Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 09 March 2020

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 09 March 2020

 


 

 


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ü  Tunisia cuts 2020 growth forecast, seeks new IMF deal

ü  Moody's cuts South Africa's 2020 GDP growth forecast after coronavirus

ü  Amplats sinks on force majeure and cut in output guidance

ü  Sanlam warns full-year profits could fall by 25%

ü  South Africa's rand steady in calm trade after coronavirus slide

ü  South Africa's net foreign reserves rise to $45.4 bln in February

ü  Nigeria's Senate approves Buhari's $22.7 billion loan request

ü  "Spread the word!" Zambia buys artisanal gold to formalise unregulated
mining

ü  Capitec says full-year profit to rise by up to 21%

ü  S.African drugmaker Aspen sees no immediate impact of India's decision to
curb drug exports

ü  British Steel: Takeover set to be completed

ü  Upcycling sports shirts and aeroplane seats

ü  Big banks brace for the coronavirus

ü  Coronavirus: Fear returns to stock markets

ü  Oil plunges 10% after Opec deal collapses

ü  The tech boss who lost more than a billion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


Tunisia cuts 2020 growth forecast, seeks new IMF deal

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia will seek a new loan deal with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), its prime minister said on Sunday, after slashing the
country’s economic growth forecast for this year due in part to the impact
of the coronavirus crisis on tourism.

 

Elyess Fakhfakh told the local Magreb newspaper the government now expected
growth of just 1% this year, compared with the 2.7% envisaged in the 2020
budget, with the coronavirus crisis responsible for a hit of half a
percentage point.

 

Tunisia struck a deal with the IMF in December 2016 for a $2.8 billion loan
package to overhaul its sclerotic economy, including steps to cut chronic
deficits and trim bloated public services.

 

The IMF disbursed a $247 billion loan tranche from that deal in June last
year. But since then, negotiations on a sixth instalment have stalled due to
a political crisis following the October election. The current IMF deal ends
in April.

 

Fakhfakh did not give details about his hopes for a new deal. “We have no
other choice,” he told the newspaper.

 

Tunisia’s economy has struggled in the nine years since the ouster of
veteran autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, who died in exile in September.

 

Unemployment is more than 15%, and as high as 30% in some cities, while
inflation is high, and successive governments have struggled to rein in
fiscal deficits and control public debt.

 

Fakhfakh, who took office two weeks ago, did not give details about the cut
to the growth forecast, but analysts have warned the global coronavirus
crisis would hit the vital tourism sector, while the agricultural sector is
struggling with a severe shortage of rain.

 

Tourism accounts for about 8% of Tunisia’s GDP and is a key source of
foreign currency, with around nine million tourists visiting the country
last year.

 

Fakhfakh said he was seeking to obtain the sixth instalment of the current
IMF loan deal to help the country secure other external financing and issue
bonds.

 

The North African country needs to borrow about $3 billion internationally
in 2020 to meet spending commitments.

 

“If the IMF delegation does not visit Tunisia until March 20, we will lose a
lot,” Fakhfakh said.

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

Moody's cuts South Africa's 2020 GDP growth forecast after coronavirus

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Ratings agency Moody’s on Friday cut its 2020
growth forecast for South Africa to 0.4% from 0.7%, one of several countries
it saw as having lower growth prospects in a new report because of the
coronavirus outbreak.

 

“The global spread of the coronavirus is resulting in simultaneous supply
and demand shocks,” Moody’s said in a global research report.

 

Moody’s is the last of the major international agencies to keep an
investment grade rating on South Africa and is scheduled to review that
assessment this month.

 

“We expect these shocks to materially slow economic activity, particularly
in the first half of this year. We have therefore revised our 2020 baseline
growth forecasts for all G-20 economies.”

 

South Africa on Thursday confirmed its first case of coronavirus in a
citizen who had visited Italy.

