Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 23 January 2020

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 23 January 2020

 


 

 


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ü  South African Airways should be saved, says ruling ANC

ü  African unicorn Jumia looks to services, platforms to halt slide

ü  S.Africa's Naspers raises $1.66 bln via Prosus share sale

ü  Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria to keep interest rates on hold this month

ü  Credit Suisse says Mozambique liable for $622 mln loan at heart of
bribery scandal

ü  Nigeria to resume mining in Zamfara state in Q1 -minister

ü  Shares in South Africa's Shoprite rise on sales growth

ü  South Africa annual consumer inflation rises to 4% y/y in December

ü  Sudan doesn't have foreign reserves to protect value of the pound -prime
minister

ü  Jeff Bezos hack: UN experts demand probe of Saudi crown prince

ü  Sainsbury's boss Mike Coupe to quit after six years

ü  PwC executive leaves firm after Dos Santos revelations

ü  Ted Baker investigation finds £58m phantom stock

ü  Fender Europe fined £4.5m for preventing online discounts

ü  Jaguar Land Rover to cut 500 jobs at its Halewood plant

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

South African Airways should be saved, says ruling ANC

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Heavily-indebted South African Airways (SAA) should
be retained as a national airline but needs substantial restructuring, a top
official in the governing African National Congress (ANC) party said on
Wednesday.

 

SAA is running out of cash after the government failed to provide 2 billion
rand ($138 million) of emergency funding it promised when the airline
entered a form of bankruptcy protection last month.

 

Government officials say they still want to give SAA the promised funds, but
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is insisting the transfer be done in a way
that avoids increasing the country’s budget deficit.

 

Time is running out for potential options that include the sale of state
assets.

 

“SAA should be retained as a national airline, which will require
substantial restructuring. The Cabinet should take the operational decisions
needed to achieve this,” ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule told reporters.

 

Magashule, one of the ANC’s top six officials, was among those who attended
a four-day meeting of ANC leaders to debate the economy and struggling state
firms that ended on Monday.

 

SAA is among several South African state entities, including power company
Eskom, that are mired in financial crisis after nearly a decade of
mismanagement.

 

State companies’ financial problems are seen as one of the biggest threats
to Africa’s most industrialised economy and have helped to push the
country’s credit rating to the brink of junk status.

 

On Tuesday, SAA said it had cancelled more than 20 domestic flights between
its Johannesburg hub and Cape Town and Durban this week, and 10
international flights to and from Munich, to save dwindling cash reserves.
[L8N29Q1RF]

 

‘WORKING FEVERISHLY’

The airline has not made a profit since 2011 and has received more than 20
billion rand in bailouts over the last three years.

 

Last year the government’s patience ran out.

 

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan allowed SAA to enter “business
rescue,” a bankruptcy protection process that shields the airline from
creditors’ demands while an independent adviser takes over.

 

Since then, SAA has burned through 2 billion rand of funds from lenders.

 

Finance Minister Mboweni told state broadcaster SABC in an interview at the
World Economic Forum in Davos that officials from his ministry were “working
feverishly” to secure the extra 2 billion rand SAA urgently needs.

 

“It’s very important that happens in a fiscally-neutral way because we don’t
have an appropriations bill that can find an additional 2 billion rand,” he
said. “We will try to support SAA as much as we can.”

 

($1 = 14.4705 rand)

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

African unicorn Jumia looks to services, platforms to halt slide

LAGOS (Reuters) - E-commerce unicorn Jumia Technologies, which last year
became Africa’s first tech firm to list in New York, will focus on proving
it can turn a profit after a bruising 2019, one of its co-founders told
Reuters.

 

Jeremy Hodara said the company aims to capitalise on its payment platform
and infrastructure network and to boost revenue from services for
third-party sellers on its online marketplace.

 

“We’re going to be extremely disciplined and very focused on our path to
profitability,” Hodara told Reuters on Tuesday at the company’s office in
Lagos.

 

Jumia, which hit a peak value of close to $4 billion, has seen its shares
fall by nearly 70% since its IPO last April.

 

They tumbled after short-seller Citron Research cast doubt on its sales
figures, which dealt a major blow to investor confidence. [nL5N22Q788]

 

Late last year, it shut its e-commerce service in Cameroon and Tanzania and
halted food delivery in Rwanda. Hodara declined to say whether more markets
could face the axe.

