Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 21 June 2019

Fri Jun 21 04:02:29 CAT 2019

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 21 June 2019

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*  Zambian court rejects Vedanta bid to join liquidation case

*  African Bank moves to stem client exodus, safeguard S.African comeback

*  Kenyan shilling weakness not linked to bank note plan: cbank

*  Mercuria, South African firms place bids for South32's SAEC coal mines

*  Lafarge Africa rises to 3-week high after it sells South African unit

*  Namibia targets $1 billion worth of investments

*  Nigeria to consider its industries in Africa free trade zone decision

*  Marketing division manager Kyari to head Nigerian state oil firm

*  Malawi president appoints economist Mwanamvekha as finance minister

*  Carney gives Facebook currency cautious welcome

*  Bank of England cuts UK growth outlook as rates held

*  Slack: Shares surge as messaging app joins the stock market

*  Monsoon seeks rent cut in 'difficult' trading

*  Dixons Carphone shares plunge on mobile phone woes

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

Zambian court rejects Vedanta bid to join liquidation case

LUSAKA (Reuters) - A Lusaka court on Thursday ruled Vedanta Resources could
not be included in proceedings to wind up its Konkola Copper Mines (KCM)
business in Zambia.

Zambia’s dispute with Vedanta began in May when the government of Africa’s
second biggest copper producer appointed a liquidator to run KCM, saying it
had breached its licence.

The row has intensified concerns among international miners about resource
nationalism in Africa.

Zambian firm ZCCM-IH holds around 20 percent of KCM, while Vedanta
Resources, part-owner of the Mumbai-listed Vedanta group of companies, holds
a majority stake.

Vedanta has said it will seek international arbitration and has been
fighting to be represented at the court proceedings, which so far have only
included ZCCM-IH and KCM.

High Court judge Annes Banda-Bobo said the court was unable to “order a
joinder of the intended second respondent to the proceedings” but granted
Vedanta leave to appeal.

She said Vedanta had not filed a “notice of intention” required by the
court.

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

African Bank moves to stem client exodus, safeguard S.African comeback

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Small South African lender African Bank, rescued
from failure by the central bank four years ago, plans to offer overdrafts
and expand its insurance business as a drop in customer numbers threatens
its turnaround strategy.

The bank is losing clients after it tightened lending criteria following its
re-launch into a competitive banking sector made tougher by under-pressure
consumers in a sluggish economy.

The first bank to be placed under South African Reserve Bank (SARB)
curatorship in over a decade after nearly collapsing under the weight of bad
loans in 2014, African Bank says it wants to make a comeback as a safer
institution with a base of retail deposits and less focus on risky unsecured
credit.

It has made strides towards a set of ambitious 2021 targets, but its
customer numbers have fallen from 1.25 million in 2016 to 1.04 million in
March, some way from its 2.5 million goal.

“That is the one we are concerned about, and I think we do have a very solid
plan in terms of how we can address that,” CEO Basani Maluleke told Reuters.
The bank expects the trend to reverse following the launch of its low-fee
digital account in May, she said.

Next year it plans to launch an overdraft facility in a bid to make the new
account, called MyWorld and which it says is already the cheapest on the
market, more attractive.

MyWorld has accumulated 20,000 customers so far.

There are few overdrafts available to the bank’s low-income target market
where credit card penetration is also low, Chief Finance Officer Gustav
Raubenheimer said.

The bank also plans to expand its short-term insurance product beyond
funeral policies and relaunch its credit card.

It hopes this will halt the loss of customers, allowing it to earn more
revenue from transaction fees and other products and mine customer data for
cross-selling.

MYWORLD

If it struggles, it could push a SARB exit, as well as that of its other
shareholders - six of South Africa’s biggest banks - further into the
future.

The SARB has said it wants African Bank to be viable and sustainable before
it exists. It hived the bank off from listed parent, African Bank
Investments Ltd (Abil), when the company started to fail. Abil’s share price
tumbled from 28 rand to 31 cents, before trading was suspended.

