Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 16 June 2020

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 16 June 2020

 


 

 


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ü  Former eBay executives charged with cyber-stalking

ü  Apple claims 'half a trillion dollars' App Store economy

ü  BP faces hit of up to $17.5bn as it forecasts lower oil prices

ü  EasyJet boss feels '100% safe' on full planes as flights resume

ü  IMF cuts Senegal's 2020 GDP forecast to 1.1%

ü  South African insurer Discovery warns of up to 90% profit plunge

ü  EU imposes tariffs on Chinese makers of glass fibre fabric in China and
Egypt

ü  South Africa's Telkom flags 70% fall in annual earnings

ü  Credit from Safaricom's farming app sows seeds of change in Kenya

ü  South Africa hopes to ease access to COVID loans amid low payouts

ü  Nigeria sells 162.6 bln naira of Islamic bonds - debt office

ü  Kenyan shilling holds steady, remittances and horticulture exports help

ü  Orange eyes Nigeria, South Africa as possible new markets

ü  Amazon v EU: Has the online giant met its match?

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


Former eBay executives charged with cyber-stalking

Six former eBay executives and staff have been charged with cyber-stalking
in a campaign against a couple who ran a newsletter critical of the company.

 

Prosecutors allege the harassment included sending the couple live
cockroaches, a bloody Halloween mask and a funeral wreath, as well as
threatening messages.

 

EBay said it did not tolerate such behaviour and apologised to the couple.

 

The firm fired the employees last September after its own probe.

 

That inquiry also uncovered "inappropriate" communication by former chief
executive Devin Wenig, but it did not find evidence he had been aware of the
specifics of the campaign, eBay said.

 

"However, as the company previously announced, there were a number of
considerations leading to his departure," it added.

 

Mr Wenig was not charged. He told the Wall Street Journal on Monday that
what the charges allege are "unconscionable".

 

But prosecutors named several senior employees, including 45-year-old James
Baugh, a former senior director of safety and security, and 48-year-old
David Harville, the firm's former director of resiliency. Both were arrested
on Monday.

 

US Attorney Andrew Lelling told a news conference that the alleged
harassment campaign included threatening Twitter messages and several visits
to the couple's home, with the intent to break into the garage and install a
tracking device.

 

Several of the group are also said to have ordered "anonymous and disturbing
deliveries to the victims' home, including a preserved fetal pig, a bloody
pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath, a book on surviving the loss of a
spouse and pornography - the last of these addressed to the newsletter's
publisher, but sent to his neighbours' homes", Mr Lelling said.

 

He called the alleged stalking an attempt from "pretty high up the chain" to
"weaponise the internet" to protect eBay's brand. "This case struck us as
something unique," he said.

 

In a statement eBay said it "does not tolerate this kind of behaviour. EBay
apologises to the affected individuals and is sorry that they were subjected
to this".--BBC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

Apple claims 'half a trillion dollars' App Store economy

Apple has said that its App Store ecosystem "facilitated half a trillion
dollars" of trade in 2019.

 

The firm said more than 85% of that figure occurred via transactions from
which it did not take a commission.

 

The announcement comes at a time Apple and other US tech giants are facing
increased anti-competition scrutiny.

 

A leading developer has also called on the iPhone-maker to lower the fees it
charges, ahead of its annual developers' conference next week.

 

An Apple representative told the BBC that it was proud of the commerce that
it had enabled and welcomed scrutiny of its App Store.

 

Work and leisure

The study was commissioned by Apple but carried out by economists at the
Boston-based consultancy Analysis Group.

 

It surveyed billings and sales related to apps running on the tech firm's
iOS, Mac, Watch and Apple TV platforms.

 

This included:

 

·         in-app advertising via apps such as Twitter and Pinterest

·         the sale of physical goods via apps such as Asos and Amazon

·         the sale of digital goods and services via apps including Mario
Kart Tour and Tinder

·         travel bookings via apps such as Uber and British Airways

·         food deliveries via apps including Just Eat and Deliveroo

·         subscriptions to media apps including the Times newspaper and
Netflix

·         subscriptions to work apps including Zoom and Slack

The report attempted to account for spending that occurred externally but
led to content being used within an app - for example a direct payment to
Spotify, whose songs were then listened to via its iPhone app.

