Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 25 August 2020

Tue Aug 25 07:07:29 CAT 2020

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 25 August 2020

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

ü  IMF says central banks must be independent after change of Zambia's governor

ü  Total and Mozambique sign security pact for $20 bln natural gas project

ü  S.Africa's Absa shares up as investors look past profit plunge

ü  Edcon administrators sign sale of Edgars to Durban's Retailability

ü  Nigeria's economy contracts by 6.1% y/y in Q2 - stats office

ü  Congo grants new export ban waivers for copper, cobalt, tin

ü  Old Mutual forecasts H1 loss as coronavirus crisis hammers volumes

ü  South Africa's rand firms, stocks rise in early trade

ü  Tunisia's incoming PM plans restructuring of economic ministries

ü  South Africa seeks proposals for 2,000 MW of emergency power

ü  Carmakers urge FTC to fight Qualcomm ruling

ü  US and China hold 'constructive' trade talks after delay

ü  Facebook agrees to pay France €106m in back taxes

ü  TikTok calls Trump ban ‘political’ in lawsuit

ü  Rio Tinto bosses lose bonuses over Aboriginal cave destruction

ü  Mike Ashley buys long-time rival's business out of administration

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

IMF says central banks must be independent after change of Zambia's governor

LONDON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund said on Monday central banks’ independence must be maintained, in a statement in response to a change of Zambia’s central bank governor.

Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Saturday dismissed central bank governor Denny Kalyalya and replaced him with former deputy finance minister Christopher Mphanza Mvunga.

“Without credible institutions and sound policies, sustained economic growth and much needed improvements in living standards will not be possible,” the IMF said.

Total and Mozambique sign security pact for $20 bln natural gas project

MAPUTO (Reuters) - French oil major Total has signed a security pact with the Mozambique government to protect a $20 billion natural gas (LNG) project being developed in the southern African country, the company said on Monday.

Mozambican security forces have been battling a low-level insurgency against militias suspected of having links to Islamic State in the gas-rich north of the country.

Violence in the northern Cabo Delgado region has recently claimed dozens of lives. Earlier this month insurgents captured a heavily-defended port in the far northern town of Mocimboa da Praia.

Total’s project includes the development of the Golfinho and Atum natural gas fields in the Offshore Area 1 concession, containing more than 60 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas, and the construction of a liquefaction plant with a capacity of 13.1 million tons per annum.

Initial production is slated by 2024.

“This ... bolsters security measures and endeavours to create a safe operating environment for partners like Total which enables their ongoing investment in Mozambican industry,” Ernesto Elias Tonela, minister of mineral resources and energy, said in the statement.

S.Africa's Absa shares up as investors look past profit plunge

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Shares in South African lender Absa rose more than 2% on Monday as investors looked past a plunge in profit to the prospect of a better second half.

The lender, already in the midst of a turnaround drive when the coronavirus pandemic struck, said it was unlikely to pay a full-year dividend after first half profit fell by 93%.

It had previously warned that bad loans would blow a hole in its performance and drag earnings down by up to 97%. [nL8N2FE5ID]

“Given our focus on preserving capital, we do not envisage declaring an ordinary dividend for 2020,” it said in its results statement, adding that capital levels were expected to remain resilient.

Headline earnings per share - the main profit measure in South Africa - stood at 67.7 cents ($0.0396) in the six months to June 30, compared with 920 cents a year earlier.

The biggest drag was an almost 300% rise in its credit impairment charge - among the steepest flagged by South Africa’s major lenders.

But a hefty portion of this was a provision for potential future losses, with Absa choosing to take more pain upfront.

Jan Meintjes, portfolio manager at Denker Capital, an Absa investor, said that meant the bank’s second-half profit decline could be closer to 30%, which he called a “good outcome”.

“The pre-provision profit was stronger than expected and a result of some good work done in the last 18 months,” he added.

Since splitting from former parent Barclays in 2017, Absa has been on a drive to win back lost market share, including by lending more aggressively than was possible under the British lender.