African Bank retained a portion of its old loan book, which it hoped to use
as a springboard for MyWorld but tighter lending criteria led it to lose
some customers.

The bank should capitalise on its access to clients from its former lending
book, Stuart Theobald, chairman of financial consultancy Intellidex, said.
Highly competitive rates have also given it an edge in savings and
investments, where it grew deposits by 119% in the first half of the year.

MyWorld, however, doesn’t stand out against rival offerings, he said. It
launched amid the arrival of an array of new, largely digital-only lenders,
some of which are growing much faster and whose arrival has also forced big
banks to up their game.

“The of level competition there is quite aggressive,” Theobald said.

In the longer term, Maluleke said African Bank planned to establish a
digital marketplace where customers could buy a wide array of products,
including from third parties. But for the next 18 months, it is focusing on
stemming customer losses.

Kenyan shilling weakness not linked to bank note plan: cbank

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya’s central bank governor said on Thursday he was
not concerned by this month’s falls in the shilling and the weakness was not
linked to plans to invalidate the old 1,000 shilling note.

The bank said on June 1 it would retire the old version of its biggest bank
note in four months time, as part of a push to fight illicit financial
flows, money laundering and counterfeiting. [nL8N23A3WI]

Since then, the currency has lost a percentage point to touch an intra-day
low of 102.00 per dollar on Monday, before paring back some of the losses to
trade at 101.65/85 on Thursday.

Some traders attributed the move to people with big stockpiles of old 1,000
shilling notes converting them into hard currency on the commercial market
before they become worthless on the Oct. 1 deadline.

Anyone wanting to exchange large numbers of the old notes for new Kenyan
shilling bills has to show where the money came from.

“The movement it has had over the last few weeks is not an issue,” central
bank governor Patrick Njoroge told a news conference.

“We are focusing on a little movement which in the big structure, it doesn’t
have the meaning that we are giving it.”

The East African nation is favoured by foreign investors mainly due to its
diverse, fast-growing economy, but its reputation has long been tainted by
widespread graft and weak application of anti-money laundering laws.

Njoroge said the bank note plan had not led to any upsurge in demand for
dollars, and his officials had stepped up market surveillance.

“Let’s say somebody is into money laundering and he is trying to go into
U.S. dollars so they can take them away in their socks, the points is, do we
have information about the transactions?,” he said. “We have good
information about the transactions.”

The central bank has an extra cushion for the shilling in the form of
healthy foreign exchange reserves, which soared to $10.08 billion equivalent
to import cover of 6.4 months, their highest ever level, Njoroge said.

“We have the firepower to deal with any eventuality and more,” he said.

Currency traders said the shilling had also come under pressure from demand
by firms seeking hard currency to pay dividends to their shareholder’s
abroad.

Mercuria, South African firms place bids for South32's SAEC coal mines

LONDON/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Seriti Resources and a consortium backed by
global energy trader Mercuria are among up to six groups to have submitted
final bids for the South African coal assets of South32, four sources
familiar with the matter told Reuters.

A consortium backed by South African miner Exxaro Resources dropped out of
the race due to competition issues as the firm is already a major coal
producer and supplier to state-owned power utility Eskom, three sources
said.

While some international mining companies, including Anglo American, have
reduced exposure to coal on environmental grounds, traders have not been
deterred - sparking a race for quality assets needed for power generation.

South Africa’s government is also encouraging black-owned businesses to
participate more in the economy.

Phembani Group, founded by MTN Group chairman Phuthuma Nhleko, has also
refrained from submitting a binding offer for South32’s South African Energy
Coal (SAEC) after conducting due diligence on the assets.

The Mercuria-backed coal-mining consortium, Sibambene Coal, was launched in
March and is also partly owned by investment company Menar and some
black-owned companies and trusts.

Seriti Resources bought Anglo American’s New Largo coal assets in 2017 and
has said it is on the hunt for more, including South Africa’s Optimum Coal
mine, formerly owned by Glencore.

South32, Seriti and Exxaro declined to comment.