 

Likewise it subtracted a proportion of the charge of in-app purchases whose
content was used elsewhere - for example a Now TV subscription taken out via
Sky's app, if most of the shows were then watched directly on a TV's own
app.

 

In total, the economists said $519bn (£406bn) had been generated via Apple's
software ecosystem. The figure excludes sales generated by the Android and
Windows versions of the same products.

 

Physical goods and offline services accounted for the biggest share of the
sum - $413bn.

 

By contrast, digital goods and services - from which Apple typically takes a
30% cut - accounted for $61bn.

 

Apple's global app ecosystem

(Sales in billions of dollars)

 

Developer unrest

The study's publications coincides with a call by the US House Judiciary
Committee for Apple's chief executive Tim Cook and other tech leaders to
answer questions about anti-trust concerns, according to reports.

 

News site Axios said on Friday that the committee also planned to compel
Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook to disclose internal documents about
their digital markets if they did not share them voluntarily.

 

Apple plans to host its Worldwide Developers Conference next week. Ahead of
the event, the co-founder of a leading business software developer published
its own list of concerns about Apple's business practices.

 

Among changes called for by Omni Group's Will Shipley were:

 

a reduction in Apple's cut of digital sales from 30% to 20%

the right to charge upgrade fees for major changes to software

an end to ads in the App Store to prevent search results for a specific item
giving prominence to a competitor's product

 

 

"Apple has a market cap of about $1.5tn and it extracts more margin than any
other company from the mobile phone market," commented Ben Wood from the
consultancy CCS Insight.

 

"It's keen to remind people that it has had to work to build this platform.
But now it has become so powerful, it's unsurprising that people are
questioning whether the original terms of engagement are still fair."--BBC

 

 

 

BP faces hit of up to $17.5bn as it forecasts lower oil prices

BP has forecast lower oil prices for decades to come as governments speed up
plans to cut carbon emissions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

It has cut price forecasts by about 30%, and expects Brent crude to average
$55 a barrel from now until 2050.

 

As a result, the oil giant says it will revise down the value of its assets
by between $13bn and $17.5bn (£13.8bn).

 

BP said it would have to become a "leaner, faster-moving and lower cost
organisation".

 

Last week, the firm announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs following a global
slump in demand for oil.

 

Countries across the globe have ordered people to stay indoors and not
travel as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, 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.

 

'Lower carbon economy'

For a brief period buyers were actually paid to take delivery of crude oil
amid a shortage of storage.

 

The price has since partly recovered to around $37 a barrel.

 

BP says it has "a growing expectation that the aftermath of the pandemic
will accelerate the pace of transition to a lower carbon economy and energy
system, as countries seek to 'build back better' so that their economies
will be more resilient in the future".

 

The BBC's environment analyst, Roger Harrabin, said: "The North Sea is
difficult and expensive to exploit, so this is clearly a business-based
decision by BP.

 

"But the ramifications for the climate are potentially very significant.
Experts have been warning for years that firms have already discovered far
more oil than we can afford to burn if we want to protect the climate.

 

"This, in part, is a reflection of that new reality. We'll see how other
firms respond."

 

When Bernard Looney took over as BP chief executive in February, there was
much talk that he, finally, would reshape the company in line with the need
to combat climate change.

 

His predecessors - going right back to John (now Lord) Browne had often
spoken of it, but "Beyond Petroleum", Lord Browne's phrase for a new-look
BP, had often been held back by financial imperatives - not least of which
the tens of billions of pounds spent in compensation and clean-up payments
after the tragic Gulf of Mexico blow out in 2010.

 

The coronavirus has now rather forced Mr Looney's hand.

 

He has already announced that 10,000 jobs will go worldwide in response to
lower demand for oil, and this morning's statement is the first step in
confronting what Mr Looney believes will be a harsh new reality for big oil.

 

Not only will prices be lower for longer, but government efforts to rebuild
the economy will mean a faster-than-expected shift to low-carbon sources of
energy.

 

That means that the value of the oil in the ground that BP plans to develop
is lower than forecast, and that some fields might never be developed.

 

This is a powerful echo - although it does not come from the same argument -
of environmental campaigners' "stranded assets" thesis.

 

This says that oil companies will have oil fields that will not be able to
be developed at all if we are to keep climate-change induced temperature
increases in check.