 

Its third-quarter adjusted EBITDA loss widened to 45 million euros, up
nearly 27% from a year earlier, and as it burned through cash, analysts
warned that raising more could be a challenge.

 

“Clearly it’s a bit uphill, but I think in the end if investors believe
they’re going to make money on the story, they’re going to buy into it,”
said Sarah Simon, senior analyst at Berenberg. “But they have to prove
themselves.”

 

Hodara declined to comment on whether Jumia planned to seek more outside
cash, but said that as the business scaled up, costs would come down.
Improvements to its algorithms were also helping, he said.

 

JumiaPay, the company’s online payment platform, is a key part of the growth
plan, Hodara said. The company is interested in making it and its logistics
network available to third-parties, even those not selling on its e-commerce
platform.

 

Jumia has tested this on a small scale, but said widespread access - where,
for example, an individual could drop a package at a Jumia hub in Lagos and
have it delivered to a friend in Nairobi - could come eventually.

 

“We have a very significant footprint of physical locations across the
continent where we can inject packages and parcels and distribute it. That’s
unique,” Hodara said.

 

In the near term, the company is also looking to increase the extra services
it offers to sellers, for a fee, in addition to the warehouse space,
marketing services and search engine optimisation it already offers.

 

“A fantastic world would be a world where you have zero commission as a
seller...and your entire monetisation is made out of additional services you
sell to the sellers,” he said.

 

 

 

S.Africa's Naspers raises $1.66 bln via Prosus share sale

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s Naspers Ltd said on Wednesday it
sold around 1.5 billion euros ($1.66 billion) worth of shares in Prosus, the
Amsterdam-listed subsidiary housing its internet empire.

 

Last year, Naspers spun off Prosus along with its most valuable asset - a
30% stake in Chinese internet giant Tencent.

 

The South African company said on Tuesday, when it announced the share sale,
that it had seen significant interest in Prosus from new investors and the
placing would offer “an opportunity to the broad investment community to get
exposure” to the stock.

 

The e-commerce group sold about 22 million Prosus shares, priced at 67.5
euros per share, on Tuesday via an accelerated bookbuild to institutional
investors. This increased Prosus’ free float to 27.5% from 26.2%, and
reduced Naspers’ holding to 72.5%.

 

All proceeds will go to Naspers, which will use the funds to buy back shares
over time, the company said.

 

The funds could acquire around 2.2% of Naspers’ stock, with a buyback at the
Naspers level representing better value for the group because the stock
trades at a discount to that of Prosus, Jefferies said in a note.

 

“It is not the (Prosus-level) buyback bulls had expected ... although
attention to discount/buybacks is good-mood music overall,” Jefferies said.

 

Naspers shares were up 1.88%, as of 0719 GMT.

 

($1 = 0.9022 euros)

 

 

 

Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria to keep interest rates on hold this month

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Central banks in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria will
leave interest rates stable in coming days as they keep an eye on inflation
and wait to see how an initial U.S.-China trade deal pans out, a Reuters
poll found on Wednesday.

 

Ghana’s central bank is expected to keep rates steady at 16.0%, Kenya’s at
8.5% and Nigeria’s at 13.5% this month. Nigeria - Africa’s biggest economy -
is due to announce its decision on Friday, while the other two will later
this month.

 

Interest rates in Africa, which ranks second in size and population among
the world’s continents, remain too high for consumers and businesses to
access, economists say, although the South African Reserve Bank surprised
with a cut last week.

 

Citi expects the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to continue unconventional
policy measures, such as the aggressive use of open market operations
(OMOs), and the cash reserve ratio (CRR) to control liquidity. The CRR is
currently 22.5%.

 

“A temporary truce in the U.S.-China trade war and likely continued policy
accommodation by global central banks would likely enable monetary policy
moves by Africa’s major central banks to be more effective this year,” said
Rafiq Raji, chief economist at Macroafricaintel.

 

“With reforms on the fiscal side in tandem, the continent would likely
record better economic outcomes this year.”

 

Citi also expects the CBN to attract portfolio inflows to help maintain
naira stability, while increasing pressure on banks to boost lending to the
private sector.

 

Nigeria’s economy is seen growing 2.5% this year and 2.8% in 2021. Along
with South Africa, and major oil exporter Angola, Nigeria never bounced back
strongly from a global commodity price slump around 2015.

 

Nigeria’s central bank is not the only one on the continent gearing policy
to give consumers more access to credit.

