Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 28 October 2019

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 28 October 2019

 


 

 


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*  Tanzania Q2 GDP growth rises to 7.2 pct v 6.1 pct -statistics bureau

*  Nigeria has no plans to go to international debt market this year

*  Ghana GDP growth to rise to about 7% in 2019 -IMF

*  South Africa's rand firmer as investors await next week's budget

*  Somalia says Shell, Exxon agree to pay $1.7 mln for oil blocks lease

*  Forty of 46 grounded South African planes back in air

*  Safaricom names Peter Ndegwa as new CEO: Citizen TV

*  Kenya's Mombasa port to upgrade four berths at 20 bln shillings

*  Brexit negotiators removed 'adequate' from worker rights plan

*  Microsoft pips Amazon for $10bn AI 'Jedi' contract

*  Boeing 737 Max Lion Air crash caused by series of failures

*  Jaguar Land Rover gets China sales boost

*  Depop: Can pre-loved clothes make fast fashion sustainable?

*  TikTok hits back over China influence claims

*  Amazon profits hit by rising shipping costs

*  Error found in UK public finances, official statistics body admits

 

 


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Tanzania Q2 GDP growth rises to 7.2 pct v 6.1 pct -statistics bureau

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Tanzania’s economy grew by 7.2 percent year-on-year in
the second quarter of 2019, up from 6.1 percent in the same period a year
ago, buoyed by growth in construction, mining and communications sectors,
official data showed on Sunday.

 

In the first quarter of 2019, the East African nation’s GDP grew by 6.6
percent, according to the state-run National Bureau of Statistics.

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

Nigeria has no plans to go to international debt market this year

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria has no plans to tap the international debt market
this year due to the time constraints before the end of its budget cycle,
the head of the government’s debt office told Reuters on Friday.

 

The West African country had its last eurobond sale in November, its sixth
outing where it raised $2.86 billion.

 

Foreign borrowing had been set at 824.82 billion naira ($2.7 billion) for
the government’s 2019 budget.

 

“We will only raise the new domestic borrowing of 802.82 billion naira as
provided in the 2019 appropriation act. We won’t be in the international
capital market in 2019,” said Patience Oniha, director general of the
government debt agency known as DMO.

 

Oniha said the country’s 2019 budget had only six months for implementation,
due to the late passage of the bill. The government aimed to start its
budget implementation for 2020 in January, she told Reuters in an email.

 

The DMO had said in June that the government wanted to first access cheap
funding from multilateral and bilateral lenders and then raise any balance
from commercial sources, possibly including security issuance such as
eurobonds.

 

Nigeria, which emerged from recession in 2017, has borrowed abroad and at
home over the past three years to help finance its budgets and fund
infrastructure projects, but debt service costs are also rising.

 

The government approved a three-year plan in 2016 to borrow more from
abroad. It wants 40% of its loans to come from offshore sources to lower
borrowing costs and help fund record-high budgets.

 

 

Earlier this month, President Muhammadu Buhari presented a record 10.33
trillion-naira ($33.8 billion) budget for 2020 to parliament, which he
expects to be partly financed via foreign borrowing plus the proceeds of
privatisation.

 

($1 = 306.95 naira)

 

 

 

Ghana GDP growth to rise to about 7% in 2019 -IMF

DAKAR (Reuters) - Ghana’s economic growth is expected to rise to around 7%
this year from 6.3% in 2018, boosted by its extractive industries, the
International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

 

The Fund said in a statement at the end of a staff visit that Ghana, which
exports oil, gold and cocoa, had maintained macroeconomic stability since
the conclusion of a three-year lending programme with the IMF in March.

 

 

 

South Africa's rand firmer as investors await next week's budget

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand firmed against the dollar on
Friday, taking advantage of buying interest from traders eyeing Finance
Minister Tito Mboweni’s medium-term budget speech and a Moody’s rating
review next week.

 

At 1545 GMT, the rand was 0.86% firmer at 14.5720 per dollar compared to a
close of 14.6950 overnight in New York.

 

Mboweni is likely to raise the budget deficit because of costs related to
the state-owned power utility Eskom, a Reuters poll showed.

 

Treasury’s best option will be to rely heavily on expenditure cuts and the
lifting of economic growth through structural policy adjustments, said Old
Mutual’ s chief economist Johann Els.

 

“If the Eskom plan and MTBPS (budget) are received as acceptable and Moody’s
keeps our rating outlook unchanged at stable, rand and bond relief rallies
are likely,” Els said.

 

In fixed income, the yield on the benchmark government bond due in 2026 was
down 4.5 basis points to 8.17%.

