Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 09 June 2020

Tue Jun 9 06:25:35 CAT 2020

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 09 June 2020

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ü  Ghana to reduce MTN's telecoms market share

ü  SAA rescue plan delayed again after unions object

ü  World Bank expects Tanzania's economic growth to fall to 2.5% in 2020

ü  Ninety One launches $600 mln fund targeting South African firms hit by COVID-19

ü  Sudan says it has begun talks with IMF on non-funded programme

ü  Uganda central bank cuts policy rate to 7%

ü  Libya's NOC confirms El Feel production restart

ü  Coronavirus widens the cracks in Egypt's cement industry

ü  South Africa's rand creeps up as risk sentiment holds, stocks slip

ü  Demand firms as OPEC+ meeting looms, Angolan sells

ü  UK to start post-Brexit trade talks with Japan

ü  Pandemic pushes US into official recession

ü  BP to cut 10,000 jobs as virus hits demand for oil

ü  Coronavirus: Mulberry plans to axe a quarter of its workforce

ü  Greg Glassman: Brands cut ties over CrossFit CEO's George Floyd tweet

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Ghana to reduce MTN's telecoms market share

ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana will implement a set of policies to reduce the dominance of MTN in the country’s telecommunications market, the government has said in a statement.

“The National Communications Authority (NCA) will in the coming days begin the implementation of specific policies to ensure a level-playing field for all network operators within the telecommunications industry,” a statement on Saturday said.

MTN has been declared a significant market power, requiring the regulator to take corrective action to allow more market competition. Statistics from the NCA showed MTN’s share in mobile data subscriptions accounted for almost 70% of the market from January to March.

To correct this, the regulator will implement a series of measures including a favourable connection rate for disadvantaged operators, the setting of floor and ceiling pricing on all minutes, data, text messages and mobile money, and ensure the various operator vendors are not subject to exclusionary pricing or behaviour.

MTN Ghana said in a statement released on Monday it had not yet received the formal notification from the regulator and was awaiting it to assess the details.

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SAA rescue plan delayed again after unions object

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Creditors of South African Airways (SAA) on Monday approved another delay in the publication of a rescue plan after the cash-strapped airline’s administrators requested an extension because of an objection by trade unions.

The rescue plan for SAA, which has not made a profit since 2011, was due to be published on Monday. It has been repeatedly pushed back amid fierce wrangling over the airline’s future.

The government and unions have been pressing for SAA to be salvaged in some form, despite its longstanding frailties being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has pushed even previously profitable airlines into financial distress.

A spokeswoman for the administrators, who were appointed in December when SAA entered a local form of bankruptcy protection, said creditors had granted a one-week delay in the publication of the rescue plan to June 15.

The administrators requested the extension after the NUMSA, SACCA and SAAPA unions objected to the plan being published on Monday pending further talks with the government on a draft version of the plan.

A draft plan late last month proposed a restructuring funded by more bailouts. It also suggested cutting the airline’s workforce and aircraft fleet roughly in half.

World Bank expects Tanzania's economic growth to fall to 2.5% in 2020

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania’s economic growth is expected to drop to 2.5% in 2020 from 6.9% last year, the World Bank said on Monday, citing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“International travel bans and caution against contracting the virus have severely hurt the tourism sector, which had been one of the fastest-growing sectors in the economy,” the bank said in a statement.

It said the east African country’s economy would also be hurt by a decline in export demand, supply chain disruptions for domestic manufacturers and weak domestic consumption.

Ninety One launches $600 mln fund targeting South African firms hit by COVID-19

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Asset manager Ninety One has launched a 10-billion-rand ($597 million) fund, in partnership with a private equity firm, that will target investments in South African businesses struggling due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The fund aims to raise money from institutional investors in two rounds, with the first closing in July, and will comprise a mix of debt and equity, Ninety One said.

It did not specify what type or size of firms it might target, saying many good companies across all sectors would have funding needs that could not be provided by banks or the state.