The South African Reserve Bank asked lenders not to pay dividends during the health crisis, but rival Standard Bank has said it could pay a final dividend pending discussions with the central bank. [nL8N2FM0YI]

($1 = 17.1172 rand)

Edcon administrators sign sale of Edgars to Durban's Retailability

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African retail chain Edcon has signed an agreement to sell parts of its business to private equity-backed Retailability Ltd, administrators in charge of its restructuring said on Monday.

Edcon, which owns the 91-year old department store chain Edgars, entered into a form of bankruptcy protection in April after a coronavirus-led lockdown hurt the already struggling finances of the company.

“(The deal) not only indicates confidence in the Edgars business but augments Retailability’s already blue-chip level of retail expertise,” said Matuson Associates, administrators of the process.

As a next step in the process, the administrators and Retailability will start work on signing of the sale and purchase agreements for Edgar’s rest of Africa business.

The transactions will close by September and will save a “significant” number of jobs, the administrators said.

Durban-based Retailability, which also runs the clothing outlets Beaver Canoe for men’s fashion and Style for families, has 440 stores and some 2,000 employees in South Africa and neighbouring countries.

These are mainly located outside of big cities where the core of its low to middle income target market exists.

Edcon signed a deal with retailer TFG this month sell select assets of budget clothing retailer Jet.

Nigeria's economy contracts by 6.1% y/y in Q2 - stats office

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria’s economy contracted by 6.1% in the second quarter of 2020 from a year earlier, the statistics office said on Monday, with lockdowns in its two main cities and low oil prices taking their toll.

The West African country - Africa’s largest economy and the continent’s top oil producer - reported its first coronavirus case in late February. Lockdowns were imposed for just over a month in the commercial hub Lagos and the capital Abuja, ending in early May.

“The decline was largely attributable to significantly lower levels of both domestic and international economic activity during the quarter, which resulted from nationwide shutdown efforts aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic,” the statistics office said in its report.

Crude oil production was 1.81 million barrels a day in the second quarter, compared with 1.98 in the same 2019 period.

Nigeria’s economy was already grappling with sluggish growth before the pandemic in the wake of a 2016 recession. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said it sees Nigeria’s GDP falling 5.4% this year, and the government expects the economy to shrink by as much as 8.9% in 2020.

Data released by the statistics office earlier this month showed the unemployment rate stood at 27.1% in the second quarter. Meanwhile, inflation rose for the 11th straight month in July, to 12.82% - its highest level in more than two years.

The World Bank has warned that Nigeria faces a recession that will be “much more pronounced” than in 2016 - and potentially the nation’s worst financial crisis in four decades.

Congo grants new export ban waivers for copper, cobalt, tin

(Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday gave mining companies an indefinite waiver to an export ban on cobalt hydroxide and carbonate, as well as tin, tungsten, and tantalum concentrates after meeting the country’s biggest miners in Kinshasa.

The mines ministry also announced an export ban waiver on copper concentrate, but said the duration of that waiver was still to be determined, with companies expected to submit proposals a week from now.

Congo, the world’s leading producer of cobalt and Africa’s biggest copper producer, banned exports of copper and cobalt concentrates in 2013 to encourage miners to process and refine the ore in the country.

But insufficient smelting capacity has driven it to repeatedly issue waivers, the most recent of which was set to expire on Saturday.

“After a long debate, the mines minister Professor Willy Kitobo Samsoni, decided ... to grant an indefinite waiver for cobalt hydroxides and carbonates, the tin concentrates of Alphamin, and concentrates of 3Ts [tin, tungsten, and tantalum],” the ministry said in a statement.

Alphamin, which runs a tin mine in Congo’s North Kivu province, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The decision will come as a relief to cobalt, copper, and tin mining companies in Congo as well as smelters and refiners in Zambia, which process copper from Congo, and in China, where much of Congo’s cobalt is processed.

In January, China’s state-owned mining company CNMC launched Congo’s first large-scale smelter, the Lualaba Copper Smelter (LCS), capable of processing 400,000 tonnes of copper concentrate and producing around 120,000 tonnes of copper blister per year.

