly half of female respondents reported having been discriminated against on the basis of sex, compared to 3% of men.

And lots said they felt excluded by the adversarial style of debate common to many economics faculties.

Almost half said they refrained from asking questions during discussions at their place of work in order to avoid "possible harassment, discrimination or unfair and disrespectful treatment". And 69% felt their work was taken less seriously than their colleagues'.

'Revise and resubmit'

Claudia Goldin, who helped oversee the survey, believes the uneven playing field starts earlier, when female economists are qualifying.

"Among female graduate students, there are issues concerning mentoring and advising. There are issues concerning the seminar culture. Among assistant professors, there are issues concerning tenure and publishing, credit for co-authorship."

Some argue female PhD students are also held to higher standards. Papers written by women receive a much higher rate of "revise and resubmit", claims a recent study by Prof Jenna Stearns of the University of California, Davis.

Such women are also much less likely than men to have a tenured academic job 10 years after graduation, the paper also found.

'A more equal shot'

According to Dominie Moss, appointing a female governor of the Bank of England is not going to solve finance's wider diversity problem.

"Diversity in the City has to go beyond one or two top appointments," she says.

But Yasmine Chinwala, a partner at think tank New Financial, thinks the Bank would set an example if it mirrored the more progressive City firms out there.

"These companies are applying rigour around picking apart what the criteria and process is when someone is due to get a promotion or win a senior appointment," she says.

"For example, we see that promotion is often awarded for those who work on the biggest deals or projects.

"The companies committed to change are taking a deeper look at giving women more exposure so that when a promotion comes up, they have a more equal shot at it."--BBC

China is getting smarter - but at what cost?

Thirty years ago, Shenzhen was a fishing village, surrounded by paddy fields.

Then came a plan to build China's first special economic zone to allow foreign investments, and out of the quiet rural landscape grew private businesses and factories which over time transformed into a city.

Now Shenzhen, with a population of 12 million, is just one part of a huge urbanised area running down the Pearl River Delta.

China's smart cities ambitions are among the grandest in the world. But there are questions about whether their surveillance technologies will improve the quality of inhabitants' lives or just be used to keep a closer eye on them.

Clean city

By 2050, about 292 million more Chinese people will live in cities. Already more than 58% of the population are urban dwellers, compared to just 18% in 1980.

According to the authorities, there are 662 Chinese cities, including more than 160 with a million people or more.

At the Smart Cities Expo in Barcelona recently, Shenzhen had one of biggest exhibits.

Jiang Wei Dong, the general manager of the local delegation told the BBC what technologies are powering the city.

They are, he said, "seriously focused on pollution".

"Compared to other cities, Shenzhen is clean," he added.

The city is the first in China to ensure that all buses and taxis on its roads are electric, he explained.

Alongside smarter transportation, there is a new smart healthcare system, which makes sure that when anyone comes to the city from a faraway province their health records are immediately accessible.

But when asked about security systems, his response was less enthusiastic.

"We are only familiar with traffic. For the citizens of Shenzhen there is no monitoring," he said.

But at a separate event in the city itself, the public are being challenged to consider the speed at which surveillance tech is being rolled out.

Shenzhen's Futian station is hosting Eyes of the City - an exhibition which poses the question: "What happens to people and the urban landscape when the sensor-imbued city is able to gaze back?"

Among the works on show are a facial recognition system that visitors can opt out of by wearing a special mask, and displays that look back at ticket holders, analysing their emotional responses.

"One of the main objectives of the Eyes of the City exhibition is to encourage visitors to take a stance, shunning the dangerous option of neutrality," said the curator Carlo Ratti.

Data collection

China is creating new cities at an astonishing rate, redefining the urban landscape with plans to create 19 gigantic urban clusters and the world's first super-city with more than 40 million inhabitants.

Urban development on this scale will demand efficiency. Traffic will have to be controlled to avoid weeklong jams, and transport will have to be green to avoid killing everyone with CO2 emissions.

But there will also be a need for citizens themselves to be more efficient. Littering, playing music too loud on a train, running across the road when the lights are red - these will stop being minor indiscretions and become major inconveniences in cities so large.