A Sibambene spokeswoman said the country needed more investment in coal to
ensure its energy security and to earn much-needed export income.
“Unfortunately, Sibambene is not in a position to comment about South32
assets,” she added.

A preferred bidder will be chosen in coming weeks, a source with direct
knowledge of the matter said.

SAEC recorded underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortisation of $353 million in 2018, South32’s annual report showed. BMO
analysts place the net present value of SAEC at $750 million, before
adjusting for asset level cash, debt or liabilities, which South32 does not
provide.

Australian-based South32, a spin-off from miner BHP, had been operating SAEC
as a separate business since April 2018 in preparation for a sale.

It comprises four mines and three processing plants, which are expected to
produce 29 million tonnes in 2019.

Macquarie is one of the banks hired to run the sale, a source with direct
knowledge said.

South32 has said it expects binding bids for SAEC by June 30. In its sale of
the assets, it sought to “increase the local ownership of SAEC, consistent
with our commitment to South Africa’s economic transformation”.

Chief executive Graham Kerr said in February the list of preferred bidders
would be narrowed to four or six.

South Africa is the world’s seventh-largest coal producer, producing 257
million tonnes in 2017, according to preliminary data from the International
Energy Agency.

Lafarge Africa rises to 3-week high after it sells South African unit

LAGOS (Reuters) - Shares of Lafarge Africa rose 9.95% to a three-week high
on Thursday after the cement maker said it had sold its loss-making South
African operations.

The stock of the local unit of Franco-Swiss group Lafarge Holcim listed in
Lagos, climbed to 10.50 naira, outperforming the weaker Nigerian All Share
Index down 0.02%.

Namibia targets $1 billion worth of investments

WINDHOEK (Reuters) - Namibia is to host a two-day economic summit which is
expected to attract at least $1 billion worth of investments over the next
two years, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology said on
Wednesday.

Namibia’s economy has contracted for the last two years, and the southwest
African nation has been ravaged by a drought which the meteorological
services estimate to be the deadliest in 90 years.

The economic summit, which will take place from July 31 to Aug. 1 in the
capital Windhoek, is aimed at reviving and growing the Namibian economy,
creating job opportunities and attracting investment opportunities, the
ministry said in a statement.

It will also seek to promote Namibia as an investment and tourist
destination as well as identifying and removing bottlenecks that are slowing
the growth of the local economy.

The International Monetary Fund projects that Namibia’s economy, which
contracted by 0.8% and 0.1% in 2017 and 2018 respectively, will mildly
contract again this year due to poor rains and reduced diamond production.

About 600 delegates from across the country, Africa and the world are
expected to attend the summit, which is the first of its kind.

“The summit will provide a platform to showcase growth and investment
prospects in the local economy as well as present local and international
investors with a portfolio of investment projects in several sectors,” the
ministry said.

Nigeria to consider its industries in Africa free trade zone decision

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria will consider the interests of its industries in
deciding whether to sign up to a $3 trillion Africa free-trade agreement,
President Muhammadu Buhari said in a meeting with local manufacturers on
Wednesday.

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA)encompasses 1.2 billion
people. Fifty-two of the 55 countries that make up the African Union (AU)
have now signed. Aside from Nigeria, only Benin and Eritrea have opted not
to sign up to the agreement.

Buhari has so far refused to join the trade zone, which came into force last
month and is meant to eliminate most tariffs to create a single market with
free movement of goods and services.[nL8N1R36B6]

He fears that by joining the zone other countries would dump cheap goods in
the huge market in Africa’s most populous country - a nation of some 190
million people - and therefore undercut efforts to stimulate the
manufacturing sector, which is currently limited.

Nigeria’s dependence on imports puts a strain on the country’s finances and
foreign reserves. It relies on oil exports for around 90 percent of U.S.
dollar earnings.

Buhari told leaders of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria trade body
on Wednesday that he was awaiting the findings of a committee set up in
October to assess the potential cost and impact if Nigeria signed up to the
agreement.

“Nigeria will be guided by national interest in taking any decision on the
agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area,” Buhari said
in a statement. He did not say when a decision would be taken.

