Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 29 October 2019

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 29 October 2019

 


 

 


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ü  Kenya to scale back commercial borrowing, Treasury official says

ü  CEOs of S.Africa's Sasol, hit by higher costs at US project, to exit

ü  Renergen commissions South Africa’s first commercial helium plant

ü  Kenya's Twiga Foods raises $30 mln ahead of planned expansion

ü  Kenya's KenGen to delay full-year results by a month

ü  South Africa's rand clings on to gains ahead of crucial budget speech

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

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

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

ü  Blowing whistle on dirty money 'wrecked my life'

ü  Luxury goods giant LVMH eyes $14.5bn Tiffany takeover

ü  HSBC restructuring plans fuel fears of job cuts

ü  Virgin Galactic: Branson's space firm set for stock market launch

ü  A sweet idea that created a $40m business

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

Kenya to scale back commercial borrowing, Treasury official says

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya will reduce its borrowing from capital markets in
the next three years to make its repayments schedule more bearable, a senior
Treasury official said on Monday.

 

 

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government has been criticised for ramping up
borrowing since coming to power in 2013. Total public debt stands at about
55% of GDP, up from 42% when he took over.

 

The critics accuse the government of saddling future generations with too
much debt. The government has defended the higher borrowing, saying it is
required to fund infrastructure.

 

The debt load consists of several Eurobonds issued since 2014 as well as
syndicated loans taken out from an array of lenders.

 

“We need to focus more on concessional borrowing... what we are doing is
looking at scaling down our commercial borrowing up to a point where it is
manageable,” Geoffrey Mwau, the economics adviser to the finance minister,
told reporters.

 

“That will not happen in one year, but over time, if you look at our fiscal
consolidation path, even if three years it will be enough.”

 

Mwau did not provide any numbers.

 

The government will focus on boosting revenue collection in order to cut the
need for additional borrowing, Mwau said.

 

The finance ministry has already indicated it is reviewing its 2019/20
(July-June) budget to cut the government’s expenditure and set more
realistic revenue collection targets.

 

Policymakers will embark on a monetary easing stance if the fiscal cuts are
sustained to attain a balance, Patrick Njoroge, the central bank governor,
said last month.

 

Njoroge, who was with Mwau during Monday’s news conference, said parliament
needed to remove a cap on commercial lending rates to boost economic growth.

 

In 2016, the government capped commercial interest rates at four percentage
points above the central bank’s benchmark rate of 9.0%, accusing lenders of
failing to offer affordable credit.

 

“We need to change and remove this cap,” Njoroge said.

 

President Kenyatta refused to sign this year’s budget this month, demanding
that lawmakers should remove the cap.

 

Lawmakers will deliberate on the matter when they resume sittings on Tuesday
this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

CEOs of S.Africa's Sasol, hit by higher costs at US project, to exit

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African petrochemicals group Sasol said on
Monday its joint chief executives are stepping down following a review of a
project in the United States hit by delays and rising costs.

 

Sasol announced the departures and a decrease in adjusted earnings for the
year ended in June before South Africa’s stock market opened. At 0716 GMT,
shares of Sasol were up 9%.

 

The Lake Charles Chemicals project (LCCP) was initially expected to cost
$8.9 billion but that 2014 forecast has since been revised to as much as
$12.9 billion.

 

The company said Bongani Nqwababa and Stephen Cornell, the joint CEOs, who
have not been found to have committed misconduct nor shown incompetence,
would step down at the end of this month to restore trust in Sasol.

 

Fleetwood Grobler, the executive vice president of its chemicals business,
will assume the role of president and CEO effective November, it said.

 

“It is a matter of profound regret for the Board that shortcomings in the
execution of the LCCP have negatively impacted our overall reputation, led
to a serious erosion of confidence in the leadership of the Company and
weakened the company financially,” Sasol said in a statement.

 

Following the independent review, Sasol said some factors behind the cost
and schedule increases were common in projects of the size and nature of the
LCCP, but some shortcomings could have been avoided.

 

“The primary responsibility for shortcomings in relation to LCCP lies with
the former leadership of the LCCP’s Project Management Team (PMT), which
engaged in conduct that was inappropriate, demonstrated a lack of
competence, and was not transparent,” Sasol said, adding that findings did
not show an intent to defraud the company.