 

The question now is whether other big oil companies, in particular the US
giant Exxon, which has been resistant to climate-change arguments, will
follow suit.--BBC

 

 

 

EasyJet boss feels '100% safe' on full planes as flights resume

The boss of EasyJet has said he would feel "100% safe" flying on full planes
as the airline resumed a limited number of flights after a 10-week hiatus.

 

Johan Lundgren told the PA news agency the airline had followed
international guidelines to step up hygiene ahead of a resumption of
services on Monday.

 

Passengers and crew will wear masks and planes will be deep-cleaned often.

 

But passengers will not have to sit 2m apart, despite calls for middle seats
to remain empty for social distancing.

 

"That was a proposal early on from one of the regulators," Mr Lundgren told
the BBC's Today programme.

 

"But the recommendations that have come out from international authorities

which are also supported by the different local regulators do not include
social distancing measures on board the aircraft."

 

EasyJet passengers will be required to wear masks

The idea of keeping middle seats empty has been strongly criticised by some
airlines, with Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary calling it "idiotic" and warning
it would make commercial flights unviable.

 

But Easyjet said previously it would follow the practice to encourage more
people to fly, and some Asian countries have made it a rule.

 

EasyJet has not flown passengers since late March after numerous countries
brought in travel restrictions to fight coronavirus.

 

However, it is now flying to a limited number of mainly domestic
destinations and will offer more routes from 1 July.

 

Mr Lundgren said the airline would offer about 300 flights this week, across
22 European airports. That is a fraction of the usual number, with the
carrier having had to cancel around 47,000 flights in April after lockdown
began.

 

He said not operating a single flight since March had been "devastating" and
he was not expecting a swift return to normal demand, blaming the UK's new
quarantine rules.

 

These rules force travellers to the UK to isolate for 14 days - something
the government argues is key to stopping a second wave of the virus in the
UK.

 

But last week EasyJet, British Airways and Ryanair filed a formal legal
challenge to the rules, arguing they would decimate the tourist industry and
destroy thousands of jobs.

 

Mr Lungren told the BBC: "I don't think people will travel to the same
extent as if the quarantine was removed - we saw that in other countries
where quarantines were put in place in the early phases of the crisis, there
were hardly any bookings at all."

 

Airlines have been hit hard by the pandemic as international travel has
slowed to a trickle, prompting many to announce job cuts:

 

·         EasyJet has said it will cut up to 30% of its workforce - about
4,500 jobs

·         British Airways is proposing to make 12,000 of its 45,000 staff
redundant, with more than 1,000 pilot roles at risk

·         Ryanair is set to shed 3,000 jobs - 15% of its workforce - with
boss Michael O'Leary saying the planned cuts are "the minimum that we need
just to survive the next 12 months"

·         Virgin Atlantic, which employs 10,000 people, has said it will cut
3,000 jobs

·         Other European airlines cutting back include Germany's Lufthansa,
which on Thursday said it would cut 22,000 jobs.

However, gradually carriers hope to get back in the air as restrictions are
eased.

 

EasyJet plans to reopen half of its 1,022 routes by the end of next month,
increasing to 75% during August.

 

Ryanair intends to restore 40% of its flights from 1 July, while British
Airways is due to make a "meaningful return" to service next month.--BBC

 

 

 

IMF cuts Senegal's 2020 GDP forecast to 1.1%

DAKAR (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund has cut Senegal’s 2020
economic growth forecast to 1.1% from a 3% estimate in April due to the
effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

As recently as January, the Fund had expected 6.8% growth this year, but
Senegal’s economy has been battered by border closures, a curfew and social
distancing, it said in a statement late on Sunday.

 

 

 

South African insurer Discovery warns of up to 90% profit plunge

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African insurer Discovery said on Monday its
full-year profits could fall by up to 90%, hit by a 3.3 billion rand ($191
million) provision to cover the potential impact on claims and policy lapses
due to the coronavirus.

 

It also said it would not pay an annual dividend, with the payouts to be
considered when appropriate, sending its shares down 5.5% before recouping
some losses.

 

The company said the hefty provision covered the potential impact on claims
and anticipated policy lapses as stretched customers stop paying, while the
outlook also covered the impact of long-term interest rates.

 

It warned its headline earnings per share - the main profit measure in South
Africa - for the year to June 30 were expected to be between 70% and 90%
lower than the 789 cents reported a year earlier, though it said the final
outcome was subject to a high degree of volatility.