Buhari, who last month began a second four-year term at the helm of Africa’s
biggest economy, has touted local consumption and boosting non-oil exports
as a key policy. But results are yet to materialise.

He told the manufacturing leaders that the trade zone would be discussed at
the AU summit to be held in neighbouring Niger in July.

“I don’t think Nigeria has the capacity to effectively supervise and to
ensure that our colleagues in AU don’t allow their countries to be used to
dump goods on us to the detriment of our young industries and our capacity
to utilise foreign exchange for imported goods,” he said.

Intra-regional trade sits at around 15 percent of Africa’s total commerce.
Economists have pointed to this low level as one of the reasons for the
continent’s enduring poverty and lack of a strong manufacturing base.

Marketing division manager Kyari to head Nigerian state oil firm

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed a new
group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC), the state oil firm said on Thursday, one of his first appointments
since starting a second term in office last month.

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest crude producer and the oil industry is the
mainstay of the continent’s biggest economy. Crude sales provide around 90
percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange - and a slump in oil prices pushed the
economy into a recession in 2016.

“President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Mr. Mele Kolo Kyari as the new
Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,” the
company said in an emailed statement.

It said Kyari, a geologist who was previously group general manager of
NNPC’s crude oil marketing division, and since last year doubled as
Nigeria’s representative to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries, had been appointed alongside seven chief operating officers.

The statement said the newly appointed officials will take up their new
positions on July 8.

Buhari was inaugurated in May after winning a presidential election earlier
this year. He has made a few appointments in the civil service but has yet
to appoint ministers.

Malawi president appoints economist Mwanamvekha as finance minister

BLANTYRE (Reuters) - Malawian President Peter Mutharika has appointed
minister of agriculture Joseph Mwanamvekha, an economist and former banker,
as finance minister in his new cabinet, the chief secretary to the
government said on Wednesday.

Mwanamvekha moves from Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development where
he was credited with boosting food security through surplus harvests of
maize, Malawi’s staple grain.

Mwanamvekha replaces Goodall Gondwe, who has been the Minister of Finance,
Economic Planning and Development for a decade.

Also on Wednesday, lawmakers elected member of parliament Catherine Gotani
Hara as the first female Speaker in the history of the southeast African
country.

Mutharika won Malawi’s presidential election in May with 38.57% of votes,
narrowly securing a second five-year term. [nL8N2333RZ]

He has pledged to fight corruption and revive the economy following
accusations of corruption and mismanagement.

The president is expected to deliver his State of the Nation Address on
Friday in Parliament in the capital Lilongwe.

Carney gives Facebook currency cautious welcome

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave Facebook's proposed digital
currency Libra a cautious welcome in a major speech on Thursday.

He said it could substantially lower costs and increase financial inclusion,
but needs regulation.

Mr Carney also announced that non-banks will be able to hold Bank of England
accounts.

And he highlighted climate and sustainability concerns.

Mark Carney has given a swift and positive reaction to Facebook's plan,
unveiled just last week, and one that will no doubt please Mark Zuckerberg
and the rest of the Libra members.

However, while Mr Carney said he has an open mind, he is not offering an
open door.

Unlike social media, where regulation is struggling to catch up after its
mass adoption by billions of users, Mr Carney promised to make sure
regulation to protect against risks including data privacy and money
laundering is ready in advance.

Libra is intended to be a currency that can be transferred via social media
with its value based on a basket of real life currencies rather than the
so-called crypto currencies whose value is not linked to existing exchange
rates.

Libra, said Mr Carney, could be systemically important - and will be
regulated accordingly.

The Libra Association said it was "committed to fostering a secure network"
with anti-money laundering and anti-fraud programmes. It added that the
association would not hold personal data.

This is a significant speech in many ways and may be looked back on as the
time the fusty old bank of England really donned its digital trousers.

Bank of England accounts

Less headline-grabbing than Facebook but arguably more important was the
announcement that the Bank of England will allow non-banks to have an
account with them.