 

Stocks were down, with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s Top-40 Index
slipping 0.54% to 48,858 points, and the broader all share index closing
0.61% lower at 55,141 points.

 

Gold miners were the biggest winners of the blue-chip index for the second
day in a row, with Goldfields up 1.3%, followed by Sibanye-Stillwater and
AngloGold Ashanti, both up more than 1%.

 

The miners were benefiting from a rise in the gold price, which was set for
its best week in five weeks on Friday as uncertainty around Brexit, weak
U.S. economic data and worries about trade pushed investors towards safe
havens.

 

The biggest loser of the day was the world’s largest brewer Anheuser-Busch
InBev, whose Johannesburg-listed stock lost almost 10% after a profit
warning that wiped $13 billion of the company’s market value.

 

 

 

 

Somalia says Shell, Exxon agree to pay $1.7 mln for oil blocks lease

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil have paid $1.7
million to Somalia to lease offshore blocks for 30 years, the country’s
state news agency reported on Friday.

 

“Shell/Exxon Mobil have paid $1.7 million to Somalia as the preliminary rent
for 30 years,” SONNA reported.

 

 

Shell and Exxon Mobil had a joint venture on five offshore blocks in Somalia
prior to the toppling of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in the early 1990s.

 

The country has been mired in insecurity since Barre left and is battling
Islamist group al Shabaab that frequently carries out bombings in the
capital Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country.

 

In June, the oil ministry announced that the two companise were looking to
return to Somalia ahead of an oil block bid round later this year. 

 

 

 

Forty of 46 grounded South African planes back in air

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Forty of the 46 airplanes grounded this week owing
to faults found at the maintenance unit of state-owned South African Airways
(SAA) have been returned to service, the head of South Africa’s aviation
regulator said on Thursday.

 

The faults found at SAA Technical have focused attention on the crisis at
SAA, which hasn’t made an annual profit since 2011 or published financial
results since 2017 because of question marks over its long-term viability as
a business.

 

SAA has floundered with an unprofitable route network and a fleet of ageing
and inefficient airplanes.

 

South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) Chief Executive Poppy Khoza
told a news conference the regulator had made five findings during an audit
at SAA Technical, after which it issued a prohibition order stopping some
aircraft from flying.

 

As of Wednesday evening more than 80% of SAA’s affected aircraft were back
in service, SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali told Reuters.

 

The audit made two serious findings: that inadequately qualified personnel
had signed off on maintenance work and that maintenance checks on flight
data recorders and cockpit voice recorders had not been done correctly,
Khoza said.

 

Other findings included SAA Technical’s failure to implement previous
findings and lapses in its quality management system.

 

The SACAA has since accepted a “corrective action plan” from SAA Technical,
which maintains aircraft for SAA, its subsidiary Mango Airlines and British
Airways franchise partner Comair, which also operates under the kulula.com
brand.

 

Twenty-five SAA planes had been grounded this week, 14 Comair planes and
seven Mango Airlines planes, Khoza said.

 

That led to domestic flight cancellations and delays on Tuesday. Disruptions
had eased by Wednesday.

 

SACAA chairman Ernest Khosa said South Africans were safe in the skies after
the intervention by the regulator.

 

A lack of clarity earlier in the week over the faults at SAA Technical had
led to speculation that authorities were covering up major infringements.

 

Tlali said it was too early to quantify the financial impact from the
grounding of its planes, dismissing an allegation that the faults were
linked to SAA’s perilous financial position.

 

“None of the audit findings made at SAA Technical can reasonably be
associated with the state of finances we are experiencing at the moment,”
Tlali said. “No case has been made to support this claim because none
exists.”

 

 

 

Safaricom names Peter Ndegwa as new CEO: Citizen TV

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya’s top telecoms operator Safaricom named Peter
Ndegwa as its new CEO, Kenya’s independent Citizen TV reported on Thursday.

 

East Africa’s most profitable company, which is part held by South Africa’s
Vodacom and Britain’s Vodafone, has been led since July by an interim CEO
after the death of long-serving boss Bob Collymore.

 

 

 

Kenya's Mombasa port to upgrade four berths at 20 bln shillings

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenya’s port of Mombasa will spend 20 billion
shillings ($193 million) to modernise four berths to handle both container
cargo and goods not packed in containers, the head of the state port
operator said.

 

The port, built in 1895, is the main trade gateway for the Eastern Africa
region, serving Kenya and seven neighbours, including Uganda, Somalia,
Rwanda and South Sudan.

 

The investment is driven by growing demand for imported cargo in the region,
where most economies are growing by at least 5% per year, said Daniel
Manduku, the managing director of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).