 

Kenya imposed a cap in 2016 to limit the level of interest commercial banks
charge customers. But the cap meant banks refused to lend to riskier clients
and borrowing actually fell, so the legislation was repealed. [nL8N27N4C5]

 

Razia Khan, head of Africa research for Standard Chartered, wrote that 2020
growth would receive a boost from the removal of the loan rate cap in late
2019.

 

“Although existing bank loans will not reprice higher, we expect a steady
acceleration in private-sector credit growth given that banks are now better
able to price for risk,” she said.

 

The latest Reuters poll expects Kenya’s economy to grow 5.9% this year and
5.7% next.

 

In Ghana, the central bank already did some heavy lifting in easing rates
over the past five years after a gruelling International Monetary Fund
austerity programme.

 

Its benchmark rate was in recent years one of the highest on the continent,
touching a high of 26% in 2016.

 

The poll suggests rates will fall 100 basis points to 15.0% this year while
the economy expands 6.2%, it grew 5.6% in the third quarter. [nL8N28S2FZ]

 

Still, analysts say a step towards better trade relations between economies
on the continent promises to bear fruit if infrastructure improves,
especially with the recent launch of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area
(AfCFTA) agreement.

 

“Investor confidence in Africa continues to improve on the back of increased
regional trade integration, reflected by the ratification of AfCFTA,
infrastructure development and the improvement in financial and
communication services uptake,” said Vincent Phiri, economist at NKC African
Economics.

 

“The increase in investment opportunities within sub-Saharan Africa should
entice more foreign investor appetite.”

 

 

 

Credit Suisse says Mozambique liable for $622 mln loan at heart of bribery
scandal

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Credit Suisse has hit back against Mozambique in a
case in Britain’s High Court, arguing a government guarantee for a $622
million loan - part of a $2 billion debt scandal - is valid and that it is
entitled to claim damages.

 

Mozambique sued the investment bank last year, alongside a number of other
defendants, in a bid to cancel the guarantee and seek compensation for
losses related to the debt saga, which tipped its economy into crisis.

 

Credit Suisse rejected Mozambique’s arguments in its defence papers and
submitted a counter claim, dated Jan. 21, requesting the court declare the
guarantee binding and arguing it is entitled to seek interest and damages,
namely the money it says it is owed.

 

“The claims against CSI and CSLB are denied in their entirety,” the papers
said, referring to Credit Suisse International and its London branch. “CSI
and CSLB are not liable to pay any damages, compensation or indemnity.”

 

Credit Suisse and Russia’s VTB bank provided or helped arrange financing,
granted in 2013 and 2014, for a project spanning tuna fishing, maritime
security and shipyard development, which U.S. authorities now say was an
elaborate front for a bribery and kickback scheme. Hundreds of millions of
dollars went missing.

 

Mozambique is trying to claim hefty sums that the country has paid or still
owes under the agreements, which also included an $850 million eurobond, now
restructured, and a $535 million loan from VTB, as well as compensation for
economic losses.

 

A series of court cases spanning three continents has ensnared three former
Credit Suisse bankers, Mozambique’s former finance minister and its former
president’s son. However, Mozambique’s action against Credit Suisse is the
only one to target the bank itself.

 

The country says Credit Suisse employees, and therefore the bank, knew that
large bribes were being paid and that guarantees for the loans exceeded
limits set out in law, or were wilfully blind to it.

 

Mozambique’s Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.

 

VTB earlier this month lodged its own lawsuit in Britain’s High Court suing
a Mozambique state-owned company over the $535 million loan.

 

All of the lending for the project was guaranteed by Mozambique’s
government, though some of it was not disclosed. The International Monetary
Fund and other donors cut off support to Mozambique when the additional
borrowing came to light in 2016, triggering a currency collapse and debt
default it is yet to fully recover from.

 

 

 

Nigeria to resume mining in Zamfara state in Q1 -minister

LONDON (Reuters) - Nigeria will lift a ban on mining in Zamfara state by the
end of March after the government deployed a surveillance team to stifle
illegal activity in the northwestern region, the minister of mines and steel
development said.

 

The government suspended operations in April on concerns that illegal mining
was connected to a surge in banditry in the state that was the worst hit by
a wave of violence that killed dozens of people and displaced thousands.

