Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 08 July 2020

Wed Jul 8 05:22:27 CAT 2020

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 08 July 2020

 <http://www.nedbank.co.zw/> 

ü  Parts of South Africa's Edcon set for sale to Durban-based retailer

ü  South Africa faces battle to rein in spending - Fitch

ü  South Africa's Massmart says 1,800 Game jobs at risk

ü  Ivory Coast's 2020 growth seen sliding to 0.8% due to pandemic

ü  South Sudan's central bank cuts benchmark interest rate to 10%

ü  Angola agrees to comply fully with oil cuts after OPEC pressure, sources
say

ü  S.Africa consumer confidence crashes to 35-year low in second quarter -
survey

ü  Kibali's $500 million will be cleared to leave Congo 'very soon' -
Barrick CEO

ü  Kenya central bank to hold its rate-setting meeting on July 29

ü  South African central bank reduces bond purchases to 5 bln rand in June

ü  Eurozone recession 'will be deeper than forecast'

ü  Deutsche Bank faces $150m fine for Jeffrey Epstein ties

ü  Microsoft and Zoom join Hong Kong data 'pause'

ü  Coronavirus: Japan's household spending slumps at record rate

ü  Dakota Access Pipeline: Judge suspends use of key oil link

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

Parts of South Africa's Edcon set for sale to Durban-based retailer

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Parts of South African retail chain Edcon are
likely to be sold to private equity-backed Retailability Ltd, administrators
in charge of its restructuring said.

Best known as owner of the 91-year-old department store chain Edgars and
budget clothing retailer Jet, Edcon is one of South Africa’s oldest retail
groups but applied for a form of bankruptcy protection in April.

“Retailability plans to utilise Edgars’ unique value proposition, and large
attractive target market, to ensure the growth and continuity,” Edcon’s
administrators said in the statement, which was issued on Monday.

Edcon entered a process called business rescue in South Africa after it
failed to generate enough revenues as a coronavirus lockdown shut its stores
across the country.

Its administrators said a transaction with Retailability would save a
“significant” number of jobs.

Piers Marsden and Lance Schapiro of Matuson Associates, administrators of
the process, said last month that they had identified 15 parties interested
in picking up all or parts of debt-laden Edcon.

The statement did not say what Retailability would pay and which parts of
Edcon the Durban-based retail chain, which bought Edcon’s young women’s
fashion division, Legit, in 2016 for 637 million rand ($37.29 million),
would buy.

Matuson Associates and Retailability did not immediately respond to an email
seeking comment.

Retailability, which runs two other 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 if its low to
middle income target market exists.

The administrators said they are in advanced stages to sell other parts of
Edcon, adding the deals will close by September.

($1 = 17.0802 rand)

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

South Africa faces battle to rein in spending - Fitch

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s plans to rein in government spending
will be hard to implement due to low economic growth, ratings agency Fitch
said on Tuesday, adding the country had a poor track record of delivering
debt and spending cuts.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said in an emergency budget in June that the
government deficit would widen to 14.6% of gross domestic product in the
2020/21 fiscal year, while debt would jump to 81.8% of GDP.

However, the Treasury stuck with its promise of around 230 billion rand
($13.5 billion) of spending cuts in the short term, a target set in February
before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This has been criticised by unions and some economists, who believe the
government should ramp up spending to drag the economy out of recession.

“They have had previous plans to achieve a primary balance, which would have
required smaller adjustments, and those have been abandoned. So the track
record of following up on such plans isn’t really there,” said Fitch’s head
of Africa sovereign ratings Jan Friederich during a webinar.

Fitch downgraded South Africa’s credit rating deeper into “junk” territory
in April, citing the lack of a clear path towards debt stabilisation and
higher economic growth. The other top ratings firms, Moody’s and S&P, also
rate the country at sub-investment grades.

South Africa's Massmart says 1,800 Game jobs at risk

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa retailer Massmart Holdings Ltd has
started talks with unions to cut up to 1,800 jobs at the company’s
struggling Game stores as constrained spending and the new coronavirus weigh
on performance, the company said on Tuesday.

Majority-owned by Walmart and operator of supermarkets and wholesalers such
as Makro and Game, Massmart said talks began after it assessed the
efficiency of the stores.

Massmart said it was implementing a new operating model at Game after its
“indifferent performance in the 2019 financial year” and the negative impact
of trading restrictions because of the pandemic on sales.

The company said it would not close any of its Game stores, however.