“The SA Recovery Fund is a market-led, impact initiative to mitigate the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, while seeking a commercial return,” Ninety One CEO Hendrik du Toit said.

He added that South Africa faced a “once-in-a-generation” economic challenge. The South African Reserve Bank expects the country’s economy, which tipped into recession in 2019 even before the pandemic hit, to contract by 7% this year, hurting many already struggling businesses and consumers.

Ninety One is partnering with Ethos Private Equity on the fund.

($1 = 16.7493 rand)

Sudan says it has begun talks with IMF on non-funded programme

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan began talks this week with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a non-funded programme that could pave the way for international financial support, Finance Minister Ibrahim Elbadawi said on Sunday.

Khartoum is in desperate need of financial help to reorganise its economy. Inflation has been running at nearly 100% and the currency tumbling as the government prints money to subsidise bread, fuel and electricity.

The talks mark a thaw in Sudan’s relationship with the IMF. Until now it has been unable to tap the IMF or the World Bank for support because it is still listed by the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism and has $1.3 billion of IMF arrears.

The U.S. indicated after President Omar al-Bashir was removed from power in April 2019 that it was willing to work to remove Sudan from the terrorism list.

“This week Sudan began negotiations ... to agree on a Staff-Monitored Programme that seeks to open doors for international financing & investment in major development, infrastructure, peacebuilding & job creation projects for youth,” Elbadawi said on Twitter on Sunday.

Sudanese officials recently said they expect Khartoum will be removed from the terror list soon.

Sudan has debts of around $62 billion, including arrears of around $3 billion to international financial institutions, Elbadawi said in October.

IMF communications director Gerry Rice said on Thursday that Sudan had requested talks, which he expected to be completed by around the fourth week of June.

The programme would be “a way for Sudan to show a track record of good policy implementation,” Rice said. “By showing such a track record, it can help Sudan toward clearing its arrears to the IMF, which in turn, and this is the key, can unlock financing from other sources as well.”

Uganda central bank cuts policy rate to 7%

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda’s central bank on Monday again cut its benchmark lending rate by 100 basis points, taking it down to 7%, to support the east African nation’s economy as it downgraded projected growth.

The bank said there was “continuous shrinkage of economic activity” as a result of the upheaval triggered by COVID-19.

Economic growth this year, the bank said, will now be between 2.5-3.5%, down from a previous forecast of between 3-4%.

“On the whole, household expenditure, investment, exports and imports are projected to decline,” the bank’s statement said. The bank also cut the benchmark by 100 basis points when it last met in April. It will meet again in two months’ time.

Uganda implemented one of Africa’s tightest lockdowns to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

Authorities shut down borders, closed schools and shuttered all but the most essential businesses. Public gatherings were also banned as well both public and private transport.

The government has since started to gradually ease the restrictions but borders are still closed and schools still shut.

Tourism, one of the country’s main economic mainstays has been virtually snuffed out and the government estimates the country will be lose $1.6 billion annually as a result. [nL8N2DF10J]

Uganda so far has had 686 cases of COVID-19 and no deaths.

Libya's NOC confirms El Feel production restart

TUNIS (Reuters) - Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) confirmed on Monday that it has restarted production at the El Feel oilfield with initial output of 12,000 barrels per day (bpd) and will return to full capacity of 70,000 bpd within 14 days.

The company’s statement also said that it was lifting force majeure on exports from El Feel and the Sharara field, where output was also restarted on Saturday after being shuttered during an oil blockade by eastern-based forces.

Two oil engineers at El Feel had told Reuters on Sunday that production at the field had restarted.

Coronavirus widens the cracks in Egypt's cement industry

Already scrambling to respond to competition from a vast new factory owned by the military, the pandemic has stymied a nascent rebound in sales, raising the possibility of plant closures, industry executives and analysts say.