But even at full capacity, LCS cannot process all Congo’s copper. Congo’s total copper production was 765,000 tonnes in the first half of the year, the central bank said, up 13.4% year on year.

Miners whose copper concentrate is incompatible with LCS must “rapidly” develop their own smelting capacity on-site, the ministry statement said, adding all copper miners at the meeting accepted the importance of on-site processing.

Congo produced 38,816 tonnes of cobalt in the first half of 2020, up 6% year on year according to the central bank. Production of “3Ts” concentrates - tin ore cassiterite, tungsten ore wolframite, and tantalum ore coltan - plunged, however.

Glencore, the biggest industrial cobalt miner in Congo, declined to comment on the decision.

Old Mutual forecasts H1 loss as coronavirus crisis hammers volumes

(Reuters) - Old Mutual expects to post a loss in the first half of 2020, it said on Monday, as it deals with weak business volumes and a spike in business interruption insurance claims due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The insurer forecast a basic loss of between 128.5 and 154.2 South African cents per share for the six months ended June 30, versus earnings of 127.3 cents a year earlier.

The 175-year-old company expects results from operations to plunge by between 61% and 71% to 1.31 billion-1.76 billion rand ($44.56 million-$76.80 million) in the period.

Shares in Old Mutual were 4% lower by 0737 GMT, deepening a 35% drop they have seen since the start of 2020.

New business sales volumes were hurt as most of the group’s tied advisers were unable to sell during the lockdown period due to the partial closure of the branch network and lack of access to customers’ homes, worksites and branches, it said.

While lockdown restrictions have been eased and economic activity has somewhat resumed, sales levels remain below prior year levels, it said.

Old Mutual, whose primary operations are in South Africa, serves retail and corporate customers in 14 countries.

The company named Iain Williamson as its permanent chief executive last month after a year of upheaval caused by the exit of his predecessor Peter Moyo, who was fired over an alleged conflict of interest.

Insurers across the globe have been setting aside billions of dollars as they face steep claims resulting from coronavirus lockdowns, which have shut businesses and led to cancellations or postponements of major events including the Olympics.

Another aggravating factor has been higher credit spreads, which Old Mutual said have led to notable unrealised mark-to-market losses in the unlisted equity and credit portfolios of its investment business.

($1 = 17.0563 rand)

South Africa's rand firms, stocks rise in early trade

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The South African rand started the week on a firmer footing on Monday, as traders looked to the Federal Reserve’s annual Jackson Hole retreat for guidance on the outlook for U.S. monetary policy.

At 0737 GMT, the rand traded at 17.0475 per dollar, 0.57% firmer than its close on Friday.

The trend in U.S. interest rates will have a key influence on global prospects and investors’ appetite for risk, including for emerging market assets such as South Africa.

“All eyes are on the annual Jackson Hole symposium this week as markets continue to seek guidance on U.S. monetary policy as the U.S. economy remains strained,” said Bianca Botes, executive director at Peregrine Treasury Solutions in Pretoria.

“The broader themes of U.S.-China tensions, the U.S elections and a U.S. recovery all remain in play in the currency market.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will discuss monetary policy on Thursday at the opening day of the Kansas City Fed’s annual symposium.

Locally, traders await consumer price inflation figures on Wednesday as well as producer price inflation data on Thursday.

On the stock market, both the Top-40 index and the broader all-share were up more than 1% in early trade.

In fixed income, the yield on the benchmark government bond due in 2030 was flat at 9.265%.

Tunisia's incoming PM plans restructuring of economic ministries

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia’s premier-designate plans to gather the ministries of finance, investment and state property into a single department to be led by economist Ali Kooli under plans to revamp government and revive the economy, political sources said.

Hichem Mechichi, a political independent, is expected to announce his technocratic government’s 23 ministers within the next few days, the sources told Reuters on Sunday. Kooli is CEO of Arab Banking Corporation(ABC Bank) in Tunisia.