 

Exports make up just 15% of the cargo that goes through Mombasa every year,
with a third of the total belonging to neighbouring countries, while Kenya,
the region’s biggest economy, takes up the lion’s share.

 

Annual cargo traffic through the port is projected to jump to 47 million
tonnes in 2025 from 32 million tonnes last year, Manduku said in an
interview at the port.

 

“We are currently undertaking major expansion programmes... We are trying to
be ahead of the game.”

 

The volume of cargo handled is expected to rise to 34 million tonnes this
year, including 1.4 million 20-foot containers. Popular imports include
clinker for cement manufacturing, steel, fertiliser and grains.

 

The European Investment Bank and French development agency AFD have offered
to finance the modernisation of the berths at commercial rates, Manduku
said.

 

“We think it is something we should consider, as opposed to normal
commercial bank loans,” he said, adding that work will start in mid-2020.

 

Mombasa port, ranked Africa’s fifth busiest according to the KPA after
Morocco’s Tangier Med, Egypt’s Port Said, South Africa’s Durban and
Nigeria’s Lagos, wants to rise to number three, Manduku said, without giving
a timeframe.

 

KPA is spending an additional 39 billion shillings to build a new oil
terminal, to replace its existing facility that dates back to 1968.

 

China Communication Construction Co. is the contractor for the project,
which will triple the port’s annual capacity for oil and liquid gas to 1
million tonnes.

 

“The demand for liquid oil is high,” Manduku said, adding the facility could
also help with Kenya’s crude oil exports.

 

Britain’s Tullow Oil and partners, including the Kenyan government, are
expected to make a final investment decision on crude oil production from
fields in the far northern county of Turkana next year.

 

Current investments by KPA are part of a 310 billion shilling ports
investment program, aimed at boosting annual capacity to 110 million tonnes
by 2040, Manduku said.

 

This includes 55 billion shillings for building three berths at a new port
in Lamu on Kenya’s northernmost coastline, close to the Somalia border.

 

Construction is expected to be completed in the next year and 10 foreign
firms, including from Singapore and China, have expressed interest in
running the new port by leasing it from the government, Manduku said.

 

“We are thinking of giving it to a private sector player on a concession
model,” he said.

 

($1 = 103.4500 Kenyan shillings)

 

 

 

Brexit negotiators removed 'adequate' from worker rights plan

An internal UK government memo on the consequences of Boris Johnson's Brexit
deal renegotiation singles out the removal of the word "adequate" from the
UK-EU Political Declaration to describe mechanisms for enforcing common
social, environmental, and labour standards after Brexit.

 

The word "adequate" appears to have been replaced by the word "appropriate".

 

Extracts of a note written for the government's cross-Whitehall Economic
Partnership Steering Group, and seen by the BBC, say the "parties will
include "appropriate" (rather than "adequate") mechanisms for dispute
settlement" of key "level playing field commitments" in a future trade deal
with the European Union.

 

The consequence of that change, the note says, is that it means that it is
now possible to argue it is "inappropriate for the future UK-EU
relationship" that disputes about these commitments on employment,
environment, tax, state aid and other standards should be subject to binding
arbitration.

 

Level playing field

The memo, first leaked to the Financial Times and marked "Official
Sensitive", contains a series of claimed negotiation wins from the Brexit
deal renegotiation, weakening the scope and strength of Level Playing Field
Commitments (LPF), a crucial element in a future UK-EU trade arrangement.

 

'Fears confirmed' over rights at work, says Labour

What does the Brexit deal say about workers' rights?

"The previous Protocol applied wide-ranging LPF measures on a UK-wide bases
as a response to UK access to the EU market through the single customs
territory.

 

"UK negotiators successfully resisted the inclusion of all UK-wide LPF
rules" says the memo, with the last four words put in bold for emphasis.

 

"The only level playing field provisions in the revised Protocol are those
necessary to support the operation of the Single Electricity Market and
state aid measures that affect trade between NI and the EU," it says.

 

The title of the memo is "Update to EPSG (Economic Partnership Steering
Group) on Level Playing Field Negotiations".

 

This is the first acknowledgement that changing the Level Playing Field
commitments agreed by Theresa May was a specific aim of the PM's
renegotiation.

 

Weaker provisions

In public, the PM focused on changing what he referred to as "the
anti-democratic backstop", which had been rejected by the government's
parliamentary allies, the Democratic Unionists.

 

In the end, the PM's new solution, creating a new trade and regulatory
border in the Irish Sea, further alienated the DUP. Backbench eurosceptic
Conservative MPs have, however, been won over to the deal.