 

“The ban is about to be lifted because a lot of genuine investors who want
to come (to invest) into Zamfara state,” minister Olamilekan Adegbite told
Reuters during a visit to London, adding this would happen “within the first
quarter”.

 

“When the ban came into effect there were a lot of investors who were
already putting in money had to stop ... they are anxious to realise their
investments.” Adegbite said the government had deployed a “surveillance
team” to quell unrest and “discourage illegal activity”.

 

But the United Nation’s refugee agency said in September that worsening
violence caused by organised armed groups had displaced about 40,000 people
since the beginning of 2019.

 

In June, an armed group killed at least 34 people in attacks on villages.

 

Nigeria has largely untapped deposits of minerals including gold, nickel,
tin and zinc. Some 80 percent of mining in Nigeria is carried out on an
artisanal basis and gold in Zamfara is routinely smuggled out of the country
illegally to neighbouring Niger and Togo.

 

About 500 kg of gold per month is illegally smuggled out of Nigeria,
Adegbite said. At current prices, this is worth about $25 million and
implies millions in lost tax revenue and unpaid royalties.

 

A Reuters analysis published in April found that billions of dollars’ worth
of gold is being smuggled out of Africa every year through the United Arab
Emirates, a gateway to other markets.

 

The government has granted refining licences to local firms Kian Smith Trade
& Co and Dukia Gold, which will have a combined capacity of 37 tonnes per
year, said Adegbite. Nigeria’s central bank would purchase some of the gold.

 

 

 

Shares in South Africa's Shoprite rise on sales growth

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Shoprite shares rose almost 5% on Wednesday after
it reported robest sales growth driven by its core South African
supermarkets business, even as a tough economy weighs on consumer finances.

 

The retailer, which also runs Checkers and Usave chains in its home market,
has managed to shrug off high levels of unemployment, rising living costs
and slow growth in South Africa that have hurt many consumer-focused firms.

 

It said it had grown its total sale of merchandise by 7% to 81.2 billion
rand ($5.62 billion) in the six months to Dec. 29, with its South African
supermarkets business growing sales by 9.8%.

 

“All three supermarket brands... traded well in a tough market,” it said in
an operational update, adding that its liquor business had also grown sales
by 20.5%.

 

Its shops outside of South Africa however continued to be hurt by currency
devaluations and volatility in markets like Angola, Zambia and Nigeria, and
as a result its non-South African business reported a 3.1% decline in sales.

 

Sales in its furniture division also dropped by 2.7% following store
closures and, it said, scheduled power cuts by South Africa’s ailing power
utility Eskom, which is struggling to keep the lights on amid severe
financial woes.

 

Its shares were up 4.6% by 0950 GMT.

 

($1 = 14.4511 rand)

 

 

 

South Africa annual consumer inflation rises to 4% y/y in December

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s headline consumer price inflation
quickened to 4.0% year-on-year in December, from 3.6% in November, data from
Statistics South Africa showed on Wednesday.

 

On a month-on-month basis, price growth was 0.3% in December, versus 0.1% in
the previous month.

 

Core inflation, which excludes prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages,
petrol and energy, fell to 3.8% year-on-year in December compared with 3.9%
in November, while on a month-on-month basis it was at 0.2%, from 0.1% in
the prior month.

 

 

 

Sudan doesn't have foreign reserves to protect value of the pound -prime
minister

CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said on Tuesday
that his country does not have foreign currency to protect the value of the
pound and that there is a “structural deficiency.”

 

The dollar was selling for 100 Sudanese pounds in cash transactions on
Monday compared with 88 pounds a week ago, as the gap with the official rate
of 45 to the dollar continues to widen.

 

Hamdok said the dollar was selling for 95 pounds on Tuesday.

 

The country’s ruling sovereign council and Cabinet agreed the budget in
December - the first since the toppling of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir,
whose final years in power were marked by deep economic woes.

 

The central bank has been printing Sudanese pounds equivalent to $200
million a month to buy and export gold to finance subsidised commodities,
mainly fuel and wheat, which has led to “explosive inflation and near
freefall of the exchange rate in the parallel market”, the finance ministry
said in a 2020 budget statement in December.

 

Sudan has strategic commodities reserves sufficient for more than a month,
he added in a televised interview.

 

Hamdok also said his government is working on a new central bank law, adding
that the central bank should be under the authority of the Cabinet, not the
sovereign council.

 

“Sudan’s bank is one of the legacies of the former regime and has turned
into a commercial bank, trading in gold,” he said in an television
interview.