Game, a general merchandise chain, has been a drag on group profit as
financially-constrained customers prioritise spending on non-durables, such
as food, over spending on goods such as appliances.

Massmart earlier in the year said it would cut costs and restructure into
wholesale and retail units, but the impact of the virus has accelerated some
of the turnaround strategies.

The group lost 4.6 billion rand ($268 million) in sales during a strict
nine-week lockdown.

The potential job cuts would represent around 3% of Massmart’s total
workforce.

Job cuts are a politically-sensitive issue in South Africa, where
unemployment stands at around 30%.

Game joins some of the country’s big firms such as steel producer
ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd, food producer Tiger Brands and third-biggest
telecom operator Cell C, which have already announcing plans to cut jobs.

Ivory Coast's 2020 growth seen sliding to 0.8% due to pandemic

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast’s gross domestic product growth is expected
to slow to 0.8% in 2020 compared to a previous forecast of 7.2% if the
coronavirus pandemic continues to the end the year, Finance Minister Adama
Coulibaly has said.

“The initial GDP growth expected at 7.2% in 2020 could tumble to 0.8% if the
crisis continues until the end of the year,” Coulibaly told a closed-door
business meeting on Monday.

He said the budget deficit in the world’s top cocoa grower was expected to
widen due to the crisis, which has made it difficult for the government to
respect its target of 3% of GDP.

South Sudan's central bank cuts benchmark interest rate to 10%

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan’s central bank said it cut its benchmark
interest rate to 10% from 13%, as part of efforts to mitigate the effects of
the coronavirus outbreak on the economy.

This is the second time the central bank has slashed its rate since April,
when it cut by 200 basis points to 13%.

The downward revision was geared towards reducing the cost of financing to
the private sector by commercial banks, Governor Gamal Abdalla Wani said.

“Affordable loans will benefit business and South Sudanese citizens alike at
this time of crisis,” Wani told reporters on Tuesday, announcing the cut.

Policy makers also reduced the cash reserve ratio to 10% from 15% to release
“additional liquidity to commercial banks to further inject it to support
economic activities and especially the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.”

“The Bank of South Sudan is monitoring the developments in the exchange rate
and remains committed to exploring all the avenues to support the economy at
these tough times,” Wani said.

The central bank also said it was encouraging banks to work with borrowers
to restructure loans as the oil-producing economy is struggling due to the
coronavirus crisis.

“Restructuring these loans will mean making lower repayment each month ...
freeing up cash for operating capital thereby avoiding business closure,”
Wani said.

South Sudan has confirmed nearly 2,100 cases of the coronavirus, with 40
deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

The country’s economy is still reeling from the devastation caused by years
of civil war between government forces under President Salva Kiir and those
allied with vice president Riek Machar.

Angola agrees to comply fully with oil cuts after OPEC pressure, sources say

DUBAI/ LONDON (Reuters) - Angola has agreed with OPEC to comply fully with a
global pact on supply curbs and will compensate for previous overproduction
by cutting more from July to September, two OPEC sources said.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by
Russia, a group known as OPEC+, agreed to cut oil output from May by a
record 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) after the coronavirus crisis
destroyed a third of global demand.

The record cuts are now due to run to the end of July, before tapering to
7.7 million bpd until December.

But some OPEC members, including Angola, have not fully delivered on their
agreed production cuts since May.

Two sources told Reuters that Angola had now committed to improve its
compliance with its quota and to make up for its May and June overproduction
by cutting more in July to September.

“Angola has agreed to comply as per (its agreement) with the JMMC,” one of
the sources said, referring to the OPEC+ panel, the Joint Ministerial
Monitoring Committee (JMMC), which advises OPEC+ and holds its next meeting
on July 15.

The JMMC, which is chaired by Saudi Arabia and monitors adherence with the
oil curbs, has been pressing Angola and other laggards in the pact, such as
Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Gabon, to commit to improved compliance.

Angola’s Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum and state oil company
Sonangol did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In May, Angola pumped 1.28 million bpd, according to OPEC data, or 100,000
bpd more than its target. It trimmed production to 1.24 million bpd in June,
based on a Reuters survey, 60,000 bpd above its target. OPEC/O

S.Africa consumer confidence crashes to 35-year low in second quarter -
survey

(Reuters) - South Africa’s consumer confidence plunged to a 35-year low in
the second quarter, moving deeper into the negative territory as the
COVID-19 pandemic hammered the economy, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The consumer confidence index (CCI), sponsored by First National Bank (FNB)
and compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research, slumped to minus 33 points
in the quarter after registering minus 9 points in the first quarter.