 

Since the coronavirus outbreak began in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in
December, it has infected almost 100,000 people worldwide and killed more
than 3,000, mostly in China.

 

 

 

 

Amplats sinks on force majeure and cut in output guidance

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Anglo American Platinum’s shares tumbled 20% on
Friday after it declared force majeure and cut its 2020 production outlook
because of a temporary shutdown at its Anglo Converter Plant (ACP).

 

The South African miner’s ACP phase A plant at Waterval smelter in
Rustenburg, 141 km (88 miles) from Johannesburg, was damaged after an
explosion inside the converter on Feb. 10. The phase B unit was set to take
over but water was detected in the furnace.

 

“This poses a high risk of explosion and the company has determined that it
has no other option but to temporarily shut down the phase B unit to ensure
the safety of all employees and avoid a catastrophic event,” Amplats said on
Friday.

 

The company, which is majority owned by Anglo American, said repair works to
fix the phase B unit would take about 80 days, and that it had to declare
force majeure as it is unable to process material during the converter
repair.

 

Amplats cut its total platinum group metals production guidance for 2020
from between 4.2 million and 4.7 million ounces to between 3.3 million and
3.8 million ounces.

 

It cut its platinum production guidance to between 1.5 million and 1.7 mln
ounces, from 2 million to 2.2 million ounces. Palladium guidance was cut to
between 1.1million and 1.2 million ounces, down from 1.4 million to 1.5
million ounces.

 

Amplats’ Johannesburg-listed shares were down 19.7% at 890 rand by 1155 GMT,
set for a record one-day loss.

 

 

 

Sanlam warns full-year profits could fall by 25%

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Sanlam shares sank 4.7% on Friday after South
Africa’s largest insurer said its profit for the year would fall by up to
25% as a number of one-off items hit its bottom line.

 

The company said it would take a 250 million rand ($15.91 million)
amortisation charge related to acquisition of Morocco’s Saham Finances and
868 million rand in losses, mostly as a result of the consolidation of a
special purpose vehicle related to a black economic empowerment transaction.

 

It had already flagged that the transaction would result in a 1.7 billion
rand expense.

 

Black economic empowerment is part of a government drive to address
inequalities still present after years of apartheid, and requires companies
in South Africa to meet quotas in areas such as black ownership and
procurement.

 

“Given the size of these items, headline earnings of the Group for the year
ended 31 December 2019 are expected to decrease by between 15% and 25%
compared to 2018,” Sanlam said in a trading update.

 

Headline earnings would have increased by between 10% and 20% had it not
been for these factors, it added.

 

Its shares were down 4.2% at 0956 GMT.

 

($1 = 15.7181 rand)

 

 

 

South Africa's rand steady in calm trade after coronavirus slide

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand traded slightly firmer early on
Friday, recovering from a sharp dip in the previous session after the
country confirmed its first case of coronavirus.

 

At 0715 GMT the rand was 0.1% firmer at 15.6100 per dollar, pulling back
from a four-session low of 15.7380 as some calm returned and investors
picked off profits.

 

South Africa on Thursday confirmed its first case of coronavirus in a
citizen who had passed through the main airport showing no symptoms on his
way back from a trip to Italy.

 

President Cyril Ramaphosa warned that the virus would hurt travel and
tourism, and have a negative impact on South Africa’s already struggling
economy, but urged citizens not to panic.

 

“After having held steady over the most recent sessions, with a marginally
firmer bias, the local unit has been put firmly on the back foot due to the
spread of the coronavirus, demonstrating the local unit’s inherent
vulnerability,” said Nedbank’s Reezwana Sumad in a note.

 

“Market focus today will be on the U.S. data and any potential central bank
action.”

 

Bonds were weaker, with the yield on the benchmark 2026 paper up 7.5 basis
points to 7.925%.

 

 

 

South Africa's net foreign reserves rise to $45.4 bln in February

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s net foreign reserves rose to $45.358
billion in February from $45.147 billion in January, Reserve Bank data
showed on Friday.