 

“We are working to develop a new law for the Bank of Sudan,” he added,
referring to the central bank.

 

Sudan’s economy was hit hard when the south of the country seceded in 2011,
costing it three-quarters of its oil output, a crucial source of foreign
currency.

 

 

 

Jeff Bezos hack: UN experts demand probe of Saudi crown prince

UN human rights experts have demanded an immediate investigation into
allegations Saudi Arabia's crown prince hacked Amazon boss Jeff Bezos's
phone.

 

They said Mohammed bin Salman should also be investigated for "continuous,
direct and personal efforts to target perceived opponents".

 

A message from a phone number used by the prince has been implicated in a
breach of Mr Bezos's data.

 

The kingdom's US embassy has denied the "absurd" story.

 

But the independent UN experts - Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur on
summary executions and extrajudicial killings, and David Kaye, special
rapporteur on freedom of expression - said the crown prince's "possible
involvement" had to be investigated.

 

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Mr Bezos - who also owns the Washington
Post - worsened after Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi
government and one of the newspaper's staff, was murdered in the Saudi
consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

 

Saudis sentence five over Khashoggi murder

How Saudi Arabia's crown prince rose to power

The killing took place months after the alleged cyber-hack took place.

 

Mr Bezos's phone was hacked after he received a WhatsApp message in May 2018
that was sent from the crown prince's personal account, according to the
Guardian newspaper, which broke the story.

 

An investigation into the data breach reportedly found that the
billionaire's phone began secretly sharing huge amounts of data after he
received the encrypted video file.

 

What did the experts say?

In a statement, Ms Callamard and Mr Kaye said: "The information we have
received suggests the possible involvement of the crown prince in
surveillance of Mr Bezos, in an effort to influence, if not silence, the
Washington Post's reporting on Saudi Arabia."

 

It said the allegations reinforced "other reporting pointing to a pattern of
targeted surveillance of perceived opponents and those of broader strategic
importance to the Saudi authorities".

 

Was Jeff Bezos the weak link in cyber-security?

Saudi Arabia accused over Bezos hack

What happened to Jamal Khashoggi?

The experts linked the case heavily to the Khashoggi murder, saying the Post
reporter's phone had been hacked at the same time as Mr Bezos's.

 

They said there had been "a massive, clandestine online campaign against Mr
Bezos and Amazon, apparently targeting him principally as the owner of the
Washington Post".

 

The statement also called for "rigorous control" of the "unconstrained
marketing, sale and use of spyware".

 

How did the alleged hack take place?

The UN experts cited "a 2019 forensic analysis of Mr Bezos' iPhone that
assessed with 'medium to high confidence' that his phone was infiltrated on
1 May 2018 via an MP4 video file sent from a WhatsApp account utilised
personally by Mohammed bin Salman".

 

Media captionMohammed bin Salman is asked: "Did you order the murder of
Jamal Khashoggi?"

The crown prince and Mr Bezos had reportedly exchanged numbers a month
earlier and within hours of the MP4's arrival, there was a "massive and
unprecedented exfiltration of data" from Mr Bezos's phone.

 

The analysis cited by the experts says the crown prince then "sent WhatsApp
messages to Mr Bezos... in which he allegedly revealed private and
confidential information about Mr Bezos' personal life".

 

Private information was then leaked to the American tabloid, the National
Enquirer. In February 2019 Mr Bezos accused it of "extortion and blackmail"
after it published text messages between him and his girlfriend, former Fox
television presenter Lauren Sánchez.

 

A month earlier he and MacKenzie Bezos, his wife of 25 years, had announced
that they planned to divorce having been separated for a "long period".

 

What have the Saudis and Bezos said?

The Twitter account of the kingdom's US embassy issued an outright denial of
the allegations against the crown prince.

 

"We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the
facts out," the embassy said.

 

Mr Bezos has made no response to the UN experts' statement, but did tweet an
image of himself with Khashoggi's fiancée, along with the tag #Jamal:

 

A hack such as this was "horribly easy to do once the vulnerability involved
had been discovered," says computer expert Prof Alan Woodward. The seemingly
innocent video would have contained malware that surreptitiously installed
itself on the targeted phone.

 

>From there it would have been possible for the hacker to gain access to all
the functions of the phone, from the GPS locator, to the camera, to the
banking facilities and messaging apps.