All the commercial banks we as customers bank with have their own account at
the Bank of England where they store their reserves.

Allowing non-banks - for example payment companies like Square and Worldpay
- to have their own account could make payments faster, cheaper, more
reliable and more available to people outside the traditional banking
system.

When I asked Bank officials what the existing High Street banks thought of
this - there were some wry smiles - one said "I'm sure they will have a
point of view and will want to express it".

The Bank will also lay some of the groundwork for an open platform for small
business financing, Mr Carney said.

Climate concerns

The governor said the most important future risk was that posed by climate
change.

This is a favourite subject of his and the Bank of England will be among the
first regulators in the world to include the cost of future climate change
(floods, droughts, crop failures, property damage) when it assesses whether
financial institutions are strong enough to survive a crisis.

Mark Carney has just over six months left in the job.

With this speech he laid out a way to future proof the financial system he
has overseen for nearly a decade.--bbc

Bank of England cuts UK growth outlook as rates held

The Bank of England has said it expects economic growth to be flat in the
second quarter of the year.

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had previously predicted growth
of 0.2% over the period.

The forecast came as the nine-member committee announced it had voted
unanimously to keep UK interest rates on hold, at 0.75%.

The committee said the downgrade in part reflected an easing of
stock-building ahead of Brexit deadlines.

In the run-up to the end of March, when the UK had originally been expected
to leave the European Union, businesses from pharmaceuticals companies to
food manufacturers stockpiled goods.

They wanted to be ready in case the UK left the EU without a transition
deal, which they feared could lead to delays at UK borders.

The MPC said since its previous meeting, the "near-term data have been
broadly in line with the May Report, but the downside risks to growth have
increased".

Global trade tensions had intensified and domestically, the "perceived
likelihood of a no-deal Brexit" had risen, it added.

"As expected, recent UK data have been volatile, in large part due to
Brexit-related effects on financial markets and businesses."

Brexit uncertainty 'hitting investment'

'Dramatic' fall in car output hits UK economy

As a result, the committee said in its minutes that after the economy grew
by 0.5% in the first three months of 2019, it now expected zero growth in
the second quarter.

"That in part reflects an unwind of the positive contribution to GDP in the
first quarter from companies in the United Kingdom and the European Union
building stocks significantly ahead of recent Brexit deadlines," the MPC
said.

The underlying pattern of relatively strong household consumption growth,
but weak business investment, has persisted.

In setting interest rates, the Bank is aiming to keep inflation within one
percentage point either side of its target of 2% "in a way that helps to
sustain growth and employment".

On Wednesday, it was announced that inflation had fallen to its target of 2%
in May, easing pressure on the Bank to raise rates to keep prices under
control.

And on Thursday, retail sales figures showed a retail sales fell by 0.5%
between April and May, the biggest drop this year. Cold weather in May meant
shoppers delayed buying summer clothes.

Richard Carter, head of fixed interest research at Quilter Cheviot, said the
MPC's recent warnings about possible future interest rate hikes "look
increasingly hollow, as both the ECB and Federal Reserve are now preparing
to move in the opposite direction while the latest readings on the UK
economy have been weak".

"It is quite possible that the BOE will have to cut rates too before long,
with Boris Johnson seemingly headed for Number 10 on a commitment to leave
the EU by 31 October, even if the price is a period of economic
disruption."--BBC

Slack: Shares surge as messaging app joins the stock market

Shares in messaging app Slack surged 49% as the company became the latest
tech start-up to join the stock market.

Slack set a guide price of $26 a share, but rose 60% at the start of trading
before easing back to finish at $39.

The company chose a direct listing on the stock market, rejecting the use of
traditional advisers and underwriters who manage the price of new stocks.

That opened the possibility of wild swings in the price as traders try to
assess where the shares might settle.

The jump in the share price put the value of the company at $25bn.

Slack is the second big tech firm to go the direct route, after music
streaming service Spotify used the method last year.

Valued at billions but making no profit?