 

Gross reserves also increased to $54.710 billion from $54.613 billion at the
end of January.

 

The forward position, representing the central bank’s unsettled or swap
transactions, increased to a balance of $642 million in February after a
positive balance of $547 million previously.

 

 

 

 

Nigeria's Senate approves Buhari's $22.7 billion loan request

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria’s upper house of parliament has approved foreign
borrowings of $22.7 billion requested by President Muhammadu Buhari, the
Senate President said on Thursday.

 

About $17.06 billion of the total loans will be provided by China’s
Eximbank, while the World Bank, African Development Bank, Islamic
Development Bank and German Development Bank are in the mix of the new
borrowings tied to projects.

 

Nigeria has been borrowing abroad to fund projects after a 2016 recession
caused largely by low global oil prices hurt its spending plans, but debt
service costs have been rising.

 

The country also plans to sell a $3.3 billion eurobond this year to
refinance an existing maturity and part-fund its 2020 budget of 10.59
trillion naira ($35 billion), which is a 17% rise over last year’s.

 

“Let me emphasize here that we are going to follow very strictly how this
loans are applied,” Senate President Ahmed Lawan said. “The loans will have
positive influence on the GDP of this country.”

 

Africa’s largest economy has struggled to shake off the effects of the
contraction that ended in 2017 and has been grappling with low growth since.
It grew 2.27% in 2019 from 1.91% the previous year, supported by a
favourable oil price.

 

Buhari asked parliament in November to approve the borrowings, which are
tied to infrastructure and other projects, after a similar request was
rejected three years ago.

 

During Buhari’s first term, the executive was embroiled in a power tussle
with the legislature that slowed government, including confirmation of
appointments. Buhari won a second term in February and some of his party
loyalists in parliament were re-elected.

 

Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said on Wednesday the government was concerned
about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on world oil prices, which are
now trading below Nigeria’s budget assumption. This could trigger a midterm
budget review, she said.

 

 

 

"Spread the word!" Zambia buys artisanal gold to formalise unregulated
mining

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia’s mining investment arm ZCCM-IH has started buying
gold from artisanal and small-scale miners in a bid to formalise the
unregulated sector whose ranks have swelled worldwide as gold prices soar,
it said on Friday.

 

Governments across Africa are scrambling to tackle informal mining of gold,
which has significant health and environmental risks and contributes to
illicit flows of money, depriving states of revenue when the metal is
smuggled across borders.

 

Ethiopia, for example, runs artisanal gold buying centres which offer a
higher price than the going market rate to attract miners away from the
black market.

 

“ZCCM-IH is providing an open market and competitive prices for gold,” an
advertisement by the company read, adding that gold sellers could bring the
gold to its Lusaka offices.

 

“Looking forward to doing business with you!” the advertisement, circulated
on WhatsApp, read. “It is cash on delivery, spread the word!”

 

ZCCM-IH did not immediately reply to Reuters’ query about the price the
buying centres would be offering miners.

 

The firm announced in December it would set up centres for buying gold in
strategic areas with deposits as a first step towards bringing artisanal and
small-scale miners into the formal market.

 

The buying centres also fit into Zambia’s strategy of boosting revenue from
its mineral resources.

 

A Reuters analysis found last year that billions of dollars’ worth of gold
is smuggled out of Africa every year through the Middle East. Previous
reports have highlighted a black-market trade in gold, mined with little
official oversight.

 

Artisanal miners in Zambia are meant to secure mining rights from the
government by submitting relevant paperwork, paying fees and completing an
environmental commitment plan.

 

The state investment company is also proposing to provide technical
expertise to artisanal miners on mine planning and safety, and to give them
access to earth-moving machinery and processing plants.

 

Zambia aims to produce 40,000 kg of gold in 2020 from primary and secondary
sources, including artisanal and small-scale miners, according to Mines
Permanent Secretary Barnaby Mulenga.