 

Such access is made possible via bugs in the code and, last year, a security
flaw in WhatsApp was revealed that would have allowed hackers to hide
malicious code inside video files.

 

Phone hacking is, says Prof Woodward, all too common in certain countries
that are keen to keep an eye on journalists, dissidents and other activists
perceived to be a threat to their regimes. So-called stalkerware is
available off the shelf to these governments.

 

But what about the involvement of the Saudi crown prince? Was it really him
who installed the malware? It is unlikely that he set the phone up himself.
So was his phone also being spied on? Or was he simply a vessel being used
by the Saudi authorities?

 

The plot thickens.

 

Timeline of Bezos-Saudi dispute

Jun 2017 - Jamal Khashoggi flees Saudi Arabia and goes into self-imposed
exile in the US

Sept 2017 - Khashoggi starts writing for the Washington Post, criticising
the polices of Mohammed bin Salman

Apr 2018 - Mr Bezos attends a dinner with the crown prince and they exchange
numbers

1 May 2018 - Mr Bezos receives an encrypted MP4 video file allegedly sent
from the crown prince's personal WhatsApp account. Mr Bezos's data leaks out

2 Oct 2018 - Jamal Khashoggi is murdered inside the Saudi consulate in
Istanbul

Nov 2018-Feb 2019 - Prince Mohammed sends Mr Bezos WhatsApp messages
allegedly revealing private and confidential information about Mr Bezos'
personal life

Jan 2019 - The National Enquirer publishes an exposé of Mr Bezos'
extramarital affair with Lauren Sanchez

Feb 2019 - Mr Bezos accuses the National Enquirer of "extortion and
blackmail". Its publisher says it acted lawfully

Jan 2020 - UN experts call for an inquiry into the crown prince's alleged
involvement in the hack--BBC

 

 

 

Sainsbury's boss Mike Coupe to quit after six years

Sainsbury's has announced its chief executive Mike Coupe will retire from
the supermarket group.

 

Mr Coupe has led Sainsbury's for almost six years, during which time he
oversaw a failed attempt to merge with rival supermarket Asda.

 

The head of Sainsbury's retail and operations, Simon Roberts, will take over
from Mr Coupe.

 

"This has been a very difficult decision for me personally," Mr Coupe said.

 

"There is never a good time to move on, but as we and the industry continue
to evolve, I believe now is the right time for me to hand over to my
successor."

 

Mr Coupe will step down as chief executive at the end of May and retire from
Sainsbury's in July.

 

Job cuts

His exit was announced a day after Sainsbury's said it was cutting
"hundreds" of management roles to reduce costs.

 

It said the cuts were largely due to its integration of Argos, the catalogue
store that it bought in 2016.

 

Mr Roberts, who is due to take over on 1 June, has been involved in
integrating Sainsbury's and Argos. He was also the former president of
retailer Boots UK.

 

In a statement, Mr Coupe said he was "confident" his chosen successor was
"the right choice for our customers, our colleagues and our investors".

 

Mr Coupe will continue to collect his £962,000 a year salary until he
leaves. His successor will begin the role with a smaller £875,000 pay
cheque.

 

'We're in the money'

Mr Coupe gained a reputation for being deal-hungry after he successfully led
talks to buy Argos and Nectar, the loyalty-card scheme used by Sainsbury's.

 

But other deals were less fruitful - most notably the proposed £12bn merger
with Asda.

 

News of the deal sent the supermarket's share price up by as much as 20% and
Mr Coupe had appeared confident when it was announced in 2018.

 

He was even caught on camera singing "We're in the money" ahead of a media
interview to discuss the merger.

 

But Mr Coupe's optimism was short-lived. And, in April last year, the UK
competition regulator blocked the merger.

 

"Just when you thought being caught on camera singing 'We're in the money'
was a low point, the Asda merger subsequently didn't happen and Coupe was
left scrabbling for a plan B," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ
Bell.

 

He said Mr Coupe "may unfortunately be remembered for his singing rather
than retailing".

 

"He did the dance with Argos and Nectar but tripped up with attempts to
marry Asda," he said.

 

In the past year, the value of Sainsbury's shares has fallen by 22%. On
Wednesday, its share price fell by 1.3% to 210p.

 

Mike Coupe took the reins at J Sainsbury at what should have been an
auspicious moment.