Mechichi was proposed by President Kais Saied last month to replace Elyes Fakhfakh, who quit over allegations of conflict of interest, deepening a political crisis at a time when international lenders are asking Tunis to make painful reforms.

Authorities have been struggling to defuse constant protests over widespread unemployment, lack of investment for development and poor health, electricity and water services.

Western countries have hailed Tunisia for its comparatively successful transition to democracy since the 2011 revolution that ended decades of autocratic rule.

Many Tunisians have grown frustrated since then over economic stagnation, a decline in living standards and decay in public services while political parties often seem more focused on staying in office instead of tackling problems.

Mechichi, 46, needs to form a government capable of winning a confidence vote in parliament by a simple majority by Wednesday or face dissolution of parliament by the president and another election, deepening instability.

Mechichi said earlier this month his government would focus on rescuing public finances and easing social hardships, saying that while political turmoil had dragged out, “some Tunisians have not found drinking water”.

Tunisia’s tourism-dependent economy shrank 21.6 pct in the second quarter of 2020, compared to the same period last year, due to the coronavirus crisis.

The government said last month it had asked four creditor countries to delay debt repayments, as it announced more pessimistic economic and budget forecasts for 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

South Africa seeks proposals for 2,000 MW of emergency power

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa has issued a request for proposals to procure 2,000 megawatts of emergency power, a step needed to help plug a severe energy shortage, the department of energy said on Saturday.

South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom has been forced to cut power regularly, hobbling economic growth in Africa’s most industrialised country as unreliable coal-fired plants struggle to generate enough electricity to meet demand.

Scheduled blackouts, known as load shedding, have resumed as South Africa has eased strict lockdown restrictions to contain the new coronavirus and has re-opened power-hungry industries, such as mining, in a bid to kick-start a weak economy.

During load shedding, which is meant to protect the national power grid from complete collapse, residents and businesses are typically left without electricity for a couple of hours at a time.

In December, South Africa issued a request for information (RFI) to source between 2,000 and 3,000 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity to be connected in the shortest time, at the least cost.

“All power procured under this programme is expected to be fully operational by not later than the end of June 2022,” the department said in Saturday’s statement, adding it expected to attract around 40 billion rand ($2.33 billion) of investment.

In February, Turkey’s Karpowership, one of the world’s largest suppliers of floating power plants, said it had submitted plans to provide “several” ships capable of alleviating the country’s power shortages.

The department of energy said on Saturday that bidders would need to conform to South Africa’s policies designed to broaden economic participation for the black majority and to make commitments to job creation and skills development.

($1 = 17.1452 rand)

Carmakers urge FTC to fight Qualcomm ruling

A group of carmakers and tech firms is urging US regulators to take further action against chipmaker Qualcomm over its sales practices.

Tesla, Ford, Honda, Daimler, Intel and MediaTek have asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to fight a recent court ruling in favour of Qualcomm.

Qualcomm has a practice of requiring customers to sign patent licence agreements before selling them chips.

Such practices have drawn accusations the firm is stifling competition.

Qualcomm, the world's biggest maker of mobile phone chips, has contested those claims. The BBC has approached the firm for comment on the carmakers' letter.

In January 2017, the FTC brought a complaint against Qualcomm in federal district court, accusing it of using "anticompetitive tactics" to maintain a monopoly in supplying semiconductors for mobile phones and other products.

The FTC said at the time that Qualcomm's "anticompetitive conduct" led to the WiMax standard for 4G being dropped, while LTE became adopted by the global mobile industry instead.

The US trade regulator stressed that Qualcomm's practices had harmed both "competition and consumers" and meant that mobile phone makers like Apple had to pay higher prices for Qualcomm chips.

In May 2019, a US district judge sided with the FTC and ruled that Qualcomm would need to change its patent licensing practices, but earlier this month, a panel of judges in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision.

"If allowed to stand, the panel's decision could destabilise the standards ecosystem by encouraging the abuse of market power acquired through collaborative standard-setting," the group of car companies and tech firms wrote in its letter.