 

As the state seeks to benefit more from large-scale mining too, Mulenga in
December said the government plans to make copper mining companies account
for the gold they produce as a by-product of the mining process.

 

First Quantum Minerals’ Kansanshi Mine, the only mine that has been
declaring its gold production, produced 4,200 kg of gold in 2018.

 

 

 

Capitec says full-year profit to rise by up to 21%

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African lender Capitec said on Friday its
profit for the year to Feb. 29 would rise by up to 21%, without giving a
reason.

 

It said its headline earnings per share - the main profit measure in South
Africa - would be between 5,401 cents ($3.44) and 5,538 cents, compared with
4,577 cents a year earlier.

 

Its shares rose following the announcement, but were still 2.17% down at
1222 GMT, and stood at 1,320 cents verses a low of 1,294 cents earlier in
the day.

 

($1 = 15.7026 rand)

 

 

S.African drugmaker Aspen sees no immediate impact of India's decision to
curb drug exports

JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) - The deputy chief executive of South Africa’s Aspen
Pharmacare said on Friday the drugmaker sees no immediate impact of India’s
decision this week to restrict the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients
due to the coronavirus outbreak.

 

An important supplier of generic drugs to the world, Indian drugmakers rely
on China, the source of the virus outbreak, for almost 70% of the active
pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for their medicines. Industry experts say
they are likely to face shortages if the epidemic drags on.

 

“Certainly no immediate impact and we have only a very low exposure to any
of those chemicals on that list,” deputy CEO and financial director Gus
Attridge told Reuters in a telephone interview after presenting the firm’s
first-half results, which were published on Thursday.

 

“Just in South Africa we might not get stock (of paracetamol). But we do
have decent stocks around API and supply to be able to weather that type of
storm,” CEO Stephen Saad told analysts at the presentation in Cape Town.

 

“Of course if this lasts for a year and there are no supplies... we’re going
to see issues.”

 

The drugmaker, which is 170 years old and has a presence in about 56
countries, said the virus had resulted in its Chinese commercial team being
largely inactive since February and this would impact the second half
results of its 2020 financial year.

 

Aspen expects an impact on its anaesthetics and thrombosis portfolios, which
account for 30% of its commercial pharma business. In China, patients are
deferring elective surgeries such as hip replacements and cataract
extraction to avoid being exposed to the virus, Attridge said.

 

But sales there will be sustained by procedures such as haemodialysis, which
cannot be deferred.

 

“There is some literature around that sedation is helpful for treating the
virus itself so there may be some application growing in the anaesthesia
space but we don’t see evidence of that right now,” Attridge told Reuters.

 

Aspen is, however, seeing a spike in demand for medicines such as
antibiotics and headache tablets in Australia as people try to fill their
medicine cabinets at home with products they think might be helpful if they
get the virus, Attridge said.

 

“Those are flying off the shelves. Pharmacies in Australia are having their
biggest sales days in history and stock is being depleted,” he added.

 

 

 

 

British Steel: Takeover set to be completed

A Chinese firm is set to complete its takeover of British Steel on Monday.

 

Jingye Group previously said that it would save more than 3,000 jobs in
Scunthorpe and Teesside and modernise the towns' steelworks.

 

The firm reportedly offered £50m to buy the company after it collapsed and
was placed under the control of the UK Insolvency Service last year.

 

Unions have said that nearly 500 workers could still face losing their jobs.

 

British Steel employed about 5,000 people at the time of its collapse, and
is the second-largest steelmaker in the country.

 

Jingye Group, which also makes steel, has also promised to invest about
£1.2bn over the next 10 years on upgrading its plants and machinery.

 

Jingye's chief executive has described the deal as a "new chapter in British
steelmaking".