How to cope with email overload

"We think the jury is out on whether this is the right move or not,"
Kathleen Smith, a listing expert at Renaissance Capital, said ahead of the
start of trading.

"Looking at Spotify, it takes a little time for the stock to get established
after a direct listing."

Slack's listing fees are expected to be about $22m. When Snap went public in
2017, it paid about $85m to its financial advisers.

Spotify's listing is generally regarded as a success, although the shares
now trade about 15% below their debut price.

If Slack can also make a success of its direct listing, it could have
implications for how future tech firms come to market, including for Airbnb.

Slack's software replaces emails by grouping messages around subjects,
projects and teams. It means that flooding people with irrelevant emails can
be cut.

The software has become increasingly popular, with HSBC and Ford among some
of the big corporate users. It has about 100,000 paying customers.

Founder Steward Butterfield, who developed the photo app Flickr, says Slack
is a revolution in corporate communication.

But like many big tech firms coming to market, Slack has never made a
profit. Although revenue rose 80% to $400m in 2018, losses were $144m.

And some analysts are worried that Slack is competing in an increasingly
crowded market. Microsoft offers Teams, a free chat app add-on for its
Office365 users.

Slack's debut follows a spate of much-anticipated technology listings, some
of which, including Uber Technologies and Lyft, had disappointing starts to
trading.--BBC

Monsoon seeks rent cut in 'difficult' trading

Monsoon Accessorize is calling on landlords to approve rent reductions on
some of its 258 leased stores as part of a restructuring of the troubled
High Street chain.

The two chains operate under separate names and are asking for rent cuts on
135 stores after a period of "difficult" trading.

To win support from landlords, the company is offering them up to £10m if it
trades profitably in the future.

No stores are to be closed.

Jobs are not expected to be lost from the 4,440-strong workforce either
under the restructuring of the company, which is owned by entrepreneur Peter
Simon.

The restructuring is taking place under a Company Voluntary Arrangement
(CVA), which allows companies to continue trading while reaching agreement
with creditors.

Mr Simon has given the company an emergency £12m loan and offered another
£18m at 0% interest if the CVA is approved.

Peter Allen, chief executive of Monsoon Accessorize, said sales had been
falling over the last two years.

"Although the group has no external debt, the current rate of sales decline
and recent working capital pressures have had a material impact on the group
liquidity position," he said.

"Trading for the group has been difficult for some time, as it has been for
much of the retail industry. This is due to a combination of factors,
including rising costs, increased competition and subdued consumer
spending," Mr Allen said.

The board of the company had concluded that its rent and occupancy costs
were unaffordable. Mr Simon has agreed to cut the rent at the head office by
50%, the company said, to help reduce overheads.

Restructuring experts at Deloitte are handling the CVA, which is the latest
to be used by troubled retailers.—bbc

Dixons Carphone shares plunge on mobile phone woes

Shares in Dixons Carphone have plunged after it reported a full-year loss
and said its mobile phone arm would make a "significant loss" this year.

The retailer lost £259m in the year to 27 April, compared with a pre-tax
profit of £289m last year.

In December, the retailer wrote down the value of its mobile business,
Carphone Warehouse.

One analyst said the division was "on life support" in an "evolving" mobile
market.

It has suffered because people are renewing their handsets less often and
demand for mobile contracts is down.

Last year, it announced the closure of 92 of its 700 stores.

The company - which also owns the Currys PC World chain - added that it was
set to take "more pain" in the coming year amid "a deterioration in the
forecast performance of the UK and Ireland mobile business".

Having plunged by about a quarter at the start of trading, Dixons Carphone
shares recovered some ground to trade about 12% lower.

Group chief executive Alex Baldock said the UK mobile market was "changing
in the way we described in December, but doing so faster".

"So, we're moving faster to respond."

He said the company had renegotiated all its legacy network contracts with
mobile operators, developed a new "customer offer" and was accelerating the
combination of its mobile and electrical goods businesses.

"This means taking more pain in the coming year, when mobile will make a
significant loss," he said.