 

Sasol, the world’s top manufacturer of motor fuel from coal, said
insufficient experience within the LCCP leadership, inadequate control
procedures, insufficient segregation of duties, poor ethics procedures and a
culture of fear leading to insufficient reporting of the LCCP leadership
team prevented the prompt the identification of the errors.

 

The company, which twice delayed the release of its annual financial results
due to possible “control weaknesses” at the project, on Monday reported a 5%
rise in annual profit and shelved its final dividend as the firm sought to
strengthen its balance sheet.

 

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization
(EBITDA) decreased 9% compared to the prior year due to lower chemical
product prices and higher operating costs from LCCP.

 

Sasol said it would not pay a final dividend for the 2019 financial year to
protect and strengthen its balance sheet and may consider shelving the 2020
interim dividend based on the health of the balance sheet at that time.

 

($1 = 14.6162 rand)

 

 

Renergen commissions South Africa’s first commercial helium plant

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Energy company Renergen said on Monday it had
commissioned South Africa’s first commercial liquefied natural gas (LNG) and
liquid helium plant, the Virginia Gas Project.

 

The gas project will position South Africa as the only African commercial
helium producer and one of eight countries in the world exporting the
natural resource alongside the United States and Qatar.

 

Renergen said it had appointed Chinese equipment company Western Shell
Cryogenic Equipment Co. (WSCE) to supply technology and equipment for the
plant and EPCM Bonisana to install the pipeline and manage the interface.

 

“We look forward to seeing Renergen and WSCE making liquid natural gas and
liquid helium in South Africa a reality,” said the company in an official
statement.

 

The U.S government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) approved
a $40 million loan in February this year to provide capital for the project
after the company announced it had discovered reserves of up to 11% helium
concentrations in the Free State province.

 

The project is planned to be operational from 2021, with a planned daily
production of 645.3 tonnes of LNG and 350 kg of helium.

 

Helium is used, among other things, to cool superconducting magnets in
medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, as a lifting gas in
balloons and airships, as a gas to breathe in deep-sea diving and to keep
satellite instruments cool.

 

 

Kenya's Twiga Foods raises $30 mln ahead of planned expansion

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan food distribution start-up Twiga Foods has raised
$30 million in debt and equity through a fundraising round led by Goldman
Sachs, it said on Monday.

 

Twiga, which estimates Africa’s informal food production and distribution
system at $300 billion a year and growing, uses an online platform to link
food producers with retailers, aiming to harness technology to boost demand
for farmers’ products.

 

The funds, raised partly from existing investors such as the International
Finance Corporation, TLcom Capital and Creadev, will be invested in
upgrading the technology behind the Twiga platform and to establish a new
distribution centre.

 

“This allows us to ... get the company to the next level of growth,”
co-founder and CEO Peter Njonjo told Reuters.

 

Twiga is among a host of African start-ups looking to use information
technology to solve the continent’s problems, such as highly fragmented and
informal retail food markets that discourage investments in farming.

 

The company’s fleet of vehicles delivers fruit and vegetables to retailers
within 18 hours of receiving an order on the platform and pays the farmers
within 48 hours using mobile platforms such as M-Pesa.

 

“We are aggregating the demand of those informal retailers, allowing the
farming ecosystem to start having an addressable market,” Njonjo said.

 

The new distribution centre will feature cold rooms, conveyors and other
sorting infrastructure as the company seeks to perfect its business model
and take it into new markets.

 

“By having this set-up in Nairobi, it provides us with a blueprint for when
we start looking at other cities across the continent,” Njonjo said.

 

The company plans to expand into other Kenyan cities by the middle of next
year before moving into other African cities.

 

“We are doing our due diligence in terms of the next cities that we need to
launch. French West Africa is really looking attractive,” he said, adding
that areas for expansion have yet to be finalised.

 

Twiga, which was started in 2014, has now raised a total of $55 million in
debt and equity.

 

The latest round netted $23.75 million in equity and $6 million in debt from
OPIC and Alpha Mundi, Twiga said.

 

Njonjo declined to give a valuation for the company or say whether it has
started making profit, citing Goldman Sachs’ policies on non-disclosure of
such information.