 

Theresa May's original 2018 deal included a range of specific enforceable
common standards for the UK and the EU within the legally binding Withdrawal
Treaty.

 

Some of these standards were related to EU law, others referred to the OECD
(Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), International
Labour Organisation and the Council of Europe.

 

These were all removed, along with the backstop, and the only reference
remaining in the overall deal was in the non-binding Political Declaration.

 

The memo shows that within Whitehall, weakening these provisions was a key
part of the renegotiation.

 

Regarded as an internal success, their removal paves the way for a "much
more open starting point for future relationship negotiations" that allow
for "a range of landing zones" for a future deal.

 

'Exaggerated'

"The Political Declaration text provides us with a framework for negotiating
FTA-style commitments on Level Playing Field," the memo concludes under the
headline "Next Steps".

 

That is a reference to the fact that, unlike the original Brexit deal agreed
by Theresa May, dispute settlement mechanisms have not applied to existing
standard EU Free Trade Agreements.

 

Sam Lowe, trade fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said: "The Level
Playing Field commitments in the EU's Free Trade Agreements with Canada and
Japan are unenforceable, because they are specifically excluded from the
dispute settlement mechanisms. The government appears to be aiming for the
same treatment."

 

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, Conservative Party
chairman James Cleverly rejected suggestions there are attempts to relax
workplace rights or environmental protections.

 

"In many areas we have already gone further than the European Union," he
said. "We are making hard improvements on worker rights through an increase
in the National Living Wage."

 

The government was also strengthening rules on maritime protection and
animal welfare, he added.

 

On Saturday, ministers said stories about the leaked memo were "not correct"
and "way exaggerated".

 

The government also said: "The UK government has no intention of lowering
the standards of workers' rights or environmental protection after we leave
the EU.

 

"UK level playing field commitments will be negotiated in the context of the
future UK-EU free trade agreement, where we will achieve a balance of rights
and obligations which reflect the scope and depth of the future
relationship."--BBC

 

 

 

Microsoft pips Amazon for $10bn AI 'Jedi' contract

The Pentagon has awarded a $10bn (£8bn) cloud-computing contract to
Microsoft, following a heavily scrutinised bidding process in which Amazon
had been seen as the favourite.

 

The 10-year contract for the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure, or
Jedi, is aimed at making the US defence department more technologically
agile.

 

Amazon's bid drew criticism from its rivals and US President Donald Trump.

 

The company said it was "surprised" by the decision.

 

A "detailed assessment purely on the comparative offerings" would "clearly
lead to a different conclusion", it said.

 

Amazon is said to be evaluating its options after the decision. It has 10
days to decide whether or not to launch a challenge.

 

In its statement, the Pentagon said all offers "were treated fairly".

 

Microsoft executive Toni Townes-Whitley said the company was "proud" to have
had its cloud technologies picked by the Department of Defense to "satisfy
the urgent and critical needs of today's warfighters".

 

What is Jedi?

The Department of Defense wants to replace its ageing computer networks with
a single cloud system.

 

Under the contract, Microsoft will provide artificial intelligence-based
analysis and host classified military secrets among other services.

 

Pentagon pushes pause on $10bn AI tech deal

Google drops $10bn battle for Pentagon data

It is hoped that Jedi will give the military better access to data and the
cloud from battlefields.

 

Is the decision controversial?

Amazon had been considered the front-runner - until President Trump began
questioning whether the process was fair.

 

In July he told reporters that he was getting "tremendous complaints about
the contract with the Pentagon and Amazon".

 

He said other companies had told him that the contract "wasn't competitively
bid" and that his administration would "take a very long look" at the
process.

 

Mr Trump has repeatedly criticised Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos - who
also owns the Washington Post newspaper - in the past.

 

Dan Ives, managing director and equity analyst Wedbush Securities, said he
expected Amazon and others to challenge the decision in the courts, but
called it a "paradigm changer" for Microsoft.

 

The move was likely to boost Microsoft's share price and bring "significant
positive financial implications" for the company in the coming years, he
said.

 

 

Amazon will be bitterly disappointed to have lost this contract, having long
considered its bid to be the stronger.

 

But after President Trump's comments about "receiving tremendous complaints"
about Amazon's frontrunner status in July, and then the delay to announcing
the award the following month, it had always looked liked Microsoft could
pull off an upset.

 

The timing is curious, however, coming just days after Defence Secretary
Mark Esper unexpectedly removed himself from the review process after months
of involvement, on the grounds that one of his sons worked for IBM - one of
the other original applicants.