Demand for cement in Egypt was on the decline when the military opened a $1 billion factory in 2018 that added 13 million tonnes of annual capacity, on top of the country’s existing 79 million tonnes.

The plant in Beni Suef, 200 km (125 miles) south of Cairo, has compounded a difficult market for foreign firms that spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying cement factories during a wave of privatisations in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The pandemic, however, has made the economics even worse and could lead to four or five closures among the country’s roughly two dozen plants in the coming months, according to one senior company official, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

Foreign cement firms in Egypt include Germany’s HeidelbergCement, France’s Vicat, Switzerland’s LafargeHolcim, Greece’s Titan Cement and Mexico’s CEMEX.

LafargeHolcim, Vicat and CEMEX did not respond to requests for comment. Titan said it was happy with its Egyptian investment and it saw a 5% increase in volume in the first quarter despite the coronavirus lockdown measures.

Lorenz Naeger, the chief financial officer of HeidelbergCement told the company’s annual meeting last week that sales in Egypt had been well below expectations.

“Several players are in deep distress today as most producers are generating losses at the gross and EBITDA level and balance sheets are in bad shape in some cases,” said Yousef Husseini, analyst at EFG Hermes.

“There is an expectation that some plants will have to close in the coming years as the economics just don’t make sense.”

Overall demand for cement rose 8% in January and 9% in February 2020 from a year earlier but then fell 3% in March and 8% in April as the coronavirus crisis kicked in, said a second company official, citing government figures.

Official data for March and April have yet to be released.

The state press centre and the military did not respond to a request for comment about the impact of the virus and the military-owned plant on the cement industry.

Of the seven cement companies listed on the local stock market, only two eked out a profit in 2019, in both cases much reduced from 2018.

A government official didn’t rule out support for faltering companies.

“This matter is being carefully studied by officials at the ministry in full coordination with the private sector,” an official at the Trade and Industry Ministry, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

TWO SCENARIOS

While military-owned companies have been around for decades in Egypt they have flourished since former armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the military in ousting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2014 and took over a year later.

For a special report on the Egyptian military's expanding role in the economy, click on: here

The military’s plant, billed as the biggest cement factory to have been built anywhere in the world at a single time, opened a year after the market began shrinking.

The plant appears to have been inspired by a government study in the early 2000s that predicted demand would rise to 100 million tonnes a year, the company officials said.

But cement sales in Egypt fell to 43.8 million tonnes in 2019 from 49.5 million in 2017, according to central bank data, a period that coincided with austerity measures under a three-year IMF reform plan.

The austerity measures, which included higher energy prices and the implementation of a 14% value-added tax, fell particularly hard on smaller builders as people in lower income brackets postponed residential construction.

Between 70% and 80% of all cement made in Egypt is sold in bags to small builders, while the rest goes to property developments and government mega-projects.

An expansion of big projects over the last three years, including the construction of Egypt’s new administrative capital 45 km outside Cairo and tunnels under the Suez Canal, has not absorbed the slack, one cement official said.

Some cement companies are now trying to salvage what they can.

State-owned National Cement Co was liquidated in late 2018 while Tourah Cement, which is part of HeidelbergCement, auctioned off the equipment at an idle cement plant in December 2019 to boost its cash flow.

Suez Cement, also part of HeidelbergCement, announced last month that because of oversupply and a sustained decrease in demand combined with the COVID-19 crisis it was reducing management salaries by 20% to 30%.

“There are two scenarios,” said one of the cement company officials. “One is that they wait until some companies close. Two is that the government steps in to support companies.”

($1 = 15.7700 Egyptian pounds)

South Africa's rand creeps up as risk sentiment holds, stocks slip

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand inched firmer on Monday as hopes of a rapid global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continued to feed risk appetite.

At 1550 GMT the rand was up 0.11% at 16.8000 per dollar, having earlier touched a session-best of 16.7100 in an advance across emerging markets stemming mainly from Friday’s better than expected jobs data from the United States.

