Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 12 March 2020

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 12 March 2020

 


 

 


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ü  Wall Street ends 11-year ‘bull market’ as coronavirus fears spread

ü  Uganda gold exports more than doubled to $1.2 bln last year

ü  S.Africa's business confidence sinks to 21-year low - Survey

ü  New CEO of Absa to review strategy as S.African economy hurts lenders

ü  South Africa's rand retreats as coronavirus worries weigh

ü  Drought, coronavirus to slow Morocco's economic growth to near 2% -
planning agency chief

ü  South Africa's MTN Group CEO to step down in March next year

ü  Congo Republic seeks debt deal with Glencore, Trafigura before IMF review

ü  Nigerian stocks at 4-year low, naira weakens

ü  Co-op Bank Kenya seeks to fully acquire Jamii Bora Bank

ü  Nurseries 'pushed to the edge' by business rates

ü  Young teetotallers help 'nolo' beer sales to rocket

ü  Summary of Budget 2020: Key points at-a-glance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


Wall Street ends 11-year ‘bull market’ as coronavirus fears spread

Wall Street’s record-breaking 11-year “bull market” came to an end on
Wednesday as fears about the spreading Covid-19 pandemic hit stock markets
again.

 

US stock markets have been on an unprecedented streak since 2009, a bull
market of gains. On Wednesday investors sold off shares across all sectors
after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic for the
first time and criticized “alarming levels of inaction” by governments in
corralling the virus.

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down over 1,400 points, 5.8%. After
days of wild fluctuations, the Dow has now fallen 20% from its most recent
highs – finally signaling a bear market. The S&P 500 also fell and is now
19% below its recent high.

 

The fall came as Donald Trump met with Wall Street’s most senior executives
at the White House. It was the latest in a series of meetings the Trump
administration has held as it works on a strategy to shore up the US
economy.

 

Trump said: “Prior to the coronavirus it was all go. The numbers were
fantastic. Now we are hitting a patch. We are going to do something about
getting rid of this virus as quickly as possible.

 

“I think there will be a pent-up demand when this is gone,” he said.

 

Trump declined to answer questions about whether or not he was considering a
bailout of various troubled industries including the airlines and shale oil
companies but said he would be announcing plans soon. “We are having to fix
a problem that four weeks ago nobody thought would be a problem,” he said.

 

 

The banking executives present stressed that the US financial system was
robust. “This is not a financial crisis,” said Brian Moynihan, chief
executive of Bank of America.

 

Economists predict more falls to come. Mark Zandi, chief economist at
Moody’s, predicted more sell-offs. “I can’t see people buying when the
tornado is still in the backyard,” he said. Zandi now thinks a US recession
is more likely than not.

 

The Federal Reserve meets next week and is expected to cut interest rates
for the second time this month in order to encourage spending and
investment. But that news has not been enough to reassure investors.

 

The Bank of England cut interest rates on Wednesday as an emergency measure
but in London the FTSE 100 closed down again as did all the major European
stock markets.

 

Concerns about how the White House is handling the crisis and a political
impasse in Washington are fueling investor concerns. Many investors are
worried that a divided Congress will have trouble agreeing to any plan, said
Kristina Hooper, Invesco’s chief global market strategist.

 

Besides worries about the virus and the government’s ability to get
something done for the economy, the market was also weighed down by a
continued decline in oil prices, said Patrick Schaffer, global investment
specialist at JP Morgan Private Bank.

 

“I want all retail investors to expect this environment will continue: sharp
down days, sharp up days,” he said. “This feeling of whiplash that people
feel probably continues for some period of time.”

 

The speed of the market’s declines and the degree of its swings the last few
weeks have been breathtaking. It was only three weeks ago that the S&P 500
set a record high.

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has had six days in the last few weeks
where it swung up or down by 1,000 points or more, not including Wednesday.
The Dow has done that only three other times in history.