 

 

 

Kenya's KenGen to delay full-year results by a month

NAIROBI (Reuters) - KenGen, Kenya’s biggest electricity producer, will delay
by a month the publication of its financial results for the year ended June,
the company said over the weekend.

 

The state-controlled company must secure approval for reporting its
financial results from the government’s new auditor general, who is expected
to be appointed as the previous occupant retired in August.

 

The company was expected to post its earnings by the end of this month, in
line with market rules that require companies to publish their results
within three months of the close of the review period.

 

“KenGen has sought the approval of the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) to
publish the results on or before Nov. 30, 2019,” the company said in a
statement.

 

 

 

South Africa's rand clings on to gains ahead of crucial budget speech

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand inched firmer early on Monday,
holding near a 7-week best, as investors looked beyond an uncertain local
and global backdrop and kept buying the high-yielding currency.

 

By 0650 GMT, the rand was 0.08% firmer at 14.6140 against the dollar, a
touch off its rally to 14.5700 on Friday, which marked its strongest level
since Sept. 14.

 

Economic fundamentals in Africa’s most industrialised market continue to
paint an fragile picture, expected to be highlighted in Wednesday’s
medium-term budget, in which the deficit is set widen sharply, owing mainly
to bailouts to state firm Eskom.

 

A poll of 14 economists expects Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to expand the
deficit to 6.05% of gross domestic product, up from a projection of 4.5% in
February for the year that began in April.

 

Crisis-hit power company Eskom was handed an additional 59 billion rand ($4
billion) lifeline by parliament on Tuesday, prompting criticism from
opposition parties, which described it as a “blank cheque” that would swell
borrowing.

 

But the firm has not cut power to the national grid since last Sunday, when
breakdowns at some its coal-fired plants forced it to throttle supply,
easing investor concerns and breathing wind into the rand since the
beginning of the month.

 

The unit is close to 6% firmer since Oct. 1, gains matched by a rally in
government bonds.

 

The yield on the benchmark 2026 bond was down 0.25 percentage points to
8.145% in early trade.

 

“This (rally) could also be linked to structural dollar weakening - factors
such as expectations for U.S. rate cuts this week and into 2020,” traders at
ETM Analytics said in a note to clients.

 

“Investors will also be disincentivised to take on big positional bets at
present, due to the host of event risks present this week.”

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

Blowing whistle on dirty money 'wrecked my life'

Anna Waterhouse was a high-flying lawyer at Deutsche Bank in Dubai. Now
she's unemployed.

 

Amjad Rihan was a partner at the accountancy giant EY's Dubai office. He
also lost his job and hasn't worked for more than five years.

 

They both say their lives were destroyed after they flagged up suspicious
activity at a major gold refiner in Dubai - Kaloti.

 

A joint investigation between BBC Panorama and French media company
Premieres Lignes shows they were right to be suspicious.

 

Anna and Amjad didn't know it at the time but had stumbled upon evidence of
an organised crime group using gold sales to Kaloti to launder British drug
cash.

 

EY, Deutsche Bank and Kaloti have all denied any wrongdoing.

 

In 2013, Amjad was leading an audit into Kaloti's supply chain for EY.

 

His team found Kaloti had weak checks on its suppliers - and was handing out
extraordinary amounts of physical cash for gold.

 

"My team started conducting these audits and it's really shocking what they
were finding," he said,

 

"Kaloti has done more than $5.2bn (£4bn) in cash in one year.
Money-laundering 101 tells you not to use cash. Cash increases the risk of
money-laundering."

 

'Are we safe?'

A few miles away, Anna, Deutsche Bank's general counsel and head of
compliance in Dubai, was getting suspicious about Kaloti's cash too.

 

Panorama has seen a transcript of a Dubai court case in which she says
"never before had I seen such a catalogue of suspicious circumstances".

 

She told Panorama: "A colleague came into my office and described a call
from a local bank in Dubai. Apparently they had called to ask, 'Are these
guys, Kaloti, are they good guys? Are we safe doing business with them?' I
was surprised. That's very unusual.

 

"The guys at the bank had noticed that Kaloti had been withdrawing very
large amounts of money, so large that they had to remove this physical cash
in wheelbarrows.