“The domestic currency continues to strengthen as it reflects improving global financial market sentiment, said Annabel Bishop, chief economist at Investec.

“The latest economic data to support improving risk-on investor attitude is the unexpected drop that occurred in the U.S. unemployment rate.”

Government bonds turned weaker following lat week’s rally, with the yield on the 10-year instrument up 7 basis points to 9.01%.

The Johannesburg stock market slipped as banks and industrial companies fell despite a rise in crude and gold prices. The FTSE/JSE Top-40 index was down 0.16% to end the day at 50,118 points while the all share index fell 0.07% to close at 54,684 points. Shares in South African petrochemicals giant Sasol increased by almost 15% as crude oil prices went up as the OPEC+ nations agreed output cuts through July.

However, crude dipped later on Monday as Saudi Arabia clarified that there will be no additional voluntary cuts by the Gulf nations in July. The mining index was up 1.3% and the gold index index rose 3.2% on Monday.

Demand firms as OPEC+ meeting looms, Angolan sells

LONDON (Reuters) - Angolan crude continued to sell well and traders said interest in Nigerian crude was set to rise as the country faces pressure from fellow producers to rein in output.

* Angola has cut the number of oil cargoes that it will ship to Chinese state firms to pay down debt to Beijing as it seeks to renegotiate repayment terms, sources said.

* Therefore China’s Unipec had no cargoes assigned to it in July, down from the usual two or three.

* Angola’s Sonangol was thus in possession of 8 cargoes, three of which it recently assigned: a cargo of Cabinda to India’s IOC, CLOV to Galp and Nemba to India’s MRPL.

* A cargo of Dalia sold recently, likely by Exxon Mobil for export on July 6-7. Last offered at dated brent plus $1.30, another cargo of Dalia set for export in the last part of July was being offered for slightly higher.

* Differentials for heavier oil from Angola and Congo remained strong as certain heavier oils were less abundant due to OPEC+ cuts, despite a slight waning in Chinese buying.

* Northwest European gasoline stocks rose this week, signalling a continuation of poor demand ahead for light Nigerian oil.

* But a trader said pressure from OPEC+ on Nigeria to cut its output could encourage demand for its oil which is already on the market in vast volumes.

* Results had not yet emerged for two IOC tenders which were set to close on Friday.

* British oil major BP has agreed to discount the price of the North Sea assets it is selling to Premier Oil, Premier said on Friday.

* OPEC and its allies led by Russia will meet on Saturday to discuss extending record oil production cuts and to push laggards such as Iraq and Nigeria to comply with existing curbs.

UK to start post-Brexit trade talks with Japan

The UK and Japan are set to begin talks on Tuesday aimed at reaching agreement on a post-Brexit trade deal.

The negotiations come as London and Tokyo work towards replacing the agreement Britain currently has with Japan through the European Union.

Without a new deal by 1 January 2021 the two countries will default to World Trade Organization trading terms.

That would mean tariffs and obstacles to commerce between the UK and its fourth-largest non-EU trading partner.

After decades of sharing its trade policy with the European Union, Britain is now embarking on free trade negotiations with countries around the world.

Last month the UK launched formal talks with the United States and is also hoping to reach a trade agreement with the EU by the end of this year.

Discussions with Brussels have proved to be particularly difficult, with no agreement so far on even the basic structure of what will be negotiated.

Discussions with Japan will initially be held via video link and be between the UK's International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs  Toshimitsu Motegi.

Ms Truss said that she hopes to build on the existing pact between Tokyo and Brussels: "We aim to strike a comprehensive free trade agreement that goes further than the deal previously agreed with the EU, setting ambitious standards in areas such as digital trade and services."

"This deal will provide more opportunities for businesses and individuals across every region and nation of the UK and help boost our economies following the unprecedented economic challenges posed by coronavirus," Ms Truss added.