 

A few months earlier Philip Clarke had been forced out as chief executive of
Tesco, and Sainsbury's biggest commercial rival was in upheaval. Not only
had Mr Clarke's chaotic reign left internal morale and profits at a low ebb,
but there was a looming accounting scandal. All should have been set fair
for Mr Coupe, but the reality was much tougher.

 

There was a new competitive threat in the shape of Aldi and Lidl,
German-owned discounters that have steadily taken market share in the UK.
Morrisons was beginning its revival, and once Dave Lewis was established at
Tesco it quickly got back into its stride. Sainsbury's was again in a
fiercely competitive battle, squeezed by large mainstream rivals and upstart
competitors.

 

Mr Coupe's answer was to try to diversify the company's sources of income, a
plan that became real with the successful purchase of Argos. He then thought
he could add scale through a merger with Asda. The time was right - Asda's
American owner, Walmart, was eager to sell, and the UK competition regulator
had approved Tesco's purchase of the wholesaler Booker.

 

A deal would have created a chain big enough to frighten Tesco, but Mr Coupe
misjudged the situation. The Competition and Markets Authority rejected the
tie-up in brutal fashion, leaving many investors wondering how the board
could ever have thought it would go through.

 

>From that moment the clock was ticking for Mr Coupe, and his departure is
not a surprise. His successor, Simon Roberts, inherits the same basic
problem - how to make Sainsbury's stand out in the crowded middle ground of
the UK grocery market.

 

Mr Coupe's exit did not come as a shock to Maureen Hinton, a retail analyst
at GlobalData.

 

She thought the timing had been planned to allow for a period of stability
at the supermarket following the failed Asda deal.

 

"The fact that they've got a candidate to take over makes it seem much more
like it's been planned," she told the BBC.

 

She said Sainsbury's had probably timed the announcement to give customers,
staff and investors a period of "stability" after the failure of the Asda
tie-up.

 

She expected Mr Roberts would try to make further cost cuts and attract more
shoppers, although she said some believed the grocery market was becoming
saturated.

 

"There's only so much we can eat," she said.--BBC

 

 

 

PwC executive leaves firm after Dos Santos revelations

A top PWC executive has left the firm after revelations of PwC links with
Isabel Dos Santos, who is under investigation for corruption.

 

PWC declined to comment on the departure and says it has launched its own
investigation.

 

Ms Dos Santos, one of Africa's richest women, has said the allegations are a
part of a political witch-hunt.

 

The BBC reported how PWC helped Ms Dos Santos with auditing, consultancy and
tax advice for her companies.

 

Ms Dos Santos got access to lucrative deals involving land, oil, diamonds
and telecoms when her father was president of Angola, a southern African
country rich in natural resources.

 

More than 700,000 leaked documents about the billionaire's business empire
obtained by BBC Panorama show how she and her husband were allowed to buy
valuable state assets in a series of deals.

 

The former president's daughter has made the UK her home and owns expensive
properties in central London.

 

She is under criminal investigation by the authorities in Angola for
corruption and her assets in the country have been frozen.

 

'Very serious allegations'

Jaime Esteves was the head of tax at PWC in charge of Portugal, Angola and
Cape Verde before leaving the firm.

 

PwC in Portugal, Angola and Cape Verde has 1,500 staff and 42 partners, with
26 partners in Lisbon, 12 in Oporto and 4 in Luanda.

 

Africa's richest woman 'ripped off her country'

EuroBic bank cuts ties with Africa's richest woman

The auditing firm told the BBC: "In response to the very serious and
concerning allegations that have been raised, we immediately initiated an
investigation and are working to thoroughly evaluate the facts and conclude
our inquiry.

 

"We have also taken action to terminate any ongoing work for entities
controlled by members of the dos Santos family.

 

"We will be working with our member firms to ensure adherence to the
policies we have in place for taking on and maintaining all client
relationships and will examine our policies for any necessary
improvements."--BBC

 

 

 

Ted Baker investigation finds £58m phantom stock

Fashion retailer Ted Baker has said it overstated the value of its stock by
£58m, double previous estimates.

 

Last month it said the figure was up to £25m. The new estimate comes after a
review by accountants Deloitte.

 

Last year, former boss Ray Kelvin stepped down over misconduct claims, while
sales and profits have tumbled.

 

The company did not elaborate on how it came to miscalculate the stock's
value, which it has previously said is mainly clothing.

 

The issue was also mentioned in Ted Baker's last annual report based on
information from its auditors, KPMG.