 

It means Microsoft is now set to be a huge recipient of Department of
Defense funds.

 

Not only will it benefit from Jedi, but also a separate multi-billion dollar
contract known as Deos. This has run into delays of its own, but is still
set to result in the DoD using cloud-based Office 365 for its email,
calendar, video-calling and other productivity software needs.

 

One issue for Microsoft is whether its closeness to the military will cause
it problems.

 

Some of its own workers have already objected to it developing a version of
its Hololens augmented reality headset for the US military, and the idea of
it now providing machine learning tools and other systems to help "enhance
force lethality" could prove to be a PR nightmare.

 

For Amazon, if the loss of such a lucrative contract is linked to Jeff
Bezos's ownership of the Washington Post, it could fuel calls for AWS to be
spun off from its parent and established as a separate company. There had
already been speculation this might happen in order to head off regulators'
concerns that Amazon already extends too deeply into Americans' lives.

 

How did we get here?

The announcement marked the end of a long process that had pitted tech
giants Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle and IBM against each other.

 

As the world's biggest provider of cloud-computing services, Amazon had been
the favourite to win Jedi. But its competitors argued that the process was
unfair.

 

Oracle challenged the bidding process in federal court earlier this year,
saying that it was rigged to favour Amazon, but a federal judge dismissed
the allegation.

 

What else does the Pentagon say?

It said that it had awarded more than $11bn in 10 separate cloud-computing
contracts over the past two years.

 

The Jedi deal "continues our strategy of a multi-vendor, multi-cloud
environment as the department's needs are diverse and cannot be met by any
single supplier," it added.--BBC

 

 

 

Boeing 737 Max Lion Air crash caused by series of failures

A series of failures led to the crash of a Lion Air flight, which killed 189
people and led to the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max, a report has found.

 

Investigators said faults by Boeing, Lion Air and pilots caused the crash.

 

Five months after the disaster in October last year, an Ethiopian Airlines
plane crashed, killing all 157 people on board, which led to the grounding
of the entire 737 Max fleet.

 

Faults with the plane's design have been linked to both crashes.

 

On Friday, air crash investigators in Indonesia released their final report,
detailing the list of events that caused the Lion Air jet to plunge into the
Java Sea.

 

"From what we know, there are nine things that contributed to this
accident," Indonesian air accident investigator Nurcahyo Utomo told
reporters at a news conference.

 

"If one of the nine hadn't occurred, maybe the accident wouldn't have
occurred."

 

What does the report say?

The 353-page report found the jet should have been grounded before departing
on the fatal flight because of an earlier cockpit issue.

 

However, because the issue was not recorded properly the plane was allowed
to take off without the fault being fixed, it said.

 

Further, a crucial sensor - which had been bought from a repair shop in
Florida - had not been properly tested, the report found. On Friday, the US
aviation regulator revoked the company's certification.

 

The sensor fed information to the plane's Manoeuvring Characteristics
Augmentation System - or MCAS. That software, which is designed to help
prevent the 737 Max from stalling, has been a focus for investigators trying
to find the cause of both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes.

 

Indonesian investigators identified issues with the system, which repeatedly
pushed the plane's nose down, leaving pilots fighting for control.

 

It showed there were incorrect assumptions about how the MCAS control system
would behave and that the "deficiencies" had been highlighted during
training.

 

Further, the report found that the first officer, who had performed poorly
in training, struggled to run through a list of procedures that he should
have had memorised.

 

He was flying the plane just before it entered into the fatal dive, but the
report said the captain had not briefed him properly when he handed over the
controls as they struggled to keep the plane in the air.

 

The report also found that 31 pages were missing from the plane's
maintenance log.

 

Indonesian investigators have previously said mechanical and design problems
were key factors in the crash of the Lion Air plane.

 

This report describes a catalogue of failures - from poor communication to
bad design to inadequate flying skills - which culminated in the deaths of
189 people.

 

There are lots of what-ifs here. If the crew of the previous days flight had
given a more detailed description of the problems they'd faced, the aircraft
might never have taken off on its fatal flight. And if the captain, who'd
successfully kept the plane in the air - despite the intervention of a rogue
automated system he didn't understand - hadn't handed over to his
less-capable first officer, disaster might still have been avoided.

 

As Boeing's chief executive Dennis Muilenburg has repeatedly stated, there
was a chain of events. But at the heart of that chain was MCAS - a control
system that the pilots didn't know about, and which was vulnerable to a
single sensor failure.