 

"They said: 'We can see that quite a lot of this money is being funded by a
Deutsche Bank account.'"

 

BBC Panorama's joint investigation with Premieres Lignes shows that cash
from Kaloti was a crucial part of a $250m money-laundering operation which
used gold sales to launder cash from British and European drug deals.

 

In all, 27 members of the money-laundering gang were jailed in France in
2017. The crime boss behind it, Nour Eddine Ech-Chaouti, remains on the run
in Morocco.

 

Documents seen by Panorama show Kaloti bought 3.6 tonnes of gold from a
company owned by a member of the gang in 2012 alone. The gold refiner paid
the company $146m in cash.

 

The money-laundering could have been stopped years earlier if concerns
raised by the two whistleblowers had been investigated properly.

 

Anna Waterhouse reported her suspicions about Kaloti's cash withdrawals to
the local money-laundering authorities. It was a decision that would wreck
her life.

 

First, she told the Anti-Money-Laundering Suspicious Cases Unit at the
Central Bank of the UAE. She says they didn't investigate Kaloti - but
turned on her and the bank instead.

 

"When I explained these very serious concerns, I was straight away met with
the accusation that you must have done this. How else would you know? And of
course it's ridiculous," she said.

 

"Why on earth would anybody run into the head of the Anti-Money-Laundering
Suspicious Cases Unit to tell them that they'd laundered [money]? It's
absurd."

 

Anna also reported the suspicions to another regulator, the Dubai Financial
Services Authority (DFSA). It polices anti-money laundering regulations in
the Dubai International Finance Centre.

 

"Neither regulator that I had reported it to actually seemed to investigate
the suspicions about Kaloti, but each regulator started investigating the
bank," she said.

 

"That was the start of what became a very, very wide-ranging investigation
which to me seemed like a giant fishing expedition, intended to find a
problem of any sort within the bank. What I didn't realise at the time was
that I was also the focus individually of their investigation."

 

Serious sanctions

The DFSA investigation found bankers in Deutsche Bank's Dubai office had
broken regulations in a separate case involving its private wealth division.
No clients lost money, but the breach of the rules meant the bank, and its
senior managers, faced serious sanctions.

 

The transcript of the Dubai court case suggests Deutsche Bank bosses
sacrificed Anna and saved themselves.

 

It shows the managers discussed a plan to "offer up Ms Waterhouse" to
"express settle everything for the bank".

 

The bank escaped with a reduced fine and Anna was the only manager
sanctioned by the DFSA. She's now appealing through the courts.

 

"I've been a victim in all of this. It's cost me my career. It's cost me the
last six years of my life. It has caused myself and my family untold
suffering and nobody seems to care. They don't even seem to have a
conscience about what happened," she said.

 

The DFSA said it had no part in any plan to offer up Anna Waterhouse.

 

It said there was ample reason to take action against her and the decision
was made in good faith. It said it was not motivated by her decision to
report suspicious activity.

 

Deutsche Bank told Panorama it disagrees with the depiction of its treatment
of Anna Waterhouse.

 

It said this matter was thoroughly investigated more than five years ago by
the bank, external advisors and the DFSA but it would be inappropriate to
comment further because of the legal action.

 

The bank said: "We take our anti-money-laundering responsibilities very
seriously and have taken extensive steps to further strengthen our
controls."

 

'Covered up'

Amjad Rihan wanted to blow the whistle on Kaloti too - but says his EY
bosses wouldn't do it.

 

He said: "If you identify a suspicious transaction, you should report it to
the authorities. What we identified was way beyond suspicion. Instead of
reporting the crimes that I told them about, my bosses just covered them
up."

 

Amjad fled Dubai because he was worried that his attempts to blow the
whistle on Kaloti could get him in trouble with the Dubai government.

 

He is suing EY, claiming he was ostracised and labelled a trouble-maker,
then forced from his job by being pressured to return to Dubai.

 

He said: "Since I lost my career and I was pushed out from EY, I haven't
been able to earn much money. And it's been really, really tough on us as a
family financially. It's been years in court, really in order for me to
carry on with life, I try not to think about how tough it is."

 

EY says Amjad has raised certain unfounded allegations in the court claim,
which is being vigorously defended.