 

The news from Deloitte's investigation will be embarrassing for rival KPMG
as it had said it had uncovered mis-statements but concluded they were too
small to affect the fashion label's accounts.

 

More details will be forthcoming when it published its full-year results.

 

Ted Baker probes £25m stock inventory blunder

The problems are the latest setback in a difficult couple of years for the
firm.

 

In March, Mr Kelvin - who had been chief executive since the company's
launch in 1988 - resigned over claims he presided over a culture of "forced
hugging". He has denied all allegations of misconduct.

 

The company has also seen its sales, profits and share price tumble. In
October, the retailer reported a £23m loss for the six months to 10 August,
down from a £24.5m profit last year.--BBC

 

 

 

Fender Europe fined £4.5m for preventing online discounts

Guitar maker Fender has been fined £4.5m for illegally preventing online
discounts on its products in the UK.

 

Fender Europe required sellers to set a minimum online price, breaking
competition rules, the Competition and Markets Authority said.

 

This meant that customers could not shop around for the lowest price, the
regulator said.

 

Fender said it cooperated with the investigation and has changed its
practices.

 

The company, founded in California in 1946, is famous for its guitars, which
have been the choice of musicians ranging from Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix
and David Gilmour.

 

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its investigation concerned
conduct between 2013 and 2018,

 

The fine is the largest penalty the regulator has ever handed down for such
behaviour. It follows a £3.7m penalty for keyboard maker Casio Electronics
for similar practices.

 

"It is absolutely essential that companies do not prevent people from being
able to shop around to buy their products at the best possible price," said
Andrea Coscelli, the CMA chief executive.

 

"This is especially important for expensive and popular items like guitars,
and so Fender's actions could have had a big impact on customers."

 

Guitars account for a "significant" part of the UK's £440m in total
instrument sales - 40% of which take place online, the regulator said.

 

Those statistics make it "even more important that musicians have access to
competitive prices online," the regulator said.

 

A Fender Europe spokesman said: "As a result of the investigation, we have
taken additional steps to enhance our compliance procedures and our new EMEA
executive team will continue to rigorously monitor the business' adherence
to antitrust and competition laws."

 

Fender Europe, based in West Sussex, was fined £25,000 in March after an
employee hid notebooks related to the CMA investigation.

 

That employee no longer works for the company.--BBC

 

 

 

Jaguar Land Rover to cut 500 jobs at its Halewood plant

Jaguar Land Rover is cutting 500 jobs at its Halewood plant on Merseyside,
the company has confirmed.

 

Workers were told the losses were a result of changing the shift patterns
that will come into effect from April.

 

The losses are a mixture of permanent employees and agency staff, said the
union Unite, which described it as a "fresh blow to the car industry".

 

The car maker said last year it planned to cut 4,500 jobs globally as part
of a £2.5bn plan to reverse losses.

 

Jaguar has about 4,000 permanent employees at Halewood and told staff in a
statement the losses would affect about 10% of its total workforce when it
moves from three shifts to two a day.

 

'Further blow'

The union said it understood the redundancies were a result of ongoing
economic uncertainty, with slower than forecast rates of growth for the
Evoque and Discovery Sport models produced at the factory.

 

"This is a further blow to the UK car industry and to our members at
Halewood," said Unite's national officer Des Quinn.

 

"Unite will be ensuring that the commitment to limit job losses to voluntary
redundancies is fully honoured.

 

"Until the government ensures there is long-term frictionless trade and no
tariffs with the European Union, the UK's car industry will continue to
experience severe challenges."

 

The company said in a statement: "This is about efficiency, not loss of
volume.

 

"Through its ongoing transformation programme, Jaguar Land Rover is taking
action to optimise performance, enable sustainable growth and safeguard the
long-term success of our business.

 

"Central to the Halewood manufacturing strategy, we are moving from a
three-shift to a 'two-plus' shift pattern from April 2020.

 

"This will deliver significant operating efficiencies at the plant, while
enabling us to meet the growing customer demand for our new Range Rover
Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport."

 

Employees currently work early, late and night shifts - under the 'two-plus'
pattern, this will change to just early and late shifts, the firm said, with
capacity to increase production when required.

 

Applications for voluntary redundancy will open in early February with
people expected to leave on 10 April.--BBC

 

 

 

 

 


 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2020

 


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
companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than
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whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this report or its
contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Recipients of this
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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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