 

Boeing - and regulators - allowed the system to be designed in this way and
didn't change it after the Lion Air crash, leading to a further disaster.
And that means that while the report clearly points to serious failures by a
parts supplier and by the airline itself, it is Boeing that will bear the
greatest share of responsibility.

 

How has Boeing responded?

Indonesian authorities laid out some recommendations for Boeing in the
report, including that it redesign MCAS and provide adequate information
about it in pilot manuals and training.

 

In a statement, Boeing said it was "addressing" the recommendations from
Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee.

 

The planemaker said it was "taking actions to enhance the safety of the 737
Max to prevent the flight control conditions that occurred in this accident
from ever happening again".

 

On Tuesday, the firm ousted Kevin McAllister, chief executive of Boeing
Commercial Airplanes, making him the most senior official to leave the
company since the two crashes.

 

Boeing also said it expected the 737 Max to be re-certified for flying by
the end of the year. The company said "we look forward to continuing to work
together" with Lion Air in the future.

 

A Lion Air spokesman said the crash was an "unthinkable tragedy" and it was
essential to take immediate corrective actions to ensure a similar accident
never occurred again.

 

 

What has been the fallout for Boeing?

The pressure on Boeing to explain what it knew about the problems with the
737 Max has intensified. There were revelations this month that employees
had exchanged messages about issues with MCAS while the plane was being
certified in 2016.

 

In documents provided by Boeing to lawmakers, a pilot wrote that he had run
into unexpected trouble during tests. He said he had "basically lied to the
regulators [unknowingly]".

 

Boeing said this week it had developed a training update and that it
expected regulators to allow the planes to return to the skies before the
beginning of 2020.

 

The grounding of the 737 Max has taken a toll on the planemaker.

 

Profits more than halved to $895m (£687m) in the third quarter and the firm
said it would cut production of its 787 Dreamliner, blaming trade
uncertainties.

 

Boeing boss Dennis Muilenburg was also stripped of his title as chairman by
the board earlier this month, but remains as chief executive.--BBC

 

 

 

Jaguar Land Rover gets China sales boost

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has reported a quarterly profit after seeing a big
boost to sales in China.

 

The firm made a pre-tax profit of £156m in the three months to 30 September,
with revenues up 8% to £6.1bn.

 

Sales in China - a key market for car manufacturers - were up by nearly a
quarter from a year earlier.

 

JLR said the popularity of new models helped to lift the results, with
global sales of the new Range Rover Evoque up by more than 50%.

 

The strong performance from JLR helped its owner - India's Tata Motors - to
report a smaller than expected loss for the quarter.

 

Tata's loss for the quarter narrowed to 2.17bn rupees ($31m; £24m) from
10.49bn rupees a year earlier.

 

In January, JLR confirmed 4,500 job cuts, with the substantial majority
coming from its 40,000 strong UK workforce. Those cuts have now been made, a
spokeswoman said.

 

Announcing the results, JLR chief executive Sir Ralf Speth said it was
"encouraging to see the impact of our Project Charge transformation
programme and our improvement initiatives in the China market start to come
through in our results".

 

In April this year, JLR shut down production for a week because of
uncertainties around Brexit.

 

The carmaker also plans to shut down UK factories for a week in November, to
adjust production due to uncertainties including Brexit and lower demand for
diesel cars, the spokeswoman said.

 

With roughly a fifth of its sales to Europe, the firm has previously called
for tariff-free and frictionless trade after Brexit.--BBC

 

 

 

Depop: Can pre-loved clothes make fast fashion sustainable?

Can it ever be green to buy clothes and only wear them once? Well it might
be, if you buy second-hand ones and sell them again when you're finished
with them.

 

As concerns rise over the unsustainable price tag of fast fashion, some
young people are looking online for a way to look good for less without
hurting the planet.

 

Sylvie Mackower, 20, from London wasn't thinking about the environment when
she set up an account on an app called Depop to sell on items she no longer
wore.

 

"I really just wanted to get rid of old clothes and get a bit of money doing
it," she says.

 

 

"Not purchasing new items where possible and recycling things you get tired
of leaves you with a pretty small consumption footprint," she says.

 

"This is what people have to commit to if we want to hold onto our planet."

 

Depop is not the only app targeting this space - many second-hand clothes
are traded on eBay, and even the fast-fashion retailer Asos has a
Marketplace feature which allows users to resell used clothes.

 

"There is certainly a trend in young people seeking out second-hand
clothing," says Prof Tim Cooper, head of Nottingham Trent University's
clothing sustainability research group.

 

Fast fashion: Is it hard to be sustainable and plus-size?