Apple also sued Qualcomm in January 2017 and accused it of overcharging for its technology, and Qualcomm counter-sued, claiming that Apple stole its trade secrets, among other things. Eventually, both firms settled all lawsuits in April 2019.

The problem with patents

According to Glyn Moody, a journalist specialising in tech policy, the car industry is bothered by Qualcomm's patent practices because "cars are essentially becoming computers on wheels", as the industry continues to develop more advanced connected cars.

In the future, it is hoped that connected cars will use 5G processors to connect them to the internet. Carmakers have seen this battle over 4G and are worried it will cement the firm's position as the battle for dominance over 5G technology advances.

"This is a completely different world than the one [carmakers] are used to, so they're suddenly faced with dealing with computer standards and computer patents, which is a big problem for them as they don't have any. So if they have to start licensing this stuff, it's going to get expensive for them," Mr Moody told the BBC.

A patent is a licence that confers the owner the sole right to produce an invention, and the sole right to exclude others from making, using or selling that invention.

"The basic principle of patents is that you had an idea and people just pay you because you had an idea," he explained.

"The patent thing is a last resort strategy - when you don't know what to do, you basically claim people owe you money for patents even though you're not doing much for it."

Prof Mark Lemley of Stanford Law School is director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology. He has been following Qualcomm's various court cases for several years.

"Qualcomm made a commitment that it would licence its chips on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, because they wanted their chips to be included in the industry standards, and then they created a structure to avoid doing this," he said.

"I think they are in fact violating the antitrust laws."

'Patents are bad for innovation'

Prof Lemley thinks that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has misunderstood "the definition of antitrust law" in reversing the judgement against Qualcomm.

"It says for instance that it can ignore most of the district court findings because those findings show harm to downstream customers, and anti-trust law only concerns competitors," he explained.

"That's exactly backwards - for decades antitrust law has said we're not out to protect competitors, we're out to protect the competitive process and protect consumers."

Qualcomm's rival Intel has 5G connected trials with several carmakers and telecoms technology firms around the world

The FTC can appeal the decision, but if the carmakers and tech firms wish to sue Qualcomm, they would have to avoid Ninth Circuit courts covering the western coast of the US, as "courts within that circuit would feel bound by that decision".

"If they can't persuade the FTC to act, they will still have the opportunity to argue this is wrong and shouldn't be followed in other cases, but it becomes harder."

Mr Moody, who writes for Techdirt, a popular blog about technology legal challenges, stresses that patents are really bad for innovation.

"If you want to grow the market for connected cars, what you really want is open standards without patent encumbrances, so that you can have as many companies participating in the market as possible [to] drive innovation and reduce costs."--bbc

US and China hold 'constructive' trade talks after delay

The US and China have held talks over their so-called "phase-one" trade deal after the discussion was delayed earlier this month.

Both sides saw progress and are committed to the agreement, the US Trade Representative said.

Negotiations had been expected to take place on 15 August but were postponed by President Donald Trump.

In an election campaign speech earlier this month he said "I don’t want to talk to China right now."

The statement from the US Trade Representative also said the two parties had discussed intellectual property rights and other issues that have proved sticking points in negotiations over a phase-two deal.

"The parties addressed steps that China has taken to effectuate structural changes called for by the Agreement that will ensure greater protection for intellectual property rights, remove impediments to American companies in the areas of financial services and agriculture, and eliminate forced technology transfer."

The timing couldn't be more opportune.

Just ten days ago the US and China abruptly called off scheduled negotiations, designed to implement the "phase-one" trade deal.

No official reason was given for the postponement, although it had been reported it was to give Beijing more time to live up to its side of the bargain and to make more purchases of American grains and other commodities.

So now as President Trump heads into a week of the Republican National Convention, striking a deal with China on long-standing issues makes for good headlines, allowing him to say that only the Trump administration can get Beijing to the table.