According to British government figures, trade between the two countries totalled £31.4bn last year, with 9,500 UK-based businesses exporting goods to Japan.

The UK hopes that a free trade agreement with Japan will help it to eventually join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Membership of the 11-member CPTPP, a trade agreement that stretches from Australia to Chile, would significantly improve access for UK businesses to markets across the Asia-Pacific region.--BBC

Pandemic pushes US into official recession

The economic downturn in the US triggered by the pandemic has been officially declared a recession.

The National Bureau of Economic Research made the designation on Tuesday, citing the scale and severity of the current contraction.

It said activity and employment hit a "clear" and "well-defined" peak in February, before falling.

The ruling puts a formal end to what had been more than a decade of economic expansion - the longest in US history.

Meanwhile, US markets continued their rebound on Monday, as investors remained optimistic that the downturn will be short-lived.

A recession was expected after the US economy contracted 5% in the first three months of the year.

Employers also reported cutting roughly 22 million jobs in March and April, as restrictions on activity intended to help control the virus forced many businesses to close.

Some economists are hopeful that the job losses have now stopped, and a rebound has begun. In May, US employers added 2.5 million jobs, as states started reopening.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, a private research organisation, said it viewed the scale of the decline that started in February as more significant than its duration.

"The unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy, warrants the designation of this episode as a recession, even if it turns out to be briefer than earlier contractions," it said.

The bureau typically defines a recession as an economic contraction that lasts "more than a few months".

It has declared 12 recessions since 1948, the longest of which was the Great Recession, which lasted 18 months, from December 2007 to June 2009.

Markets recover

US financial markets, which tumbled in February amid signs of the economic collapse, have been on the upswing since March, due to investor hopes that economic damage will be limited, thanks to emergency relief from Congress and the central bank.

On Monday, the Nasdaq index closed at 9,924.7, gaining 1.1% to top its pre-pandemic record.

The S&P 500 rose 1.2% to close at 3.232.3 - returning to where it started the year - while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.7% to 27,572.4. The two indexes are now less than 10% lower than their pre-pandemic peaks.

US President Donald Trump has celebrated the rebound.

"Big day for Stock Market. Smart money, and the World, know that we are heading in the right direction. Jobs are coming back FAST. Next year will be our greatest ever," he wrote on Twitter on Monday morning.

Many economists have warned that the economic pain is likely to linger, even if the worst has passed.

The World Bank on Monday said it expected the global economy to shrink by 5.2% this year, in the deepest recession since World War Two.

It said it expected the US economy to contract by 6.1% and the Euro area to shrink by 9.1%.

While global growth of 4.2% is expected to return next year, the bank warned that the outlook is "highly uncertain and downside risks are predominant, including the possibility of a more protracted pandemic, financial upheaval and retreat from global trade and supply linkages".--BBC

BP to cut 10,000 jobs as virus hits demand for oil

BP has announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs following a global slump in demand for oil because of the coronavirus crisis.

The oil giant had paused redundancies during the peak of the pandemic but told staff on Monday that around 15% will leave by the end of the year.

BP has not said how many jobs will be lost in the UK but it is thought the figure could be close to 2,000.

Chief executive Bernard Looney blamed a drop in the oil price for the cuts.

Losing millions

In an email to staff, he said: "The oil price has plunged well below the level we need to turn a profit.

"We are spending much, much more than we make - I am talking millions of dollars, every day."

Countries across the globe have ordered people to stay indoors and not travel, which has caused a slump in demand for oil. As a result, the cost of oil fell to less than $20 a barrel at the peak of the crisis, less than a third of the $66 it cost at the start of the year. It has since partly recovered to around $42 a barrel.

That has taken a toll on the industry, sparking warnings that 30,000 UK jobs could be lost as a result of the crisis.

BP employs around 15,000 people in the UK. The firm's office-based workers are expected to bear the brunt of the redundancies, which will not affect any of its retail staff.