 

EY also says it is confident that all legal and reporting obligations have
been complied with, and that it had delivered its findings to the relevant
regulator in Dubai: "It was the work of EY Dubai that brought to light
Kaloti's non-compliance with the applicable regulations and ultimately
resulted in the remediation of the issues."

 

Kaloti says it conducted all appropriate anti-money-laundering checks.

 

And it would "never knowingly enter into a trading relationship with any
party
 engaged in financial impropriety or criminal activity of any kind".

 

It said cash payments were common in Dubai but it no longer buys gold for
cash.

 

The financial system is supposed to keep dirty money out. But the two people
who tried to blow the whistle about the suspicious activity in Dubai both
feel they have been punished.

 

Anna's dispute with the DFSA has now been going on for six years. If her
appeal isn't successful, she won't be able to work in financial services or
the legal profession again.

 

"Frankly, it's changed me as a person because I find it extremely difficult
to trust in authority or to trust in people," she said

 

"I've been let down by so, so many people that I find it extremely difficult
to trust anybody anymore."--BBC

 

 

 

Luxury goods giant LVMH eyes $14.5bn Tiffany takeover

US-based Tiffany says it is "reviewing" a takeover offer worth about $14.5bn
(£11.3bn) from the world's biggest luxury goods company, LVMH.

 

The companies confirmed the offer in separate statements on Monday, with the
182-year-old Tiffany saying there are currently no talks.

 

LVMH, owned by France's richest man, Bernard Arnault, has brands including
Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Bulgari.

 

Jewellery has been one of the fastest growth spots in the luxury sector.

 

In a two-sentence statement early on Monday, LVMH said it "confirms that it
has held preliminary discussions regarding a possible transaction with
Tiffany," adding that there is no certainty of a deal.

 

A few hours later Tiffany, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, said it
"has received an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from LMVH" of $120 per
share in cash.

 

Reports at the weekend said cash-rich LVMH, which also owns Kenzo, Tag
Heuer, Dom Pérignon, Moet & Chandon, as well as Louis Vuitton handbags, made
a preliminary offer for Tiffany earlier this month. A takeover would be
LVMH's biggest deal since buying the Bulgari brand in 2011 for $5.2bn.

 

"LVMH's attempt to put a $14.5bn ring on Tiffany, having already added
Bulgari a couple of years ago is likely to take the fight in this sector to
its closest rival Richemont, who owns Cartier, and would help LVMH in
gaining better access to US markets," said Michael Hewson, chief market
analyst at CMC Markets UK.

 

As part of its push for a bigger share of the US market, LVMH has opened a
factory in south Texas, which was officially inaugurated this month in
ceremony attended by Mr Arnault and US President Donald Trump and his
daughter Ivanka.

 

Tiffany's flagship New York store is next to Trump Tower on 5th Avenue.
Founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany, the company's fame was sealed
after the release of the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, staring Audrey
Hepburn and loosely based on Truman Capote's novella of the same name.

 

Higher bid?

Global demand for LVMH's products has held up well in recent years, but the
same cannot be said for Tiffany, which has seen worldwide sales fall.

 

Like several luxury firms, analysts say Tiffany may have been caught out by
the US-China trade dispute and rise in tariffs. It has also been hit by
lower spending in its retail outlets by Chinese tourists.

 

LVMH has 75 brands, 156,000 employees and a network of more than 4,590
stores. Tiffany employs more than 14,000 people and operates about 300
stores.

 

News of LVMH's offer sent Tiffany's share price surging more than 31% to
nearly $130.

 

A $14.5bn offer is worth about $120 a share, but analysts said LVMH could
afford to go higher, and Credit Suisse estimated that Tiffany was worth
about $140 a share.

 

LVMH rival Kering has been looking to expand in the jewellery sector too,
and has launched high-end jewellery lines for its fashion brand Gucci.

 

Switzerland's Richemont, meanwhile, a sector leader with labels such as
Cartier, has also been adding to its portfolio, and recently acquired
Italy's Buccellati.

 

But, said analysts at Jefferies, "Tiffany is potentially the biggest prey
and the only US global luxury brand".--BBC

 

 

 

HSBC restructuring plans fuel fears of job cuts

HSBC is planning to restructure its business after the banking giant said
its performance in parts of Europe and the US was "not acceptable".