 

“Discovery is confident that the group is strong under high stress
scenarios, with sufficient liquidity and solvency to weather uncertain
conditions,” it said, adding capital ratios and cash buffers were expected
to remain within or above target.

 

The provision, Discovery said, was intended so that all of the currently
expected impact of the novel coronavirus as far ahead as 2022 was carried in
this financial year.

 

Changes to interest rates in South Africa after the government lost its
final investment-grade credit rating earlier this year, and historically low
interest rates in the United Kingdom where it has a unit, were expected to
have a further substantial impact on performance.

 

Discovery’s profits have been falling in recent years as it ploughed money
back into new businesses including a hefty investment in launching a digital
bank, which it said now has 177,000 clients and 2.1 billion rand in retail
deposits.

 

So far, lapses in most of its businesses had been low, it said, while new
business annualised premium income was up 4% for the 11 months to May 31.

 

($1 = 17.2795 rand)

 

 

 

EU imposes tariffs on Chinese makers of glass fibre fabric in China and
Egypt

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union imposed tariffs on Chinese producers
of glass fibre fabric in China and Egypt after finding they had benefited
from unfair subsidies that allowed them to sell at excessively low prices in
Europe.

 

The European Commission, which oversees trade policy in the 27 EU countries,
said in a report published on Monday that the companies had received
preferential lending, artificially cheap land and electricity and various
grants and tax breaks.

 

The companies include two Egyptian subsidiaries of state-owned China
National Building Materials Group Corp (CNBM), marking the EU’s first look
into whether Chinese aid is unfairly helping Chinese companies based abroad.
It normally only considers subsidies from the host government.

 

Combined with related anti-dumping duties, the EU will apply tariffs of
30.0% to 99.7%, the higher rates applying to China-based companies and the
lower rates to the operations in Egypt, the EU official journal said. The
tariffs are backdated to Jan. 22. The commission found the market share of
the producers in China and Egypt rose to 31% in 2018 from 23% in 2015, while
their average sales price fell by 14%.

 

Glass fibre fabrics have a wide range of applications, such as in wind
turbine blades, boats, trucks and sports equipment. EU producers include
Belgium’s European Owens CorningFiberglas, France’s Chomarat Textiles
Industries, Germany’s Saertex and Finland’s Ahlstrom-Munkzjo Glassfibre. The
commission is also looking into alleged unfair subsidies received by CNBM
subsidiary Jushi in Egypt regarding glass fibre reinforcements. It set
provisional duties of 8.7% in that case. Final findings are due in July.

 

 

 

South Africa's Telkom flags 70% fall in annual earnings

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African telecoms firm Telkom said on Monday
its earnings in the year to March may have fallen by as much as 70% due to
one-off costs relating to job cuts and the impact of the coronavirus
pandemic.

 

Telkom said it expects headline earnings per share (HEPS), the main profit
measure in South Africa, to have tumbled by between 65% and 70% for the full
year ended March 31 from 619.2 cents in the previous year.

 

Partly state-owned Telkom will announce its results on June 22.

 

The company told unions in January it could cut up to 3,000 jobs as part of
a restructuring plan as it grappled with declining performance in its fixed
voice and fixed data services.

 

Voluntary severance and early retirement packages have cost it 1.2 billion
rand ($69.7 million).

 

The steep earnings drop is also a result of an additional 626 million rand
impairment linked to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, it said.

 

Excluding the one-off costs, HEPS is expected to fall by 30% to 35%, mainly
as a result of lower core earnings.

 

These have been knocked by the impact of a drop in fixed voice revenues on
group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA),
an increase in finance charges and changes in the fair value of some assets.

 

Telkom said the 22% decline in fixed voice revenue had been offset by more
than 50% growth in mobile service revenue.

 

The contribution of fixed voice income to the group’s overall revenue has
slid to 22% in the 2019 financial year from 56% in 2013 due to shifts to new
sources of revenue such as fibre and long-term evolution (LTE) technology.

 

Telkom shares, which have fallen more than 32% year to date against a 5.7%
drop in the top 40 companies index, closed up 1.48%.