Tips to become a green shopper

Love Island: How Amber Gill and Molly-Mae changed fashion

"A lot of people prefer to shop online rather than visit second-hand shops,
so it is positive that young people are looking into shopping more
sustainably."

 

Prof Cooper's research into fashion sustainability was used by a group of
MPs who called on the government to implement a clothing tax in the summer.

 

He believes more can be done to persuade younger people to lower their
clothing consumption.

 

"I think as long as we have cheap fast fashion goods we are going to have a
problem. The issue with clothing consumption is the sheer volume of garments
produced which end up in landfill," he says.

 

Prof Cooper believes that mainstream brands which integrate second-hand
clothing into their stores are encouraging sustainable shopping.

 

Lauren Ashcroft, 21 from Durham uses Depop regularly to change her wardrobe
sustainably on a budget.

 

"You feel better about buying from a Depop seller because you aren't
supporting a company that mass produces clothing.

 

"I think sites like Depop are good because you can often find exactly what
you want at a more affordable price as well."

 

"My generation tend to need to shop on a budget, and it's quite easy to
negotiate the price with sellers online if you think the price is too
steep," she says.

 

Lauren also believes that social shopping apps are useful for buying
clothing for events like Halloween, as costumes often end up in landfill
after one use.

 

"I bought and sold my Cruella Deville costume I wore two years ago," she
says.

 

"Most people change their Halloween costume each year, so it's better to buy
a costume second-hand and sell it on as it generates less waste."

 

Although many people use Depop buy and sell clothing they no longer use,
other users open up business which specialise in second-hand clothing.

 

Kieran Thwaites, 22, from Loughborough, first started Thwaites Vintage on
Depop in 2015 and has amassed 30k followers on the app.

 

"I would always encourage people to shop vintage clothing so less ends up at
landfill. I grew up visiting charity shops with my family, we have always
been a bit thrifty like that.

 

"In sixth form I decided to sell my old clothes on Depop and had some luck.
Then I started selling in specific niches, which is my biggest advice to
anyone trying to run a vintage store."

 

 

Since launching his business Kieran has become more eco-friendly, and
regularly sets up pop-up events around the UK to generate less waste and
speak to customers.

 

"I have recently made the switch to recyclable mailing bags and use paper
bags rather than plastic, I try to run my business responsibly."

 

He is also working with Leicestershire council to encourage young consumers
to shop more sustainably.

 

"One of the ideas I pitched was a £10 charity shop challenge. I want to show
people you can actually get decent clothes for a decent price."

 

 

Sustainability is a main motivator for Nikki Millar, 29, from Leicester, who
urges young people to be creative with their clothing and shop vintage.

 

"I'm an avid carbooter, I love seeing old items get a new life," she says.

 

"At the the time I started my business the high street was very
unimaginative and the internet barely existed so online shopping was a no-go
for me."

 

"I had built up quite the collection of colourful cartoon duvet covers so I
began making my own clothes. People would always ask where they could buy my
clothes so I started a Depop."

 

As well as Depop, Nikki has since opened up Silly Girl Club as a boutique on
Asos Marketplace which features small boutique businesses selling vintage
clothing and handmade items.

 

 

Although she now has a bigger platform there has always been an underlying
environmental motivation for her brand.

 

"The textile industry creates more CO2 emissions than the combination of
aviation and shipping," she says. "I would love to see people wearing more
pre-loved stuff.

 

"It's conscious consumerism and as a bonus, you won't see someone else
wearing the same outfit. I'm proud to say 99% of my wardrobe is
pre-loved."--BBC

 

 

 

TikTok hits back over China influence claims

TikTok has hit back against claims of Chinese government interference over
content shown on the video-sharing app.

 

The popular platform, owned by Beijing-based Bytedance, said it "does not
remove content" based on Chinese sensitivities.

 

It follows concerns raised by US lawmakers over whether Beijing censors
content on the app and data collection.

 

The scrutiny is part of a wider dispute over perceived national security
risks posed by Chinese tech.

 

"Let us be very clear: TikTok does not remove content based on sensitivities
related to China. We have never been asked by the Chinese government to
remove any content and we would not do so if asked," the company said in a
statement.

 

"We are not influenced by any foreign government, including the Chinese
government; TikTok does not operate in China, nor do we have any intention
of doing so in the future," it said.

 

The firm operates a similar but separate version of the app in China, known
as Douyin.

 

TikTok said all US user data is stored in the United States, with a backup
in Singapore.

 

"Our data centres are located entirely outside of China, and none of our
data is subject to Chinese law."

 

The fast-growing social media app has about 500 million regular users,
though TikTok doesn't disclose its user base. It's estimated to have been
downloaded more than a billion times on app stores.