 

Uncertainty for workers

Confirmation of the takeover will follow months of uncertainty for workers.
The government has kept British Steel running since last May as it looked
for a buyer for the business.Jingye signed an agreement to purchase British
Steel in November after talks between the Official Receiver, which handled
the insolvency process, and a Turkish bidder fell apart.

 

Image caption

Unions have said that nearly 500 British Steel workers could still face
losing their jobs

In January, the French government said it might veto the deal because it
considered British Steel's plant in Hayange a strategic national asset.

 

Located in north-east France, the plant is seen as important because it
supplies track for the country's railways.

 

Jingye's boss said earlier this year that he remained "interested" in
purchasing the plant, but has pressed on with purchasing assets in the UK
and the Netherlands.

 

British Steel was formed in 2016 after being sold by India's Tata for £1 to
the private equity firm Greybull Capital.

 

It entered insolvency less than three years later. It had sought financial
support from the government before it was placed in liquidation.--BBC

 

 

 

Upcycling sports shirts and aeroplane seats

"When I started talking about upcycling, people thought I was talking about
riding bikes uphill," laughs Scott Hamlin.

 

But the former Adidas boss has a simple, yet ingenious, business model - he
buys unwanted tops from professional sports teams, upcycles them into
merchandise and sells it back to them.

 

He first began the business with Portland Trail Blazers shirts, a
professional basketball team in the US.

 

"They came to us with jerseys of four players that were traded and they
wanted us to create something for one of their green games," Mr Hamlin says.

 

The green games are part of the National Basketball Association's (NBA)
environmental initiative called NBA Green, which creates awareness and
raises funds to help protect the environment.

 

Mr Hamlin's company Looptworks used the material from the jerseys to create
a scarf, sling bag and toiletry bag. The company then sold back the finished
products to the Trail Blazers, who sold the items at their team store and
online.

 

Once others saw Looptworks' handiwork it soon found itself with more orders
from NBA clubs.

 

Can we fix our way out of the e-waste problem?

What happens to all the old wind turbines?

The NBA has strict rules around its official sports tops, which are not
allowed to be sold once players are traded (when a player is transferred
from one club to another), if they retire or if the sponsor changes.

 

This means that a club can get stuck with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of
unsellable items.

 

As a veteran of the sportswear and outdoor clothing industries, Mr Hamlin
saw first-hand the huge amount of waste being produced.

 

He estimated about 15%-30% of all materials in the development and
production process went unused, often going to the incinerator or landfill.

 

''It hit me, what we really need to do is just stop... and not create any
new materials until we use the ones that already exist," he said.

 

That inspired Mr Hamlin to set up Looptworks, with the mission to "close the
loop", by taking excess textiles and transforming them into consumer goods
such as bags, accessories and clothing.

 

Mr Hamlin thinks upcycling - defined as the process of reusing waste
materials to create a product of higher value or quality - is a better
solution than recycling. ''Upcycling is different from recycling because
then you are grinding up materials and adding more energy footprint to the
material, which is better than burning or landfilling, but not as efficient
as upcycling.''

 

But it's not just sports tops that are getting overhauled.

 

When airlines update their plane interiors and refit cabins, Looptworks
takes their used leather seat covers to craft them into purses, bags and
luggage. One of its biggest clients is Southwest Airlines. Looptworks' other
non-sports clients include outdoor clothing firm Patagonia, Wells Fargo bank
and Subway.

 

Mr Hamlin has plans to expand to other sports and countries, and is talking
to some ''notable brands'' in Europe about potential partnerships.

 

When asked about any future collaboration with football clubs, he says:
''Personally, Barcelona, Manchester United, Ajax, Paris St Germain,
Manchester City and Real Madrid would top my list.''

 

The UK-based Textile Recycling Association says both the reuse and recycling
of clothing are playing a bigger role in sustainability efforts.