 

($1 = 17.2138 rand)

 

 

 

Credit from Safaricom's farming app sows seeds of change in Kenya

BOMET, Kenya (Reuters) - Rachel Bor’s neighbours chatted, laughed and shared
milky tea from her tarnished kettle as they celebrated their most bountiful
maize crop yet on her half-acre plot in Kenya’s Rift Valley.

 

The secret behind the successful harvest was the credit they received to buy
better quality seeds, fertiliser and pesticides after enrolling on the
Digifarm mobile phone platform, the latest innovation by the region’s
biggest telecoms operator, Safaricom.

 

“Since Digifarm came to our area we have been happy. We had not been able to
harvest any maize for six years,” said Mercy Rono as she yanked a ripe corn
cob from its golden yellow stem.

 

Safaricom, part-owned by South Africa’s Vodacom and Britain’s Vodafone, is
under pressure to create new revenue streams as its voice business matures.

 

Digifarm bypasses middlemen, giving small-holder farmers direct access to
low-cost seeds and fertilizer, credit providers, and bulk purchasers of
their produce.

 

After a successful two-year pilot, during which it registered 1 million
farmers of which 42,000 are active, it is on a hiring spree and seeking new
logistics partners.

 

Like Safaricom’s wildly successful M-Pesa, a mobile payment system aimed at
small traders and Kenyans without bank accounts, Digifarm charges a small
per-transaction percentage fee.

 

Safaricom’s internal projections anticipate earnings of between 25-250
billion shillings annually ($235 million-$2.35 billion) within five years
from the platform, a company source said, representing up to 10% of annual
agricultural transactions in the country.

 

And M-Pesa’s market dominance means Safaricom doesn’t envisage any problems
attracting major financial backers for Digifarm.

 

Its biggest challenge is likely to be fragmented nature of the market, said
Professor Jane Ambuko at the University of Nairobi’s college of agriculture.
Firms like Digifarm must figure out how to reliably gather commodities from
small farms to be sold in bulk.

 

“The food supply chain is very inefficient. Until we can streamline the
supply chain... it is a hard nut to crack,” she said.

 

AFRICA AGRI-TECH

 

Although agri-tech has been constrained by lower mobile data availability in
the countryside, the market is huge.

 

Agriculture employs more than a quarter of the global workforce and is the
biggest employer in almost all the world’s poorer nations, where farmers
regularly deal with poor-quality seeds, price-fixing cartels and climate
disasters.

 

A European Union-funded study last year estimated the African agri-tech
market to be worth $2.6 billion annually, and Digifarm is not the only
newcomer.

 

In Kenya, where farming accounts for a third of annual economic output and
more than half of the workforce, tech start-up Twiga also connects farmers
with bulk purchases and has raised $55 million in three years from global
investors like Goldman Sachs. Meanwhile, the market in Nigeria is crowded
with startups like Farmcrowdy and Thrive Agric.

 

Digifarm also offers farmers insurance against weather damage, training
programmes, and advice on soil testing to increase yields. About 1,000
farmers enrolled with Digifarm are getting payouts after floods destroyed
their crops, Safaricom director Michael Joseph said.

 

IMPROVED HARVESTS

Digifarm farmers receive 10,500 shillings of credit per acre of maize, which
they repay with 15% interest once the crop is sold. Once the maize is
collected, Digifarm arranges a buyer who pays 33.3 shillings per kg of maize
- 3.3 shillings more than traditional brokers.

 

Wilson Kibet, a 50-year old farmer in Bomet, harvested 30 bags of maize from
his farm after partnering with Digifarm, up from just one bag or less in
previous seasons.

 

Farmers in the area said they could not afford to buy quality seeds and
other supplies before Digifarm unlocked financing. Training has also made a
huge difference.

 

“I...followed all the training lessons,” Kibet said, standing outside a
Digifarm maize collection centre, where farmers brought sacks of maize on
donkeys and motor-bikes. “They even told us not to plant beans in the middle
of maize rows.”

 

($1 = 106.1500 Kenyan shillings)

 

 

 

South Africa hopes to ease access to COVID loans amid low payouts

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African banks and the government are looking
for ways to boost take up of an up to 200 billion rand ($11.58 billion) loan
scheme to help coronavirus-hit businesses, two bank executives and a source
close to the discussions told Reuters.

 

Possible amendments being discussed include encouraging banks to ease their
lending conditions, the source close to the discussions said.