 

Interim chief executive Noel Quinn said plans to improve these divisions
were "no longer sufficient" and that it was "accelerating plans to remodel
them".

 

Earlier this month, the bank, which employs 238,000 people, was reported to
be planning up to 10,000 job cuts.

 

On Monday, Mr Quinn said there was "scope" for potential cuts,

 

"There is scope throughout the bank to clarify and simplify roles, and to
reduce duplication," he told Reuters. However, Mr Quinn did not provide any
further details on potential job cuts.

 

Mr Quinn took over as HSBC's acting chief executive in August following the
shock departure of John Flint.

 

His remarks came as the bank reported worse-than-expected third-quarter
profits.

 

Europe's largest bank said profit before tax fell 18% to $4.8bn (£3.8bn) in
the three months to September, and also warned of a "challenging"
environment ahead.

 

HSBC has been navigating uncertainty arising from Brexit, the US-China trade
war and ongoing unrest in Hong Kong.

 

However, Mr Quinn praised the bank's performance in Asia - the region where
it makes most of its profits.

 

"Parts of our business, especially Asia, held up well in a challenging
environment in the third quarter," said Mr Quinn.

 

"However, in some parts, performance was not acceptable, principally
business activities within continental Europe, the non-ring-fenced bank in
the UK, and the US."

 

--BBC

 

 

Virgin Galactic: Branson's space firm set for stock market launch

Virgin Galactic, the space venture backed by Sir Richard Branson, is ready
to launch - not into space but on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

 

Shares in Virgin Galactic are set to start trading on Monday, a first for a
space tourism company.

 

The move follows Virgin's merger with publicly-listed Silicon Valley holding
firm Social Capital Hedosophia.

 

That deal brought $800m (£624m) to Virgin as it rushes to meet its goal of
sending customers to space in 2020.

 

Taking the firm public will "open space to more investors and in doing so,
open space to thousands of new astronauts," Sir Richard said at the time.

 

Social Capital Hedosophia is already listed on the NYSE, allowing Virgin to
sell shares without following the traditional stock offering process.

 

Shares in Social Capital Hedosophia, which will start trading under the
ticker SPCE on Monday, jumped 11% on Friday in anticipation of the debut.

 

Virgin Galactic is racing with Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue
Origin to be the first company to send fee-paying passengers into space.

 

The company, founded in 2004, has spent more than $1bn developing its
programme, which is years behind schedule and took a hit after a fatal
accident in 2014.

 

However, Virgin has told investors it hopes to make 16 trips to space with
customers as soon as next year.

 

In a presentation, it predicts that revenue will skyrocket as the number of
flights increases.

 

In 2023, the firm expects to make 270 trips to space, bringing in nearly
$600m and generating profit of more than $430m.

 

About 600 people, including pop star Justin Bieber, have already put down
deposits for the 90-minute experience at a price of about $250,000 per
ticket, according to the company.

 

Virgin's plans are exciting - but investing carries some significant risks,
notes Swen Lorenz, of the financial analysis website Undervalued Shares.

 

"No disrespect, but Virgin Galactic is both a plan and a dream, rather than
a secure future cash flow," he concludes in his write-up of the company.

 

Billion dollar business

The New York Stock Exchange launch follows last week's completion of the
tie-up, which valued Virgin at $1.5bn.

 

Social Capital Hedosophia took a 49% stake in Virgin in exchange for a
roughly $700m investment.

 

Social Capital Hedosophia's founder, former Facebook executive Chamath
Palihapitiya, also personally invested $100m.

 

In addition, Virgin recently announced that US aerospace giant Boeing would
invest $20m by buying shares.

 

Sir Richard last year said Virgin would not move forward with talks on
possible investment from Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi.--BBC

 

 

 

A sweet idea that created a $40m business

The BBC's weekly The Boss series profiles different business leaders from
around the world. This week we speak to Tara Bosch, the founder and chief
executive of low-sugar sweets business Smart Sweets.

 

Tara Bosch describes herself as a former "sugar addict".