"It was always part of the plan to make BP a leaner, faster-moving and lower carbon company," Mr Looney - who took over as the boss of BP in February - said in his email to staff on Monday.

"Then the COVID-19 pandemic took hold," he said. "You are already aware that, beyond the clear human tragedy, there has been widespread economic fallout, along with consequences for our industry and our company."

Deirdre Michie, the chief executive of industry group Oil and Gas UK (OGUK), said the planned redundancies highlighted the "very real and personal" impact of the coronavirus pandemic on jobs and livelihoods.

"There is a serious risk the UK loses the skills it needs not only to meet existing energy demands from domestic resources, but also to meet the UK's climate ambitions," she said.

The message from BP's chief executive, Bernard Looney, is that the numbers don't add up.

The oil price has recovered a bit but the business is still losing money hand over fist.

On top of that, Big Oil is trying to execute a big swerve towards renewables.

None of the above is of any comfort to the thousands who will be pushed out of BP's doors in a matter of months.

This is a sign of how precarious the job market is becoming as the crisis caused by the virus takes hold.

The pain will be felt most in the senior ranks but, whatever the pay grade, each loss will be hard to bear.

In April, BP said it planned to pay a $0.11 per share dividend to shareholders and in an announcement on Monday, the company said it would still make that payment later this month.

Energy expert Professor David Elmes from Warwick Business School said other firms would question how much they can hand out to shareholders as a result of the crisis.

"The job losses at BP are symptomatic of the wider challenges facing the industry," he said. "Coronavirus has reduced oil demand and the price per barrel has plummeted, but that has happened in a wider context of short-term and long-term decline."

"All firms in the sector will all be looking at how they can cut costs, shift their activities to the lowest cost field, trim investment, and thinking hard about what dividend they can pay."--BBC

Coronavirus: Mulberry plans to axe a quarter of its workforce

Mulberry says it plans to cut 25% of its worldwide workforce, the vast majority of which work in the UK.

The high-end fashion brand, which is best known for its leather goods, employs 1,400 people, including 1,140 in the UK.

The company said in a statement it would start reopening UK stores from 15 June.

But it said social distancing measures and reduced tourist and footfall levels would continue to affect its income.

Mulberry was founded in Somerset in 1971, where its two factories are still in production.

As well as luggage and handbags - some of which carry a price tag of more than £1,000 - it also makes footwear, jewellery and eyewear.

Thierry Andretta, Mulberry's chief executive, said the temporary closure of its physical stores would continue to have a marked effect on business.

Mulberry said it had been able to re-open stores in China and South Korea and, more recently, some stores in Europe and Canada.

It has 120 stores in 25 countries, but also ships to 190 countries around the world.

But it said that although the digital sales performance had been good, it could not fully offset the fall in demand caused by store closures.

The company said: "Even once stores reopen, social distancing measures, reduced tourist and footfall levels will continue to impact our revenue. As a result of this, we must manage our operations and cost base accordingly to ensure the company is the correct size and structure to reflect market conditions."

The consultation process will last 45 days and affected staff are being contacted.

Mulberry is one of the leading fashion brands that switched production from luxury goods to making medical equipment.

Last month it said it had set its handbag factory in Somerset to making 8,000 gowns for NHS workers in Bristol.

Earlier this year, Mike Ashley's Frasers Group retail business bought a 12.5% stake in Mulberry.

Mulberry has concession outlets within House of Fraser and also throughout John Lewis's department stores.

--BBC

Greg Glassman: Brands cut ties over CrossFit CEO's George Floyd tweet

Fitness brands including Reebok have cut ties with CrossFit after the company's CEO posted a tweet making light of George Floyd's death.

In reply to a public health body saying racism was a public health issue, Greg Glassman tweeted: "FLOYD-19."

He also called an affiliate "delusional" for questioning why CrossFit had been silent on the killing of Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

Mr Glassman has now apologised, saying CrossFit "will not stand for racism".