 

“There are minor issues around the design,” the source continued, including
wording in the terms that has led to banks applying their standard credit
procedures and rejecting more applications than anticipated.

 

The scheme, launched in May, was meant to encourage banks to lend more, on
more favourable terms, to small businesses struggling with the effects of
the pandemic.

 

But concerns arose that the money — 40% of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 500
billion rand economic stimulus package — was not being fully used after big
banks approved only a few billion rand of loans in the first few weeks.

 

Lenders, the treasury and the central bank are in regular talks on the
issue, the source said, with finance minister Tito Mboweni keen to announce
changes to the scheme in his emergency budget on June 24.

 

Goolam Kader, business banking managing executive at Nedbank, said the
lender is working closely with the Banking Association South Africa (BASA)
to identify potential improvements.

 

He added that Nedbank did not apply credit criteria that are different from
usual when assessing loan requests made under the scheme, but that various
factors affected take up, including its other efforts to help customers.

 

Standard Bank referred Reuters to BASA, which declined to comment. FirstRand
and South Africa’s treasury did not provide comment by a deadline.

 

Jaco le Roux, chief risk officer of relationship banking at Absa’s retail
and business bank, said it did apply different criteria as well as imposing
requirements like a bond over property less often.

 

Other features being discussed include raising the turnover threshold for
eligible companies from 300 million rand, expanding the list of things
businesses can spend the money on and the type of loans banks can extend,
and lengthening the term of payment holidays, le Roux and the source said.

 

Take up has already accelerated to around 7 billion rand and could double
within days, the source continued. There may have been a lag as businesses
considered their options.

 

Stuart Theobald, chairman of Intellidex, which presented to government on
how to design a scheme, said it did not seem to be working as intended,
citing issues like the banks often requiring personal guarantees for the
loans, as is standard in South Africa.

 

“This is not meant to be banking as usual,” he said. “You want banks to
behave as if they are in the best of times ... but the design of it is such
that they can’t actually do that.”

 

($1 = 17.2029 rand)

 

 

 

 

Nigeria sells 162.6 bln naira of Islamic bonds - debt office

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria has raised 162.56 billion naira ($450 million) to
help finance infrastructure projects through the sale of Islamic bonds to
local funds and insurance companies, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said.

 

The government had planned to sell 150 billion naira of the sukuk in its
third outing, the DMO said, but it increased the size of the offer after it
received a more than four-fold subscription.

 

The agency said it expected to issue more bonds to improve infrastructure
and plans to use the proceeds of the sukuk sale to finance 44 road projects
across Nigeria.

 

It did not give the maturity or the yield for the naira-denominated bonds.

 

Africa’s biggest economy had a series of debt issues lined up this year
before the new coronavirus pandemic triggered a plunge in oil prices,
Nigeria’s main export, forcing the government to shelve foreign commercial
borrowing.

 

The government is now tapping domestic markets and concessionary loans to
help fund its 2020 budget deficit which has been worsened by lower oil
prices that have slashed revenues and weakened the naira currency.

 

The oil price crash has also triggered excess naira liquidity on domestic
money markets as foreign investors sell Treasury bills, a situation that has
helped created dollar shortages in Nigeria, whose economy is projected to
contract as much as 8.9% this year.

 

($1 = 361.00 naira)

 

 

 

 

Kenyan shilling holds steady, remittances and horticulture exports help

NAIROBI - The Kenyan shilling held steady on Monday as dollar demand from
oil and merchandise importers was matched by remittances and horticulture
export proceeds, traders said.

 

At 0840 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 106.45/65 per dollar,
the same as Friday’s close.

 

 

 

Orange eyes Nigeria, South Africa as possible new markets

PARIS (Reuters) - Orange, France’s largest telecom operator, believes it
would benefit from having a wider footprint in Africa and will give itself a
few months to make a possible move, Chief Executive Stephane Richard told
Les Echos business newspaper.

 

“It could make sense to be in economies such as Nigeria and South Africa,”
Richard was quoted as saying. “If one considers there are things to do, the
time frame I am considering is rather a few months than a few years.”

 

Richard declined to comment on a possible interest in South Africa’s MTN
Group Ltd.

 

The Middle East and Africa, where Orange has a presence in 18 countries, is
the company’s fastest-growing market.

 

The region makes a large chunk of its revenues from payment transfers - a
key part of the group’s diversification into financial services.