 

"I would be the person at the 7-11 every day, buying the penny candy," says
the 25-year-old. "But as I got older, I realised how much sugar was
affecting my body image, my self-esteem, and just how I felt about myself."

 

So four years ago, fed up with how unhappy and unhealthy she was feeling,
Tara stopped eating sugar. She says that she very quickly felt much better,
but missing her sweets she decided to have a go at making her own no-added
sugar alternatives in her kitchen in Vancouver, Canada.

 

Testing recipes in the summer of 2015, she described it as "going on a
quest". Eventually she was so pleased with her results that she thought
there might be a business opportunity.

 

That autumn she decided to take a leap of faith, and put this to the test.
Tara dropped out of the third year of an arts degree at the University of
British Columbia, so she could get the product off the ground.

 

Just 21 at the time, she had limited credit history, and her only asset was
a six-year-old small Honda car. But armed with samples and confidence, she
managed to secure 105,000 Canadian dollars of funding.

 

Today, her Vancouver-based company, Smart Sweets, is on track to see its
2019 revenues exceed CA$50m ($40m; £30m). Its range of products are market
leaders in the fast-growing low-sugar sweets sector in both Canada and the
US.

 

"This year we are helping people kick more than one billion grams of sugar,"
she says.

 

To secure the initial investment Tara had to write an intensive business
plan, with detailed two-year growth forecasting. And somewhat unnervingly,
she had to take out life insurance. "One of the terms of the parties
involved was life insurance, and they had to be the beneficiary," she says.

 

Sugar-free or not?

If you're looking to cut down on your sugar intake but have a sweet tooth,
then sugar-free sweets can be better than the regular sweets, say
dieticians. But they may still contain carbohydrates, and some can contain
significant calories and be high in saturated or trans-fats.

 

"Keep in mind that just because a product is 'sugar free' it doesn't always
mean that it's healthy," says the American Heart Association.

 

Some studies also suggest that certain zero-calorie sweeteners may also
stimulate appetite, which can be counterproductive for those trying to limit
their calorie intake.

 

With the funded secured, Tara searched on the internet for potential
suppliers and manufacturers, and worked on finalising her recipes.

 

"It soon became a trial and error of taking every single iteration that
didn't work, and applying a new hypothesis, and then testing it again." she
says.

 

Tara settled on using plant-based fibres, and the natural sweetener stevia,
to mimic the taste and texture of traditional sugared sweets.

 

Then to secure her first customers she used a mixture of emailing,
telephoning, showing up in person, and, she says, "Linkedin-ing". The first
retailer to sign up was Vancouver-based Choices Market, and Tara remembers
that she was incredibly nervous ahead of the first meeting.

 

"I had called and emailed with persistence, until they finally said stop
by," she says. "And when I arrived out front, I was so nervous that I drove
away.

 

"Then I drove back, had the meeting, and they became the first retailer to
take a chance on Smart Sweets."

 

A few other small Canadian chains followed shortly afterwards. "Like I said,
it's about persistence," she says. "I would email and show up until a
business would say yes to a conversation, and from there I leveraged the
success."

 

Tara secured her first American customers in 2018, and the US now accounts
for 80% of Smart Sweets' sales. The manufacturing of the sweets also takes
place in the US through contract suppliers.

 

US food entrepreneur and strategist Scott Semel says he is impressed by
Tara's "passion".

 

"An annual revenue of CA$50m is very successful," says Mr Semel, who in 2016
sold his best-selling confectionary brand Bark Thins to US giant Hershey.

 

"Just getting to $5m isn't easy, and confectionary is dominated by a few big
players. I think what's even more impressive about doing CA$50m in 2019 is
the time frame in which she has achieved it.

 

"Tara has a great feel for the market... she thinks far ahead."

 

Now with 47 employees, Tara plans to start exporting Smart Sweets outside of
North America. She says that the success of the company has come through
hard work and determination.

 

"For me growing up, I wasn't that smart or athletic," she says. "I didn't
really have any talents in particular, but I always had an innate sense of
urgency, resourcefulness, and the ability to make something happen if I
decided I wanted to make it happen.

 

"Smart Sweets was the first time I realised the power of those three things
combined."--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
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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
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the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any
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report shall be solely responsible for making their own independent
investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of
any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are
for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

 


 

 


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