 

AP contributed to this story

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Uganda gold exports more than doubled to $1.2 bln last year

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda’s gold exports more than doubled in 2019 compared
with the previous year, according to data from the central bank seen by
Reuters on Wednesday.

 

An employee pours liquid gold into a mould for the production of an ingot
during the refining process at AGR (African Gold Refinery) in Entebbe,
Uganda, October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

An official attributed the surge to soaring demand for bullion and larger
refining capacity.

 

The east African country shipped $1.25 billion worth of gold last year,
compared with $514.8 million exported in the previous 12 months.

 

Adam Mugume, executive director in charge of research at the central Bank of
Uganda, told Reuters the spike was due to a growing international demand for
gold and a boost in Uganda’s refining capacity.

 

“There’s high demand for gold. Most people are moving away from currencies
into gold holding,” he said. “So long as there’s demand for gold people will
source for it from all over.”

 

Shipments of gold had been negligible for Uganda but they started to rise
sharply after a major refiner, Africa Gold Refinery, opened shop in 2016.

 

Uganda’s gold shipments stood at under $10 million about decade ago, but in
2018 gold for the first time overtook coffee as Uganda’s biggest export.

 

Three more smaller refineries have since been commissioned, adding to the
country’s processing capacity and allowing Uganda to slowly emerge as a
regional gold trading hub despite low domestic production of the metal.

 

Mugume estimated Uganda’s own domestic gold production, mostly dominated by
small-scale wildcat miners, at less than $50 million.

 

The four refineries source their gold from regional countries, including
Democratic Republic of Congo, where rights activists previously blamed parts
of the mineral trade for fuelling militia violence.

 

Mugume said last year’s jump in exports was also caused by the large
consignment of gold that the African Gold Refinery imported from
sanctions-hit Venezuela and subsequently re-exported. [nL8N21F6OK]

 

In the near term, Uganda is likely to continue recording large year-on-year
increases in bullion exports as the country continues to grow as the
region’s trading hub for the metal, he said.

 

 

S.Africa's business confidence sinks to 21-year low - Survey

(Reuters) - South Africa’s business confidence sank to a 21-year low in the
first-quarter, a survey showed on Wednesday, as recovery in the building,
manufacturing and retail sectors in the last quarter reversed in the country
grappling with its second recession in two years.

 

The Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) business confidence index (BCI), compiled by
the Bureau for Economic Research, was at 18 points for the first quarter,
down from 26 points for the fourth quarter.

 

Regular power cuts in December, news around the bailout of state-owned
enterprises like South African Airways, a deterioration in the government’s
finances as spelled out in the national budget and the coronavirus outbreak
also led to the drop in confidence.

 

“Since the survey was completed in early March, things have gone from bad to
worse, particularly on the global front...for a small open economy already
in recession, the timing of the prospective sharp COVID-19-induced global
slowdown could not have been worse,” RMB said.

 

It said that the index is likely to continue to trend lower in the period
ahead, with negative consequences for future trends in private sector fixed
investment.

 

South Africa entered its second recession in two years in the final quarter
of last year as agriculture, transport and construction contracted, data
showed last week, highlighting the impact of power cuts on the economy.

 

Regular power cuts as state power utility Eskom fails to meet electricity
demand have led to a steady decline in South African business and consumer
confidence.

 

South African retailers have struggled to increase earnings as cash-strapped
shoppers shy away from spending on higher-margin discretionary goods such as
electronics, hurting the likes of Walmart-controlled Massmart.

 

“Against this backdrop, the government’s seeming inability to fast track
much needed growth-enhancing reforms is frustrating, to say the least,” said
RMB’s chief economist Ettienne le Roux.

 

 

 

New CEO of Absa to review strategy as S.African economy hurts lenders

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The new CEO of South Africa’s Absa, Daniel Mminele,
said on Wednesday he had a mandate to review strategy and make changes if
needed, as the lender reported a 3% rise in full-year profit and pushed back
the timeline for meeting a key target.