The sharp deterioration in the CCI is only three index points shy of the
all-time lowest consumer confidence level of minus 36 recorded in 1985, a
year when the country witnessed violent resistance against apartheid and a
partial state of emergency, the survey showed.

South Africa’s economy was already frail before the coronavirus outbreak hit
the country in March, with its recession deepening in the first quarter of
2020 dragged by declining mining and manufacturing activities.

“Millions of workers were placed on unpaid leave or reduced pay, or even
retrenched, as businesses scrambled to survive the lockdown - this severely
constrained household income, and therefore consumers’ ability to spend,”
Mamello Matikinca-Ngwenya, chief economist at FNB, said in a statement.

“Not even the cut-price specials offered by durable goods retailers or the
substantial interest rate cuts by the SARB (South African Reserve Bank) seem
to be enough to entice consumers to spend their money on durable goods or
expensive luxuries.”

South Africa, among the countries that has the highest rate of infections in
the African continent, shut down much of its economy at the end of March in
one of the world’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns.

However, much of the economic activity was allowed to return to full
capacity from June 1.

Kibali's $500 million will be cleared to leave Congo 'very soon' - Barrick
CEO

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Barrick Gold’s Kibali gold mining joint venture in
Democratic Republic of Congo will be able to get $500 million out of the
country very soon, CEO Mark Bristow told Reuters on Monday.

The gold miner has been in discussions with Congo’s government over how to
get the money out of the country for months. A resolution was close in
January, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Bristow said in a telephone
interview.

Bristow said he expected the cash to be cleared for exit “very soon”,
declining to give a specific timeline, after intensive discussions with the
central bank, the mines minister, and the prime minister.

Under Congo’s 2018 mining code, miners must repatriate 60% of revenue from
mineral sales back into the Congo, to help develop Congo’s economy.

The $500 million is the excess left over after Kibali repatriated 60% of
revenue and paid all its in-country expenses, Bristow said.

Barrick needs the $500 million in order to pay back loans and dividends,
Bristow said. AngloGold Ashanti, which owns 45% of Kibali, is entitled to
half the money after dividends are paid, he said.

AngloGold Ashanti declined to comment, referring Reuters back to Barrick.

In May, Bristow had said the issue of the $500 million “keeps us awake at
night”.

Barrick’s push to get the money out comes as Congo’s economy is under
significant strain from the pandemic, with foreign currency reserves
shrinking and mining companies taking longer to repatriate the 60% of
mineral sales.

“Unfortunately, we have noted that repatriation of the 60% is currently
erratic,” mines minister Willy Kitobo Samsoni told Reuters, adding he had
warned mining companies to repatriate that capital immediately, or risk
sanctions as set out in the mining code.

Delayed repatriation of funds is among the pressures facing the mining
sector, a critical contributor to Congo’s economy, Samsoni said on Saturday.

Kenya central bank to hold its rate-setting meeting on July 29

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee will
hold its next rate-setting meeting on July 29, the bank said on Tuesday.

At its last meeting in June, the bank left its benchmark lending rate
unchanged for the second time in two months at 7.0%.

South African central bank reduces bond purchases to 5 bln rand in June

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The South African central bank reduced its
government bond purchases to 5 billion rand ($292.64 million) in June, half
the monthly average, bringing its bond holdings to 35.9 billion rand, data
showed on Tuesday.

The Reserve Bank began a series of emergency liquidity measures in late
March to ease the stress on banks and capital markets caused by the
coronavirus pandemic. Among them were extra repo auctions and 275 basis
points worth of lending rate cuts.

The bank has since slowed those support measures as local financial markets
recovered, resisting calls from labour and some economists to resort to
full-blown quantitative-easing-style funding of government’s gaping budget
deficit.

The bank’s June statement of assets and liabilities showed its accommodation
to commercial banks via repurchase, or repo agreements, had fallen to 60
billion rand in June from 73.5 billion in the previous month.

In May, the central bank reduced overnight repo auctions to one per day from
the two it implemented to pump liquidity to commercial banks.

Bond yields have returned to near pre-COVID-19 levels and the rand has
recovered from record lows, although that recovery remains fragile with the
economy contracting for the consecutive time in the first quarter.

($1 = 17.0626 rand)

Eurozone recession 'will be deeper than forecast'

The eurozone economy will sink deeper into recession than previously thought
due to the effects of the pandemic, the European Commission (EC) has said.