The pressure on Chinese companies from Washington has also come at a time when President Trump wants to show that he is tough on China - in contrast to 'Beijing Biden', as he and his supporters have called Joe Biden, who they say if elected would be softer on China than Mr Trump.

Beijing is watching all of this political theatre in which it has become the central character, carefully - keeping cards close to its chest.

In a short statement from the Chinese, all that was said was the "two sides agreed to create conditions and atmosphere to continue pushing forward toward the implementation of the trade deal."

That strategy makes sense: Beijing is under no illusion that Washington's anti-China rhetoric will fade away any time soon.

Privately, Chinese companies have also told me whether it is a Trump or Biden administration, one thing's for sure: the pressure won't stop. It's the one thing both sides agree on.

The announcements came after US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Monday evening Washington time.

It marks a rare sign of cooperation between the world’s two largest economies as their relationship has become increasingly strained this year over a wide range of issues including data security, the coronavirus pandemic and Hong Kong.

In recent weeks Mr Trump has increased the pressure on Chinese technology firms with executive orders to ban the short video-sharing app TikTok and social media platform WeChat.

This week TikTok's owner ByteDance launched a legal challenge against the US president's decision, arguing that the move was motivated by politics, not national security.

Monday's talks had been expected to take place 10 day ago but after they were delayed Mr Trump said during an election campaign event in Arizona last Tuesday, that he had cancelled the meeting.

But not everything went completely smoothly with the latest negotiations. The US had to correct its statement as it misspelled Mr Liu's first name as Hu rather than He, something that was quickly picked up by Chinese social media.--bbc

Facebook agrees to pay France €106m in back taxes

Facebook has agreed to pay the French government €106m (£95.7m) in back taxes to settle a dispute over revenues earned in the country.

The payment covers the last decade of its French operations from 2009.

The social networking giant has also agreed to pay €8.46m in taxes on revenues in France for 2020 - 50% more than in 2019.

"We pay the taxes we owe in every market we operate," said a Facebook spokeswoman.

"We take our tax obligations seriously and work closely with tax authorities around the world to ensure compliance with all applicable tax laws and to resolve any disputes, as we have done with the French tax authorities."

The social networking giant did not share details of the tax dispute, but France has been pushing tech companies to pay more tax inside the country where it is generated.

Other tech giants like Google, Apple and Amazon have reached similar agreements with the French tax authorities.

Facebook said that since 2018, it had changed its sales structure so that "income from advertisers supported by our teams in France is registered in this country".

The BBC understands that Facebook paid a tax rate in France of 38% in 2019, which is above the statutory income tax rate of 33.3%.

In February, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said he recognised the public's frustration over the amount of tax paid by tech giants.

He added that Facebook accepted the fact it might have to pay more tax in Europe "in different places under a new framework" going forward, and backed plans by think tank the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to find a global solution to how to tax tech companies.

New digital taxes

Facebook has been accused of not paying its fair share of tax in the countries where it operates.

Last year, France announced a new digital services tax on multinational technology firms, but in January, the country said it would delay the tax until the end of 2020.

The new tax would have required global tech giants to make tax payments equivalent to 3% of their French revenues twice a year in April and in November.

In response to France delaying the new tax, the US said it would not impose retaliatory tariffs on $2.4bn (£1.8bn) of French goods, including champagne and cheese.

The OECD is working on a multilateral agreement on how tech giants should be taxed by governments.

In the UK, Facebook paid just £28.5m in corporation tax in 2018, despite generating a record £1.65bn in British sales.

The UK government implemented its own tax on technology firms in April. The Digital Services Tax (DST) requires digital services operating in the UK to pay a 2% tax in connection to social media services, internet search engines and online marketplaces.

HM Treasury has stressed that the tax will remain in place until a global solution to taxing tech giants is agreed.

In June, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and finance ministers in France, Italy and Spain signed a letter saying that tech giants, like Google, Amazon and Facebook, need "to pay their fair share of tax".

In the letter, obtained by the BBC, the four finance ministers told the US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, that the pandemic had increased the need for such levies.