 

Orange said earlier this year it was bringing its operations in the Middle
East and Africa into a single entity, paving the way for a potential listing
of the operations that could raise cash to invest in overseas expansion.

 

Richard said Orange would also be looking at bolstering partnerships with
health companies or institutions.

 

 

Amazon v EU: Has the online giant met its match?

Covid-19 has not been a harbinger of doom for Amazon, unlike the case with
many other firms.

 

Its share price has actually increased since March - hitting a record high
last week.

 

It turns out online retail isn't a bad space to be in when all the shops are
shut. Jeff Bezos' mantle as the richest man on the planet seems safe, for
now.

 

But around the world, governments are looking at Amazon and asking whether
the tech giant is - well - too big.

 

Does it use its dominant position unfairly?

 

The EU now looks set to charge Amazon for anti-competitive behaviour. This
could cost Amazon a lot of money and could alter the shopping experience it
offers customers.

 

What is the EU doing?

Central to the EU's concerns is Amazon's dual role.

 

It runs an online store and also sells its own products on that platform.
The criticism is, that it's both the player and the referee.

 

Speaking to the BBC last year, the EU's competition enforcer Margrethe
Vestager said: "We never accept in a football match that one team was also
judging the game".

 

What might Amazon be charged with?

Much of the EU's concerns are thought to centre around the data that Amazon
has access to and how it uses it. It can see sensitive commercial
information on third-party products - like volume and price.

 

The big question is - is the company using that data to give Amazon's own
products an unfair advantage?

 

For example, The Wall Street Journal has reported that Amazon accessed
third-party seller data to develop its own products.

 

In other words, Amazon understands what sells well on its platform - and can
then simply replicate what sells best.

 

There are other accusations too.

 

If you buy a product on Amazon, you'll get other similar products suggested
to you in a pop-up called a 'Buy Box'.

 

If you're in the business of selling stuff, having your product on Amazon's
Buy Box is - to put it mildly - a good thing.

 

But does Amazon unfairly promote its own products at the expense of third
parties? The EU is sniffing around this area.

 

Why Amazon knows so much about you

Amazon Marketplace to be investigated by the EU

EU 'looking into' Amazon's use of data

What does Amazon say?

The general defence is that there are plenty of companies that act as both a
shop and supplier. Tesco and Sainsbury's both sell their own labelled
products in their stores, for example.

 

They also argue that - far from being anti-competitive - private-label
products are good for customers and offer more choice.

 

Amazon told the BBC: "We strictly prohibit our employees from using
non-public, seller-specific data to determine which private label products
to launch".

 

The company also wanted to point out that it already publishes data on how
well some products sell online (just go to the 'Movers and Shakers' section
of the website).

 

How will this affect you?

Critics of Amazon believe this is a moment that will set the boundaries of
what is legally acceptable in the online market place.

 

But it's still not totally clear - even if Amazon were to be fined - how
this would affect Amazon's business mode or shopping online more generally.

 

Augustin Reyna, from the European Consumer Organisation, told the BBC: "The
question is more, in the medium-to-long term, if Amazon were allowed to
continue with these practices, consolidating its market position, it would
be able to restrict choice and push up prices."

 

What next?

A charge sheet could be published as soon as this week.

 

However, the EU Commission is tight-lipped - it will currently only say that
the investigation is "ongoing".

 

In theory Amazon could be fined 10% of its global revenue if found guilty of
breaching competition law - about £15bn ($19bn).

 

Even for Amazon that would be an eye-watering sum.

 

But don't expect this to happen overnight. It's unlikely we'll get a ruling
until next year at the earliest. And even if Amazon is fined, it can - and
almost certainly would - appeal.

 

Can Amazon relax?

Well, no. Other countries have taken an interest in the EU's muscular
approach to big tech.

 

In 2017 for example, the EU fined Google £2.1 billion for allegedly burying
Google searches for rivals.

 

Rather than being enamoured, seduced even by the tech titans, the EU has
been distinctly unimpressed with some of their behaviour.

 

And this is rubbing off. Over the weekend it was reported that officials in
California and Washington are also reviewing Amazon's business practices
with respect to third-party sellers.

 

A string of other anti-competition investigations are also being carried out
in the US looking at Amazon and the other big tech firms, like Facebook and
Google.--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
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been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or
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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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