The bloc will contract a record 8.7% this year before growing 6.1% in 2021.
It compares with the EC's May forecast of a 7.7% slump and 6.3% growth.

France, Italy and Spain will struggle the most, the EC said.

Its revised forecast comes amid concerns about the US economy after a surge
in infections.

This has prompted several states to delay or reverse lifting restrictions.

Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said in a statement: "The economic impact of
the lockdown is more severe than we initially expected.

"We continue to navigate in stormy waters and face many risks, including
another major wave of infections."

The Commission revised its previous forecasts because lifting coronavirus
lockdown measures in eurozone countries was taking longer than it had
initially thought.

Earlier growth forecasts for France, Italy and Spain were cut after they
were hit hard by the pandemic, and the EC now expects downturns higher than
10% this year in each nation.

By contrast, Germany, which had fewer Covid-19 deaths, will have a 6.3%
contraction, less pronounced than May's forecast of 6.5%.

Economic drag

The EC's latest forecast assumes there won't be a second wave of infections
leading to renewed lockdown restrictions. However, it does assume that
social distancing measures persist, and that monetary and fiscal policy
measures support the recovery.

The main risks include a potential wave of new infections, more permanent
scars from the crisis, including unemployment and corporate insolvencies,
and the absence of an EU-UK Brexit trade deal.

It said that a failure to agree a Brexit trade deal could result in lower
growth, especially for the UK.

"At the global level, the still rising rate of infections, particularly in
the US and emerging markets, has deteriorated the global outlook and is
expected to act as a drag on the European economy," the report added.

Although the US has put in place "bold" fiscal and monetary policies, it
said, "the increasing rate of new US infections is expected to weigh on
consumer and business confidence".

Some reopening plans have been put on hold and restrictions placed on the
bars, restaurants and other hospitality industry companies that helped the
US economy add 4.8 million jobs in June.--BBC

Deutsche Bank faces $150m fine for Jeffrey Epstein ties

Deutsche Bank has been hit with a $150m (£120m) fine for failing to properly
monitor its relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

New York state regulators said the bank had suffered "significant compliance
failures", processing hundreds of transactions for the late financier.

Those included payments to Russian models and $800,000 in "suspicious" cash
withdrawals.

Deutsche said it "deeply" regretted its relationship with Epstein.

It said it had spent almost $1bn to improve its training and controls and
expand its anti-financial crime team to more than 1,500 people.

"We acknowledge our error of onboarding Epstein in 2013 and the weaknesses
in our processes, and have learnt from our mistakes and shortcomings," the
bank said in a statement. "Our reputation is our most valuable asset and we
deeply regret our association with Epstein."

New York's Department of Financial Services said the bank, which worked with
Epstein from 2013 to 2018, helped him transfer millions of dollars,
including more than $7m to resolve legal issues and more than $2.6m in
payments to women, covering tuition, rent and other payments, among other
transactions.

Who was Jeffrey Epstein?

"Whether or to what extent those payments or that cash was used by Mr
Epstein to cover up old crimes, to facilitate new ones, or for some other
purpose are questions that must be left to the criminal authorities, but the
fact that they were suspicious should have been obvious to bank personnel at
various levels," the regulator said.

"The bank's failure to recognise this risk constitutes a major compliance
failure."

The settlement also cited Deutsche's failures to monitor transactions with
the Danske Estonia and FBME Bank adequately, despite having identified risks
related to money-laundering at the two institutions.

The fine is the first regulator action against a financial institution for
its dealings with Epstein, who died in prison on 10 August as he awaited,
without chance of bail, his trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was
determined to be a suicide.

But Deutsche has faced multiple penalties for its compliance failures in
recent years, including over its failure to stop Russian money-laundering.
Its relationship with US President Donald Trump has also brought scrutiny.

In an internal memo, Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing said it
had been a "critical mistake" to accept Epstein as a client and acknowledged
past lapses in the lender's oversight.

"We all have to help ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again,"
he said.--BBC

Microsoft and Zoom join Hong Kong data 'pause'

Microsoft and Zoom have said they will not process data requests made by the
Hong Kong authorities while they take stock of a new security law.

They follow Facebook, Google, Twitter and the chat app Telegram, which had
already announced similar "pauses" in compliance over the past two days.

China passed the law on 30 June, criminalising acts that support
independence, making it easier to punish protesters.

Apple says it is "assessing" the rules.

If the tech firms make their non-compliance policies permanent, they could
face restrictions or a ban on their services in the semi-autonomous region.