 

"With the advent of fast fashion and rapidly rising consumption rates we are
now potentially looking at hundreds of thousands of tonnes of used clothing
being discarded annually (globally) and I think that upcycling will only be
able to cope with a limited amount of this," says spokesman Alan Wheeler.

 

Upcycling is also becoming popular for extending the life of furniture and
household items. Canada-based Upcycle That takes items such as skateboards,
tea-cups and plastic bottles and reinvents them for corporate clients and
individuals.

 

"When people upcycle, they experience first hand what it means to take
something that was previously considered waste and turn it into something
functional and beautiful," says Upcycle That co-founder, Judy Rom.

 

"This leads to a mindset shift around waste and gets people to think twice
before throwing something away."--BBC

 

 

 

Big banks brace for the coronavirus

Staff on HSBC's tenth floor were told to leave the office and work from home
after a staff member returned from Asia with coronavirus

Many of the City of London's biggest institutions are taking steps to combat
the spread of the coronavirus.

 

On Monday many of JPMorgan's UK-based staff are being temporarily moved to a
different office. They're not alone.

 

Goldman Sachs last week sent around 200 members of staff to test a site in
Croydon, South London for the day to ensure the systems worked effectively.

 

Many of these measures by some of the world's biggest banks follow the
events that took place at HSBC last week.

 

HSBC sent home more than 100 staff from the tenth floor of its Canary Wharf
offices on Thursday. The move came after one staff member, who was part of
the research division, returned from Asia and was diagnosed with the
Covid-19 virus.

 

Evacuation

The employee is now under medical supervision and has self-isolated, and the
rest of the research division worked from home on that day.

 

This was the first known case at a major company in the UK's financial
service hub.

 

The research floor received a "deep clean" from a specialist professional
services company.

 

HSBC said the building, which houses close to 10,000 workers, would remain
open after it took medical advice.

 

The City financial watchdog says it does not mind where bank staff work, so
long as regulations are upheld

Regulation

Regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), says it doesn't have an
issue with staff working from backup sites or even from home, so long as
certain standards are met.

 

The FCA expects firms to be able to enter orders and transactions promptly
into the relevant systems, use recorded lines when trading and give staff
the compliance support they need.

 

JPMorgan says it began its coronavirus contingency plan last week by
splitting up teams to work in different offices around the country.

 

Many members of staff are now either working in a different office than
normal or at home.

 

The bank has offices in London, Bournemouth, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

 

Nature of the job

However, the nature of the job means that working from home is not an option
for many staff at most of the large investment banks such as JP Morgan or
its rival Goldman Sachs.

 

That's because most traders and salespeople need to sit together on a
trading floor which is monitored in order to meet regulatory rules.

 

Goldman Sachs hasn't activated its coronavirus contingency plan just yet but
if the need arises the bank says it is ready to act.--BBC

 

 

 

Coronavirus: Fear returns to stock markets

Global stock markets have fallen sharply as investors continue to worry
about the broader economic effects of the coronavirus.

 

London's FTSE 100 share index fell more than 3% and there were similar
declines in other European markets.

 

In the US, upbeat data on hiring and unemployment failed to buoy investors.

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed almost 1% lower, while the Nasdaq
slumped 1.8% and S&P 500 ended down 1.7%.

 

The monthly report from the US Labor Department found US employers added
273,000 jobs in February - significantly beating expectations - while the
jobless rate fell back to near a 50-year low of 3.5%.

 

The report also revised up estimates of job gains in January and December,
finding 85,000 more than previously understood.

 

The surveys, however, reflect data collected before the outbreak
intensified. In recent weeks, global travel has plunged, while work, school
and shopping has been disrupted in many countries.

 

Despite the strong data, markets were focused on the impact of the virus.
"Today's jobs report is old news," said Sarah House, senior economist at
Wells Fargo.

 

The economic strength signalled in the report is a "little like the saying,
the car was in fine condition before being involved in a collision", said
Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst for Bankrate.com.