 

Mminele took over the bank, which has been trying to improve performance
since splitting from parent Britain’s Barclays in 2017, in January, and a
lingering question has been whether he would continue with the strategy set
by long-time Absa boss Maria Ramos before her departure last year.

 

But in his first results presentation to analysts since taking over, Mminele
said: “It has been almost two years since we began implementing this
strategy and we are now in a position to evaluate whether we are seeing the
desired outcomes.”

 

“In this regard, I have a full mandate to review our strategy and its
execution and to make changes where necessary.”

 

Absa’s strategy encompassed a drive to win back market share lost while
majority owned by Barclays and to grow its business across Africa. It set
itself a series of ambitious targets in order to achieve this.

 

But like its peers, at home Absa faces an economy characterised by stagnant
growth, high unemployment and rising living costs, and which tipped into
recession in the final quarter of last year.

 

It warned on Wednesday it would take longer to achieve its 18% to 20% return
on equity target by 2021 as planned as a result, with this instead
anticipated in 2022 at the earliest. Rival Nedbank also had to push back the
date it expected to achieve this key profitability metric.

 

The bank’s headline earnings per share (HEPS) - the main profit measure in
South Africa - stood at 1,750.1 cents ($1.10) in the year to Dec. 31,
compared with 1,703.7 cents a year earlier.

 

However, on a normalised basis, which accounts for the impact of its split
from former parent Britain’s Barclays in 2017, HEPS rose by just 1%.

 

Absa’s South African retail bank - the engine of its operation - saw a 2%
decline in earnings, hurt by rising bad debts.

 

The group’s credit impairment charge increased by 24%, mirroring a similar
spike across peers.

 

The bank’s shares rose 2.5% at the market open.

 

($1 = 15.9663 rand)

 

 

 

 

South Africa's rand retreats as coronavirus worries weigh

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand weakened early on Wednesday as
another bout of risk aversion dragged emerging market currencies lower, with
investors fretting over the economic impact of the coronavirus and opting to
move money to safe-haven assets.

 

At 0630 GMT, the rand was 0.56% weaker at 16.0350 per dollar against an
overnight close of 15.9460 in New York, once again crossing the key
technical threshold of 16.00 that traders have used to gauge likely
direction of the rand’s moves.

 

Since Monday’s sharp fall to just shy of 17.00, the rand has managed to claw
back some ground but ongoing uncertainty about the effectiveness of measures
taken by central banks globally to limit the impact of coronavirus has kept
volatility elevated.

 

News that state power firm Eskom would cut up to 4,000 megawatts of
electricity from the national grid, partly due to faults at its Koeberg
nuclear plant, has also rekindled bearish bets on the local unit.

 

“Although a degree of calm has returned to the world’s financial markets,
there are various factors that could change this instantly,” Nedbank’s
Reezwana Sumad said in a note.

 

“Locally, the rand remains exceptionally vulnerable. Any strength has been
limited and moves to the topside have been more extreme, exacerbated by the
persistent woeful performance of the electricity utility.”

 

Bonds were steady, with the yield on the benchmark 2030 government issue
down 0.5 basis points.

 

In equities, lender Absa posted a 3% increase in full-year profit, but
warned it would take longer to achieve its 18% to 20% return on equity (ROE)
target as the economy splutters.

 

Africa’s largest mobile network by subscribers, MTN, said on Wednesday its
group chief executive, Rob Shuter, would step down from his role in March
2021.

 

 

 

 

Drought, coronavirus to slow Morocco's economic growth to near 2% - planning
agency chief

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco’s economic growth is expected to be revised
downwards to near 2% in 2020 from an initial forecast of 3.5% due to drought
slashing agricultural output and fewer tourists due to the coronavirus
outbreak, the head of Morocco’s planning agency (HCP) said on Tuesday.

 

“Growth this year will witness the steepest drop in 20 years,” Ahmed Lahlimi
told Reuters by phone.

 

DROUGHT

The volatile agricultural sector, accounting for 13% of GDP and employing
33% of the workforce, is already seeing drought forcing farmers to deplete
their savings and sink in debt, he said.