And while Facebook, Google, Twitter and Telegram's services are blocked in
mainland China, the same is not true of Microsoft, Zoom and Apple.

In a related development, TikTok - which is owned by the Chinese firm
Bytedance - has said it plans to exit Hong Kong within days.

The business had previously said it would not comply with Chinese government
requests to access TikTok users' data. It operates a similar service called
Douyin in its home market, which could theoretically become a substitute.
However, Bytedance has indicated it does not have plans to do so at this
time.

'Seeking guidance'

Microsoft directly offers its Office 365 work app and LinkedIn social
networks to both Hong Kong residents and citizens in mainland China.

But while Office 365 is provided directly by the firm to Hong Kong
residents, the service is run by a local firm 21Vianet on the other side of
the border, allowing Microsoft to remain one step removed.

In the case of LinkedIn, law enforcement data requests have to go via the US
government, although the division says it does sometimes "make an exception
in an emergency".

According to Microsoft's latest transparency report, it received requests
for data linked to 81 accounts from Hong Kong's government between July and
December 2019, and provided "non-content data" in most cases.

"As we would with any new legislation, we are reviewing the new law to
understand its implications," said a spokesman for the American firm.

"In the past, we've typically received only a relatively small number of
requests from Hong Kong authorities, but we are pausing our responses to
these requests as we conduct our review."

The video chat provider Zoom is based in the US, but has ties to China.

Its founder and chief executive Eric Yuan was born in Tai'an before
emigrating to Silicon Valley 23 years ago.

Most of its product development workers are based in mainland China.

And it recently made headlines for:

·         suspending the account of a group of US-based activists, who had
held a meeting on the platform to commemorate the Tiananmen Square
crackdown. Zoom acknowledged it did this at the behest of Beijing

·         routing some non-China-based users' video calls via computer
servers based in the country, which it said had happened by mistake

·         "Zoom supports the free and open exchange of thoughts and ideas,"
a spokeswoman said in response to the latest development.

"We are proud to facilitate meaningful conversations and professional
collaboration around the world.

"We're actively monitoring the developments in Hong Kong SAR [Special
Administrative Region], including any potential guidance from the US
government. We have paused processing any data requests from, and related
to, Hong Kong SAR."

US treaty

Apple uses end-to-end encryption to protect Messages and Facetime
conversations carried out by Hong Kong residents, meaning only the device
owners can unscramble the messages transmitted.

However, the firm does hold encryption keys to data stored in users' iCloud
accounts, which can include back-ups of their text-based chats.

In theory, this means it could pass this information to the authorities if
demanded.

However, since both the keys and the data are stored in the States, it says
the US government has the power to intervene.

"Apple has always required that all content requests from local law
enforcement authorities be submitted through the Mutual Legal Assistance
Treaty in place between the United States and Hong Kong," it said.

"As a result, Apple doesn't receive content requests directly from the Hong
Kong government. Under the MLAT process, the US Department of Justice
reviews Hong Kong authorities' requests for legal conformance.

"We're assessing the new law, which went into effect less than a week ago,
and we have not received any content requests since the law went into
effect."

Apple has, however, complied with requests in the past.

Its latest transparency report indicates it received requests for data
concerning 358 devices from Hong Kong's government between January and June,
and that it provided data in 91% of the cases.

In mainland China, users' iCloud files are stored in a data centre
controlled by a local firm, so the government does not need to involve the
US authorities when seeking access.--BBC

Coronavirus: Japan's household spending slumps at record rate

Japan's household spending has slumped at a record pace as measures to slow
the spread of the coronavirus kept people at home.

Government figures show household spending dropped by 16.2% in May from a
year earlier.

The worse than expected fall was the fastest rate of decline since
comparable data began in 2001.

The figures serve as another indication of how hard the pandemic has hit the
world's third largest economy.

The data showed big drops in spending on hotels, transport and eating out.
Goods that saw an increase in spending included meat, alcohol and face
masks.

Economists expect a recovery in spending to be slow and fragile as consumers
remain reluctant to loosen the purse strings even after a nationwide state
of emergency was lifted in May.

The outlook for household spending in the months ahead also remains weak as
job losses are expected to rise.

Meanwhile, Japan's real wages dropped at the fastest pace in nearly five
years, in a sign of how the virus is impacting the jobs market.

Real wages, a gauge of household spending power, fell by 2.1% in May from a
year earlier, the steepest pace of decline since June 2015.