 

"The new reality, amid tremendous uncertainty, is the world has experienced
a seismic shift," he said.

 

 

Earlier on Friday, markets in Asia had seen big falls, with Japan's Nikkei
share index dropping by 2.7%.

 

The 3.6% drop in the FTSE 100 wiped out the gains seen earlier this week on
the index.

 

Shares in travel companies again saw some of the steepest falls.

 

Banks also took a hit, as investors anticipate that interest rates might be
cut in order to make borrowing cheaper for companies and consumers to keep
the economy buoyant.

 

Energy firms were under pressure as well, after the collapse of a proposal
by major oil producers to keep oil supply in check sent oil prices tumbling
more than 8%.

 

"The markets didn't even bother with the pretence of a calm start on Friday,
bringing another rough week to a close," said Connor Campbell, analyst at
financial spread better Spreadex.

 

"The week's various central bank rate cuts only served to reinforce the
seriousness of the situation."

 

Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve, the US's central bank, cut its
benchmark interest rate by 0.5 percentage points to a range of 1% to 1.25%
in an attempt to ease investor concerns.

 

Many analysts predict it will cut rates again - perhaps as soon as its
meeting this month.

 

As traders seek less risky investments, they are turning to government
bonds, sending prices higher.

 

The bond market - which is many times larger than the stock market -
includes tradable loans to governments and businesses. Yields - how much
investors will recoup in interest from the loans - drop as the price of the
loan rises.

 

Benchmark 10-year UK government debt now only offers a 0.24% return - a
record low. In the US, the yield on a 10-year Treasury also fell to a record
low, falling below 0.7%.

 

"With the 10-year Treasury yield slumping to a new record low and stock
markets under pressure again today, it is questionable whether the Fed can
wait until its scheduled meeting mid-month to deliver the next rate cut,"
said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.--BBC

 

 

 

Oil plunges 10% after Opec deal collapses

Oil prices plunged about 10% on Friday, after a proposal by major oil
producers to cut output collapsed.

 

The plan had been intended to keep oil prices steady despite the hit to
demand as the coronavirus slows travel, manufacturing and global supply
chains.

 

However, Russia declined to participate, with talks ending with no new deal
to restrain production.

 

The result triggered some of the biggest one-day falls in prices in more
than five years.

 

Brent Crude suffered its biggest one-day loss since 2008, falling more than
9% to about $45.27 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate prices tumbled 10.1% to
$41.28, the biggest one-day fall since 2014 and the lowest level since 2016.

 

Oil exporters group Opec was pushing for an additional 1.5 million barrels
per day (bpd) of cuts, which would have reduced production by about 3.6% of
the world's total supply.

 

Non-Opec states - such as Russia- had been expected to contribute 500,000
bpd to the overall extra cut, Opec ministers said.

 

Oil prices have already tumbled about 30% since the start of the year.--BBC

 

 

 

The tech boss who lost more than a billion

Andrew Rickman today runs Rockley Photonics, which specialises in designing
and producing next-generation, optical computer chips.The BBC's weekly The
Boss series profiles different business leaders from around the world. This
week we speak to UK technology pioneer Andrew Rickman.

 

How would you feel if you lost more than £1.4bn ($1.81bn) almost overnight?

 

That was the situation faced by Andrew Rickman back at the end of 2000, when
the dotcom bubble spectacularly burst, sending shares in his company Bookham
Technology plummeting.

 

"It was like a nuclear winter," he says looking back.

 

Andrew had set up Bookham in 1988 in the kitchen of his home in Wiltshire,
when he was 28. It grew to become one of the world's leading providers of
optical components for the telecommunication and computer industries. In
very simple terms, its technology allowed data to be transferred very
quickly using lasers and glass fibres.

 

By the late 1990s its sales were booming as more and more homes and
businesses were being connected to the internet, and mobile phone networks
were being rolled out.