 

Last year, the agricultural sector shed 85,000 jobs due to lack of rainfall,
according to official figures.

 

Morocco based its 2020 budget and initial growth forecast on an average crop
year of 7 million tonnes of cereals.

 

The lack of spring rainfall could mean the country’s cereals output would
plummet to 3 million or 4 million tonnes, according to Abdellatif Izem
director of the federation of industrial millers.

 

“The climate has been so harsh to us this year,” Lahlimi said.

 

CORONAVIRUS

Due to coronavirus, Morocco expects fewer tourists and dwindling remittances
from the Moroccans living abroad, both key for the flow of hard currency in
the country, Lahlimi said.

 

Morocco has confirmed three coronavirus cases and one death, an 89-year-old
woman. It canceled all trips to Italy and direct flights to Beijing, banned
fans from attending football matches and cancelled events involving foreign
travellers.

 

“This is a tough year for the Moroccan economy,” he said, as demand from the
EU, Morocco’s main trading partner, dwindles as a ramification of the
coronavirus outbreak.

 

To absorb external shocks, Morocco widened last Friday the band in which its
currency trades from 2.5% to 5% on either side of a reference price.
[nL8N2AZ63E]

 

“By June only, we expect to have a clear idea of the impact of the dirham
flexibility on dealing with external shocks,” he said.

 

The drop in oil prices and the measures introduced to encourage smaller
businesses will help alleviate some of the impact of drought and drop in
foreign demand, he said.

 

Inflation is expected to continue on its downward trend amid a drop in
import costs and in domestic consumption index, he added.

 

 

South Africa's MTN Group CEO to step down in March next year

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - MTN Group Ltd, Africa’s largest mobile network by
subscribers, said on Wednesday Chief Executive Officer Rob Shuter would step
down from his role at the end of a four-year term in March 2021.

 

The company said its board would find a new CEO during the year to enable a
seamless handover.

 

Shuter, a former head of Vodafone Europe with a background in banking, took
over from Sifiso Dabengwa in 2017, who resigned after Nigeria imposed a $1.7
billion penalty on the company for its failure to deactivate unregistered
users.

 

During his tenure, Shuter overhauled the telecom firm’s governance standards
and is in the middle of a strategic revamp of MTN to hunt for returns in
everything from financial services, music to video games.

 

The company also said headline earnings per share (HEPS) rose 38.9% to 468
cents for the full-year ended Dec. 31 on the IFRS 16 accounting basis. On a
like-for-like IAS 17 accounting basis, HEPS rose 61.7%.

 

Revenue rose by 9.7%, while service revenue grew by 9.8%.

 

“The group’s results were supported by double-digit growth in service
revenue by both MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana, while economic pressure, new data
usage rules and a reassessment of recognition criteria for roaming revenue
from Cell C impacted our performance in South Africa,” Shuter said in a
statement.

 

MTN, which competes with rival Vodacom Group, said it raised 14 billion rand
($876.70 million) from asset sales within the first 12 months of its
three-year 15 billion rand divestment plan aimed at simplifying its
portfolio.

 

The company said it currently does not anticipate a material impact on its
near-term network rollout plans due to the coronavirus outbreak and was
developing contingency plans to mitigate the impact.

 

Shuter said on a media conference call that due to the outbreak MTN had
restricted non-essential travel a few weeks ago to some countries, including
Iran, where it has operations.

 

“We don’t really want people travelling in and out unless there is an
absolute emergency,” Shuter said.

 

($1 = 15.9689 rand)

 

 

 

Congo Republic seeks debt deal with Glencore, Trafigura before IMF review

PARIS (Reuters) - Congo Republic aims to reach a deal with energy traders
Glencore and Trafigura to restructure a $1.7 billion debt before a meeting
with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April, the head of the
national oil company, told Reuters.

 

Maixent Raoul Ominga, director general of state-owned SNPC, said lawyers for
Congo Republic were working with representatives of Glencore and Trafigura
to get all the parties talking.