"The impact from the coronavirus led to a reduction in overtime pay which
caused real wages to fall a lot," a labour ministry official said.

Overtime pay, which is seen as a key measure of the strength of business
activity, fell by 25.8% from a year earlier.

It was the sharpest drop since comparable data became available in January
2013, and marked the ninth monthly decline in a row.

Both sets of data underline the major challenges facing Japan's government
and central bank as the country braces for its deepest recession since the
end of World War Two.

Economists expect a contraction of more than 20% this year due to the impact
of lockdown measures in response to the pandemic.

The Japanese is economy is also feeling the pressure of the fallout from the
US-China trade war and a sales tax hike that came into effect at the start
of October.

Policymakers are now faced with growing pressure to ramp up measures to
restore business and consumer confidence.

Earlier this month official figures confirmed that Japan had fallen into
recession for the first time in four and half years, after a 7.2%
contraction between October and December.--BBC

Dakota Access Pipeline: Judge suspends use of key oil link

The controversial Dakota Access Pipeline has been ordered to suspend
production by a US judge, amid concerns over its environmental impact.

The order is a major win for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which has led
the fight against the pipeline.

The ruling demands the pipeline is emptied within 30 days so another
environmental review can take place.

Separately, the Supreme Court blocked another controversial oil pipeline
from continuing construction.

Judges sided with environmental groups, requiring the Keystone XL Pipeline -
which would stretch from the Canadian province of Alberta to Texas in the
southern US - to undergo an arduous review before construction can resume.

Both projects were backed by US President Donald Trump during the 2016
presidential election after they were blocked by his predecessor, Barack
Obama.

What is the Dakota Access Pipeline?

The $3.7bn (£2.8bn) 1,200 mile-(1,900km) long pipeline, completed in 2017,
can transport some 570,000 barrels of crude oil a day across four states,
from North Dakota to a terminal in Illinois, where it can be shipped to
refineries.

Supporters of the pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer, argue it provides a
more cost-effective, efficient means of transporting crude, rather than
shipping barrels by train.

But the Standing Rock Sioux and their supporters argued the project - which
passed just north of the tribe's reservation - would contaminate drinking
water and damage sacred burial sites.

Read more: The Dakota Pipeline dispute

What did the judge say?

Federal judge James E Boasberg, sitting at the District Court for the
District of Columbia, ruled that the construction of the pipeline had fallen
short of environmental standards.

It therefore needed to undergo a more thorough environmental review than had
been conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers before it could be allowed
to continue working, he said. The process is expected to take 13 months,
according to the Financial Times.

"Given the seriousness of the Corps' Nepa (National Environmental Policy
Act) error, the impossibility of a simple fix, the fact that Dakota Access
did assume much of its economic risk knowingly, and the potential harm each
day the pipeline operates, the Court is forced to conclude that the flow of
oil must cease," Judge Boasberg's ruling concluded.

It's been a bad week for fossil fuel pipelines in the US.

Dakota Access owners, Transfer Energy, now face the horrendously expensive
prospect of shutting down their oil pipeline for over a year while the Army
Corp of Engineers undertake a far more comprehensive assessment of the
environmental impacts.

Oil pipelines are seen as controversial because of their potential for leaks
or accidents. In the Dakota case, the court ruled that there had not been
adequate consideration of the "impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights,
hunting rights or environmental justice
".

The Dakota decision comes just days after the cancellation of the Atlantic
Coast gas pipeline project, due to run between West Virginia, Virginia and
North Carolina.

The developers said that legal delays and ongoing litigation made the
project uneconomic.

The problems for both projects underline once again that battles over fossil
fuel infrastructure are the new front line in the struggle between
environment and economics in the US.

What has the response been?

Chairman Mike Faith, of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said it was a
"historic day" for all those who had fought the pipeline.

"This pipeline should have never been built here," he said. "We told them
that from the beginning."

But Energy Transfer said it did not believe the ruling was "supported by the
law or the facts of the case".

Spokeswoman Lisa Coleman told news agency AFP they believed "Judge Boasberg
has exceeded his authority in ordering the shutdown of the Dakota Access
Pipeline, which has been safely operating for more than three years".--BBC

INVESTORS DIARY 2020

Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

Dawn Properties

AGM

Ophir Room, Monomotapa Hotel, 54 Park Lane

09 Jul 2020 : 0900

Mash

AGM

Virtual, Boardroom, 19th Floor, ZB Life Towers, 77 Jason Moyo Avenue

09 Jul 2020 : 1200

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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Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

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