 

The platform - known for clips of teenagers lip-syncing and dancing to music
- lets people post and share 15-second videos.

 

 

The pushback by TikTok comes after US senators Tom Cotton and Chuck Schumer
requested intelligence officials assess the national security risks posed by
the company, and other Chinese content platforms.

 

The senators said their request was issued "amid growing concern about
national security and cybersecurity risks posed by TikTok".

 

"With over 110 million downloads in the US alone, TikTok is a potential
counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore," they said.

 

Could blacklisting China's AI champions backfire?

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, whose firm competes with TikTok particular in
the youth market, has also recently attacked the platform over censorship
concerns.

 

Another US senator, Marco Rubio, previously asked a US national security
panel to review Bytedance's acquisition of Musical.ly.

 

Mr Rubio noted concerns over how the app is censoring content critical of
the Chinese government.

 

It comes on the heels of heightened US scrutiny of another Chinese tech
giant, Huawei.

 

Over the past year Washington has moved to block the firm, the world's
largest maker of telecoms equipment, on national security concerns.

 

Huawei: US ban will harm billions of users

Huawei has repeatedly denied claims the use of its products present security
risks, and says it is independent from the Chinese government.--BBC

 

 

 

Amazon profits hit by rising shipping costs

Amazon delivered another quarter of sales growth above 20%, but a spike in
shipping costs cut the firm's bottom line.

 

Shares dropped sharply in after-hours trade after the e-commerce giant said
profits fell by about 25% to $2.1bn in the three months to 30 September.

 

The firm said it spent nearly $10bn (£7.78bn) on shipping costs in the most
recent quarter, up 46% from last year.

 

But sales rose 24% year-on-year to $70bn.

 

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos said the company's push to offer one-day shipping to
its Prime members, which has contributed to increased costs, will pay off.
Purchases by Prime members have accelerated alongside the one-day offering,
executives said.

 

"It's a big investment, and it's the right long-term decision for
customers," Mr Bezos said.

 

However, investors were disappointed by the e-commerce company's sales
forecast for the last three months of the year.

 

Amazon said it expected sales growth of 11% to 20% in the upcoming quarter,
which includes the critical festive season. It pinned that expected
deceleration in part on the recent increase in Japan's consumption tax,
which it said would depress purchases.

 

The sales prediction helped to send the firm's shares down more than 6% in
after-hours trade.

 

"Whether all the extra investment will be worth it in the end is perhaps
open to question, especially given the lacklustre sales guidance for next
quarter," said Nicholas Hyett, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. But, he
added, "it's been foolish to doubt Amazon in the past."

 

'Softening growth'

Amazon's overall revenue gain occurred despite slowing growth in the firm's
cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS).

 

It reported sales of almost $9bn, up 35% from 2018. Last year, the unit,
which is credited with lifting Amazon to profitability, posted year-on-year
growth of 46%.

 

The deceleration is a potentially worrisome sign for investors looking at
the bottom line, said Andrew Lipsman, an analyst at eMarketer, who called
the quarter "a very mixed bag".

 

"AWS has fuelled Amazon's margin expansion of late but the continued
softening in growth rates will weigh on the company's profits if they can't
reverse the trend," he said.

 

Amazon's push into physical stores with its purchase of grocer Whole Foods
also has yet to pay off. Sales in its physical stores declined 1%
year-on-year, to about $4.2bn.--BBC

 

 

 

 

Error found in UK public finances, official statistics body admits

The UK budget deficit is £1-£1.5bn less than what had been previously
reported after a statistical error, the Office for National Statistics has
said (ONS).

 

Britain's official statistics agency reported earlier this week a
year-to-date budget deficit of £40.3bn, excluding public-sector banks.

 

The ONS now says there was "an error in the measurement of local government
social benefits".

 

A corrected version will be published early next week.

 

The error meant the budget deficit for the month of September alone was
about £250m too high. The ONS had said last month's shortfall was £9.4bn.

 

In a statement, the ONS said: "We have identified an error in the
measurement of local government social benefits in the current financial
year to date (April to September 2019) and will be correcting this at the
earliest opportunity."

 

It's not the statistics body's first mistake. In August, the ONS admitted to
miscalculating the level of migration from the EU to the UK from the
mid-2000s to 2016.

 

As a result, the status of the immigration figures compiled by the ONS was
downgraded to "experimental".--BBC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2019

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


Companies under Cautionary

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


Bindura Nickel Corporation

 

 

 


Padenga Holdings

 

 

 


Delta Corporation

 

 

 


Meikles Limited

 

 

 


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