However, he added: "We expect mobile will at least break even within two
years, and beyond that, equipped with a stronger and unconstrained offer, we
will of course aim to do better."

'Life support'

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said the "rapidly
evolving" nature of the mobile business had "threatened to leave Dixons
behind".

"The mobile business in particular is on life support, draining capital and
resources prior to its integration with the electricals business."

The loss reported by Dixons Carphone was mainly due to one-off charges of
£557m, the majority of which was caused by the writedown in the value of the
Carphone Warehouse business in December.

When the charges are stripped out, Dixon's Carphone made a profit of £298m -
although that was still a 22% fall from the previous year.

Revenue across the group dipped 1% to £10.43bn.

The electrical goods business gained market share in all territories, and Mr
Baldock said this side of the company was expected to grow sales and
headline profits this year.

Emma-Lou Montgomery, associate director from Fidelity Personal Investing's
share dealing service, said: "While elsewhere in the group the five-year
plan is going to plan - if not a little better - the mobile phone business
is under considerable strain as customers demand flexibility, are sticking
with their old phones for longer and Carphone is dragged down by binding
network contracts."

For many years, Carphone Warehouse hasn't sold carphones in warehouses, but
despite that, the company has continued to prosper. Now it is suddenly
looking about as up-to-date as one of those bricks toted by Michael Douglas
in Wall Street.

According to analyst Ben Wood at CCS Insight, there's been a sudden and
radical change in the way people buy mobile phones.

A survey carried out by his firm found a third of consumers saying they
intended to hold on to their current phones for longer than their previous
handsets - even extending renewal time by a few months means a big drop in
annual sales.

The UK market peaked in 2012, when 31 million were sold. This year, CCS
Insight expects that to fall to below 18 million.

And while the habit of going into a shop to research and buy a new phone has
been stubbornly persistent, it is now fading. The survey showed 21% of
buyers said they did absolutely no research.

"People know what they want," says Ben Wood. "And in any case, all
smartphones are pretty samey these days."

With more people buying online or direct from mobile operators, phone shops
may soon be another of the High Street's endangered species.--BBC

INVESTORS DIARY 2019

Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

Masimba Holdings

AGM

Head Office, 44 Tilbury Road, Willowvale

21 June 2019, 12:30pm

RioZim

AGM

1 Kenilworth Road, Highlands

24 June 2019, 10:30am

Proplastics

AGM

Palm Court, Meikles

25 June  2019, 10am

Fidelity Life

AGM

Great Indaba Room, Crowne Plaza Monomotapa

26 June 2019, 10am

GB Holdings

AGM

Cernol Chemicals Boardroom,  111 Dagenham Road, Willowvale

26 June 2019, 11:30am

Dawn Properties

AGM

Ophir Room, Monomotapa Hotel

27 June 2019, 10am

Unifreight

AGM

Royal Harare Golf Club

27 June 2019, 10am

African Sun

AGM

Ophir Room, Monomotapa Hotel

27 June 2019, 12pm

FMP

AGM

Palm Court, Meikles

27 June 2019, 12pm

MedTech

AGM

Boardroom, Stand 619, corner Shumba/Hacha Roads, Ruwa

27 June 2019, 2pm

FML

AGM

Palm Court, Meikles)

27 June 2019, 2:30pm

FBC

AGM

Royal Harare Golf Club

27 June 2019, 3pm

BAT

AGM

Head office, 1 Manchester Road, Southerton

28 June 2019, 10am

ZBFH

AGM

Boardroom, Ground Floor, 21 Natal Road, Avondale

28 June 2019, 10:30am

ZPI

AGM

206 Samora Machel Avenue East

28 June 2019, 2pm

ZHL

AGM

Aquarium Room, Crowne Plaza Monomotapa Hotel

30 June 2019, 10am

Edg Edgars

AGM

Edgars Training Auditorium, 1st Floor LAPF House, 8th Avenue/Jason Moyo St,
Bulawayo

11 July 2019, 9am

Companies under Cautionary

Bindura Nickel Corporation

Padenga Holdings

Delta Corporation

Meikles Limited

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