"The current Covid-19 crisis has confirmed the need to deliver a fair and consistent allocation of profit made by multinationals operating without - or with little - physical taxable presence," the letter said.

"The pandemic has accelerated a fundamental transformation in consumption habits and increased the use of digital services, consequently reinforcing digital business models' dominant position and increasing their revenue at the expense of more traditional businesses."--bbc

TikTok calls Trump ban ‘political’ in lawsuit

Chinese video-sharing app TikTok has gone to court to challenge a ban imposed by US President Donald Trump.

President Trump's executive order prohibits transactions with TikTok's owner ByteDance from mid-September.

Officials in Washington are concerned that the firm could pass American users' data to the Chinese government, something ByteDance has denied doing.

Tiktok said the Trump administration's move was motivated by politics, not national security.

The popular social media app currently has more than 80 million users in the US.

In its lawsuit, Tiktok said it had taken "extraordinary" steps to safeguard US data in response to Washington's concerns and argued that the order is a misuse of national security law.

The order "is not based on a bona fide national emergency and authorises the prohibition of activities that have not been found to pose 'an unusual and extraordinary threat'," the firm said in the complaint, parts of which were shared on its website ahead of Monday's filing.

Mr Trump has said TikTok can continue to operate, if China's ByteDance sells it to a US company. He has also demanded that the government receive a cut from the transaction.

"The president's demands for payments have no relationship to any conceivable national security concern and serve only to underscore that defendants failed to provide plaintiffs with the due process required by law," the firm said.

Tiktok added in the filing in federal court in California: "The president's actions clearly reflect a political decision to campaign on an anti-China platform."

A TikTok spokesman declined to comment on the status of sale talks, saying the lawsuit was a "parallel" process.

On Friday, a group of Chinese-Americans filed a separate lawsuit against the president's similar ban on the social media app WeChat, which is owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent.

TikTok's users post short video clips on the platform on topics ranging from dance routines to international politics.

Its popularity exploded in recent months - particularly with teenagers - and it has been downloaded more than a billion times around the world.

But President Trump claims China is able to use the app to track the locations of federal employees, collect information for use in blackmail, or spy on companies.

The growth of mobile apps developed and owned by Chinese firms "threatens the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the US", said President Trump.

"This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information," he claims in his executive order.

President Trump's actions against TikTok and WeChat are the latest in a growing campaign against China ahead of the US presidential election in November.

Since taking office, he has been waging a trade war against China.

The US is not the only country to introduce blocks on TikTok. India has banned use of the app, and Australia is also considering taking action.

The app is viewed by some as being a key instrument in China's internal surveillance apparatus - requiring local users who have been accused of spreading malicious rumours to register a facial scan and voice print.—bbc

Rio Tinto bosses lose bonuses over Aboriginal cave destruction

Mining giant Rio Tinto has cut the bonuses of three executives over the destruction of two ancient caves in Australia.

In May, the world's biggest iron ore miner destroyed the sacred Aboriginal sites in Pilbara, Western Australia.

The company went ahead with the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters despite the opposition of Aboriginal traditional owners.

They were among the oldest historic sites in Australia.

The caves showed evidence of continuous human habitation dating back 46,000 years.

Rio Tinto's chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques will lose a total of £2.7m.

Chris Salisbury, chief executive of iron ore, and Simone Niven, group executive of corporate relations, will lose payouts of more than half a million pounds each.

The company, whose shares are listed in both London and Sydney, said it would provide more details on the bonus cuts in its 2020 remuneration report.

All three will remain in their roles.

"It is clear that no single individual or error was responsible for the destruction of the Juukan rockshelters," said Rio Tinto chairman Simon Thompson.

"But there were numerous missed opportunities over almost a decade and the company failed to uphold one of Rio Tinto's core values - respect for local communities and for their heritage."

The sites were above about eight million tonnes of high-grade iron ore, with an estimated value at the time of £75m.

"We will implement important new measures and governance to ensure we do not repeat what happened at Juukan Gorge and we will continue our work to rebuild trust with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people," said Mr Thompson.