In 2014, the idea of a social credit system was unveiled. The somewhat Orwellian plan is to reward citizens for good behaviour and punish them for bad. In March this year, millions of discredited travellers were banned from buying train or plane tickets for a range of offences, such as using expired tickets or smoking on a train.

"In China, the whole social scoring experiment is fascinating but I'm glad that I don't have to live through it," said smart cities consultant Charles Reed Anderson.

Currently there is no unified social credit system. Instead local governments enforce the idea in different ways, which can sometimes have a knock-on effect on foreign visitors.

Mr Anderson told an anecdote about a friend who had recently visited a Chinese city.

"He got to his hotel and realised he had left [his phone in a taxi], so the hotel walked him to the police station," he explained.

"The police pulled up the data about the vehicle but didn't have the traffic cam so they took him to another department a few blocks away, and they were able to track the taxi in real time and called the driver to ask him to bring back the phone.

"Within two hours he had his phone back."

"The taxi driver may have been worried that if he didn't return it, he was going to get a negative score."

There has been huge criticism of the system but, says Mr Anderson, it probably feels far less creepy to Chinese citizens, who have grown up used to have their activities monitored by the state.

"I'm not 100 percent behind it - it can deliver some good things. But if it starts getting abused then it becomes a major problem," he said.

Human Rights Watch revealed earlier this year that one social credit system being used in the Xinjiang region, home to a largely Muslim population, was linked to an app used by Chinese police and other government officials.

City brain

More and more data and information is falling into the hands of the government via sensors and other technology in cities.

But what happens when cities do deals with private tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent, who themselves have vast databases of information on citizens?

Alibaba is headquartered in the eastern city of Hangzhou and has spent two years developing a platform dubbed the City Brain, which analyses data from cameras and the GPS location of cars and buses, and uses it to control more than one thousand traffic lights to prevent gridlock.

It claims it has helped drop the city of seven million people from the fifth most congested in China to 57th on the list.

Now cities are handing over chunks of land to tech firms.

The Shenzhen government has just awarded Tencent a small 809 sq m (8,708 sq ft) plot of reclaimed land in order to build what it describes as "a future city focused on technology and innovation".

And increasingly, Western cities are also doing deals with Chinese firms.

Councillors in Darwin, Australia travelled to China to meet Huawei and see its technology in Shenzhen. The firm then implemented a $10m programme to roll out 900 smart LED lights, 24 environmental sensors and a network of 138 CCTV cameras.

Rejecting claims the city was going to implement a similar social credit scheme of its own, Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis told ABC News that "there's no facial recognition... and our cameras can't tell who you are or what you do".--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.

(c) 2019 Web: <http:// www.bulls.co.zw >  www.bulls.co.zw Email:  <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw Tel: +263 4 2927658 Cell: +263 77 344 1674

Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears

Telephone:    <tel:%2B263%204%202927658> +263 4 2927658

Cellphone:      <tel:%2B263%2077%20344%201674> +263 719 441 674

Alt. Email:              <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw 

Website:                <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bulls.co.zw&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNH8LYgdY55h-XKseuM8Kpr-JKdfhQ> www.bulls.co.zw

Blog:                      <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bulls.co.zw%2Fblog&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFoIy6F9IXAiYnSoPSgWDYsr8Sqtw> www.bulls.co.zw/blog

Twitter:                 @bullsbears2010

LinkedIn:              Bulls n Bears Zimbabwe

Facebook:              <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBullsBearsZimbabwe&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGhb_A5rp4biV1dGHbgiAhUxQqBXA> www.facebook.com/BullsBearsZimbabwe

Skype:                  Bulls.Bears 

Whatsapp Group:   <https://chat.whatsapp.com/CF6wllAfScU9Wr6dXxoQnO> Click Here to Join

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20191227/7ed6cb39/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 42384 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20191227/7ed6cb39/attachment-0005.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 34707 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20191227/7ed6cb39/attachment-0006.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 33003 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20191227/7ed6cb39/attachment-0007.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 30706 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20191227/7ed6cb39/attachment-0008.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3256 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20191227/7ed6cb39/attachment-0009.jpg>