 

The good times were, well, so good, that after Bookham floated on the London
Stock Exchange (LSE) in April 2000, within two months it had joined the FTSE
100 index. This is the list of the 100 firms on the exchange with the
largest market capitalisation - the combined value of all their shares.

 

Such was the surge of Bookham's share price that Andrew, who owned the
largest stake in the business, became the UK's first technology billionaire.
This sent the UK's tabloid newspapers into a frenzy, and the softly spoken,
modest 40-year-old was suddenly a reluctant celebrity.

 

Journalists excitedly told their readers that he was richer than Queen
Elizabeth II and Sir Paul McCartney combined. Looking back, he says he was
"embarrassed" by all the coverage.

 

At the peak of Bookham's share price in the summer of 2000, Andrew was worth
more than £1.5bn. Then the dotcom bubble burst, and before the end of the
year Bookham's share price - and Andrew's wealth - had collapsed.

 

This thrust him back into the papers, which now gleefully reported his
downfall.

 

"I didn't think particularly much about all the press coverage," says
Andrew, now 59. "The money wasn't an issue, because it was only on paper.
Being the first dotcom billionaire wasn't a reality to me.

 

"The thing that was difficult to deal with, as a human being, was the
massive change of circumstances for the company and our technology. It was
an emotionally difficult thing to handle for many different reasons."

 

The big problem for Bookham was that its cutting-edge optical equipment was
expensive. And after the dotcom bubble burst, its customers - the firms
building all the new networks - switched to using cheaper, simpler
technology instead.

 

But before you feel sorry for Andrew, he still had some £50m in his bank
account, and he was able to slowly build Bookham back up again. This
involved delisting from the LSE, and moving the company to Silicon Valley to
get around the then high price of sterling, and be closer to key customers.

 

Andrew eventually left the business in 2004, to start a new career as a
technology investor. Then in 2013 he started his latest business - Rockley
Photonics.

 

Based in Oxford, with a 150-strong workforce, it designs a product called
silicon photonic chips. These are like standard microchips, but with one key
difference - they beam light around the chip instead of sending an
electronic current.

 

Although the photonic chip industry is still in its infancy, the advantage
is said to be that they can process a lot more data, more quickly. Photonic
chips are now increasingly being used in everything from data centres to
sensor systems on autonomous cars, and in the latest mobile phones.

 

Andrew says that Rockley now has an annual turnover in the "tens of
millions", but with the potential of increasing this to billions.

 

Veteran electronics journalist Peter Clarke says that Andrew "is one of a
group of UK engineering visionaries that also carry the entrepreneurial
gene".

 

"Rickman is smart in an intense, academic way, and a good advert for the UK
higher education system." (He was educated at Imperial College in London,
and the University of Surrey.)

 

More The Boss features:

 

The friends helping people divorce without lawyers

The boss putting an end to empty homes

'I reinvented the hair tie from my uni halls'

'I remember the roaches walking across the floor'

Looking back on the dotcom bust, does Andrew think he should have predicted
it?

 

"Hindsight is a great thing," he says. "I don't think many people were
prepared for that sort of boom and bust, they never seem to be.

 

"The span of time between boom and busts tends to be sufficient for the
collective knowledge to have gone into retirement. But we were one of very,
very, very few firms in our area that survived.

 

"One thing I did learn at that time was to have an eye to a more analytical
view of the world around us. So from that point on I've always had what I
would describe as an analysis team... They sit there and they basically
analyse the environment the whole time, so, if you like, they become a
sensitive seismic monitor.

 

"And I'm not just looking for the disasters that are coming, I'm looking for
the things that are going to explode [in a good way]."--BBC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2020

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


Companies under Cautionary

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


Bindura Nickel Corporation

 

 

 


Padenga Holdings

 

 

 


Delta Corporation

 

 

 


Meikles Limited

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

 


DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of
Faith Capital (Pvt) Ltd for general information purposes only and does not
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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