He said he had been trying to make a point about lockdowns that have been put in place to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

CrossFit is a company based on a fitness regimen developed by Mr Glassman, and is incorporated into gyms across the world.

These gyms are run on an affiliate model, paying the main CrossFit company for permission to use the name and regimen.

What did Greg Glassman say?

It began when the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington tweeted that "racism is a public health issue".

In response, Mr Glassman tweeted "FLOYD-19" - a play on Covid-19, the name of the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Mr Glassman also came under fire for an email he reportedly sent to an affiliate who asked for a response from the company on anti-racist protests across the US.

"I sincerely believe the quarantine has adversely impacted your mental health," he reportedly wrote to the woman, before calling her "delusional". "You think you're more virtuous than we are. It's disgusting."

What has the response been?

Since Mr Glassman's tweet about George Floyd, hundreds of affiliate gyms have removed CrossFit from their branding. A spreadsheet tracking all of the gyms that are rebranding currently lists 227 fitness centres distancing themselves from CrossFit.

One of these gyms, Petworth Fitness in Washington DC - formerly CrossFit Petworth - wrote on Instagram: "For a brand that has preached about being 'for all', the deafening silence on current and past issues of racism tells us all we need to know."

It added that it would donate its annual affiliate fee - $3,000 (£2,364) - to the Black Lives Matter DC and Know Your Rights anti-racist campaign groups.

Adidas AG, which owns Reebok, also issued a statement confirming it was ending its relationship with CrossFit.

"Recently, we have been in discussions regarding a new agreement, however, in light of recent events, we have made the decision to end our partnership with CrossFit HQ," the company said in a statement to AFP news agency.

Several CrossFit athletes also criticised the company.

Four-time CrossFit Games champion Matthew Fraser praised a colleague for disaffiliating from the company, while Olympian and three-time CrossFit Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey said she was "incredibly saddened, disappointed and frustrated" with Mr Glassman's comments.

Icelandic CrossFit athlete Katrin Tanja Davidsdottir also posted screenshots of Mr Glassman's tweet and email, and said she was "ashamed, disappointed and angry".

Has CrossFit addressed the backlash?

In a statement posted on CrossFit's Twitter account, Mr Glassman apologised for the tweet and said he was trying to make a point about lockdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which he doesn't agree with.

"I, CrossFit HQ, and the CrossFit community will not stand for racism. I made a mistake by the words I chose yesterday," he said. "My heart is deeply saddened by the pain it has caused. It was a mistake, not racist but a mistake.

"Floyd is a hero in the black community and not just a victim. I should have been sensitive to that and wasn't. I apologise for that.

"I was trying to stick it to the @IHME_UW [Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation] for their invalidated models resulting in needless, economy-wrecking, life-wrecking lockdown, and when I saw they were announcing modelling a solution to our racial crisis, I was incredulous, angry, and overly emotional. Involving George Floyd's name in that effort was wrong."--BBC

INVESTORS DIARY 2020

Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

Companies under Cautionary

Bindura Nickel Corporation

Padenga Holdings

Delta Corporation

Meikles Limited

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Cellphone:      <tel:%2B263%2077%20344%201674> +263 77 344 1674

Alt. Email:       <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw  

Website:         <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bulls.co.zw&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNH8LYgdY55h-XKseuM8Kpr-JKdfhQ> www.bulls.co.zw 

Blog:            <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bulls.co.zw%2Fblog&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFoIy6F9IXAiYnSoPSgWDYsr8Sqtw> www.bulls.co.zw/blog

Twitter:         @bullsbears2010

LinkedIn:       Bulls n Bears Zimbabwe

Facebook:      <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBullsBearsZimbabwe&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGhb_A5rp4biV1dGHbgiAhUxQqBXA> www.facebook.com/BullsBearsZimbabwe

Skype:         Bulls.Bears 

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