The review found that while the company had obtained legal authority for the blasts, the decision fell short of the standards and internal guidance Rio Tinto had set for itself.

It also found that the firm had failed to properly engage with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama people, the traditional owners of the site.

'Devastating blow'

After the caves were destroyed, a PKKP representative, John Ashburton, said losing the site was a "devastating blow".

"There are less than a handful of known Aboriginal sites in Australia that are as old as this one... its importance cannot be underestimated," he said, according to the news agency Reuters.

"Our people are deeply troubled and saddened by the destruction of these rock shelters and are grieving the loss of connection to our ancestors as well as our land."

Mr Salisbury apologised for the company's actions at the time: "We are sorry for the distress we have caused."

"We pay our respects to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People," he added.

The PKKP Aboriginal Corporation declined to comment.--bbc

Mike Ashley buys long-time rival's business out of administration

Billionaire businessman Mike Ashley has bought the gym and fitness business from his rival and long-time critic Dave Whelan after they fell into administration.

Mr Ashley's Frasers Group said it would buy 46 leisure clubs and 31 retail outlets from DW Sports Fitness for £37m to merge with its own business.

Some 922 jobs out of a total of 1,700 across the business will be saved.

DW went bust earlier this month after its income evaporated during lockdown.

The firm owns 75 retail stores and 73 gyms in total, all of which had to close temporarily due to coronavirus restrictions.

Frasers, which also owns Lillywhites, Evans Cycles and House of Fraser, said the DW assets would "compliment (sic)" its own gym and fitness club portfolio, and would now be managed under its Everlast brand.

Susannah Streeter, senior markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said it was surprising the group had bought a gym business as they were still "grappling with the public's reluctance to train indoors".

"It's likely to be some time before people bound back to the gym in greater numbers and it can be ascertained whether this latest acquisition will have been the right choice for the company."

DW also owns the Fitness First gym chain which is unaffected by the administration.

Feud

Mr Ashley, who has been buying up struggling High Street brands over the last five years, has had a feud with DW Sports' owner, Mr Whelan, dating back two decades.

In 2000, Mr Whelan was famously reported to have told his younger rival from the south: "There is a club in the north, son, and you're not part of it."

Mr Ashley later reported Mr Whelan's JJB Sports business to the Office of Fair Trading, alleging it was involved in a price-fixing scheme over football shirts.

The OFT issued multi-million pound fines to those involved, including JJB.

Mr Whelan, 83, a former owner of Wigan Athletic football club, created DW Sports in 2009 when he bought 50 JJB Sports fitness clubs and the adjoining shops out of administration.

During the year ending 31 March 2019, DW made a loss of just over £20m.

Frasers itself has been struggling during the pandemic, calling its most recent financial year the "most challenging" in its history.

In the year to 26 April, its sales climbed slightly, but profits dived by 20% to £143.5m due to lockdown store closures.

Last week, it said that more of its House of Fraser department stores were "anticipated" to close, likely resulting in further job cuts.

It has already shut 10 of the 59 stores it bought out of administration in 2018.--bbc

Invest Wisely!

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INVESTORS DIARY 2020

Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

RTG

AGM

Virtual

24 August 2020 | 12pm

SeedCo International

AGM

Virtual (https://eagm.creg.co.zw/eagmzim/Login.aspx#)

26 August 2020 | 9am

SeedCo

AGM

Virtual (https://eagm.creg.co.zw/eagmzim/Login.aspx#)

28 August 2020 | 9am

Companies under Cautionary

Bindura Nickel Corporation

Padenga Holdings

Delta Corporation

Meikles Limited

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of Faith Capital (Pvt) Ltd for general information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. The information contained in this report has been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty is made or guarantee given as to its accuracy or completeness. All opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without notice. Securities or financial instruments mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors. Securities of emerging and mid-size growth companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any other member of Bulls ‘n Bears nor any other person, accepts any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this report or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Recipients of this report shall be solely responsible for making their own independent investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

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