 

Glencore and Trafigura declined to comment.

 

“The government’s objective is to have an agreement with them before the
next IMF review in April,” Ominga told Reuters in Paris, in the first public
comments by a Congolese official on the efforts to get agreement.

 

Sources told Reuters in January talks between Congo Republic and the Swiss
energy traders had broken down after the firms rejected a haircut on the
debt.

 

The IMF agreed a $449 million, three-year lending programme in July - but
only $45 million has been disbursed with other funds subject to semi-annual
reviews.

 

A requirement for further disbursements is the restructuring of Congo’s
oil-backed loans from the Swiss traders.

 

If they agree to a haircut - or accepting lower than market value for the
assets that are collateral for the loans - Congo Republic would spend less
on debt servicing.

 

The IMF has said it delayed submitting a 2019 year-end review to its
executive board as it waits for Congo Republic to finalise a deal with the
traders.

 

Ominga told Reuters the situation escalated in February when Glencore tried
to recover its funds and sought to prevent the delivery of some Congo
Republic crude cargoes.

 

Had Glencore succeeded, he said that would have blocked negotiations and
paralysed the central African country, which is heavily indebted.

 

Ominga denied reports that Congo Republic had withheld all oil deliveries to
Glencore since 2018.

 

But he said Congo Republic had suspended some cargoes at the end of last
year, “with the aim of finding a solution on the restructuring”. Once a deal
is reached, he said shipments would resume.

 

DEBT BURDEN

The IMF estimated Congo Republic’s debt burden at nearly $9.5 billion or
85.5% of its GDP, when it approved its three-year lending programme.

 

Environmental and rights group Global Witness said in January that audited
accounts of the SNPC reviewed by the group showed the state oil firm owed
more than had been estimated in the IMF report.

 

Its debts included $3.3 billion in advances and other debt to joint venture
partners, and a consortium of banks led by African lender Ecobank.

 

A spokeswoman for Ecobank had no immediate comment.

 

Ominga said SNPC’s debt and the production and sharing agreements signed
with oil majors did not add to Congo Republic’s total debt, although he said
SNPC was talking to the consortium of banks on restructuring a $600 million
loan and would meet them in Paris at the end of March.

 

“This debt is not part of the state’s debt. It has nothing to do with it.
There are guarantees on the debt, backed by SNPC’s assets. They are
structured in a way that they don’t impact the state’s debt,” Ominga said.

 

Congo Republic, one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producers, has
pledged billions of dollars to develop oil fields as part of production
agreements with oil majors.

 

Ominga said a potentially huge discovery by the oil company Societe
Africaine de Recherche Petroliere et Distribution (SARPD) could boost Congo
Republic’s oil output by a million bpd.

 

SNPC holds 10% of the exploration licence.

 

Although the nation’s output has increased, in 2019 production of around
342,000 barrels per day (bpd) missed the government’s target by 2.2% because
of technical problems at a field operated by Italy’s Eni, which has yet to
resume production.

 

No-one from Eni was immediately available for comment, although its
full-year results statement said there had been “facility shutdowns,” in
Congo Republic.

 

 

Nigerian stocks at 4-year low, naira weakens

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian stocks sank to more than a four-year low on
Wednesday and the naira weakened after a plunge in oil prices triggered
worries over the value of the currency.

 

Banking shares were the biggest fallers, down 3.54% to the sub-index’s its
lowest level in forty months, after the market fell for the fourth straight
session.

 

 

Co-op Bank Kenya seeks to fully acquire Jamii Bora Bank

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Co-operative Bank of Kenya has offered to fully
acquire Jamii Bora Bank, the central bank said on Wednesday, in the latest
instance of consolidation in the banking industry.

 

The 55-year old Co-op Kenya, which is mainly owned by members of the East
African nation’s co-operative movement, is the fourth-largest lender,
controlling 9.63% of the market with 159 outlets.

 

Jamii Bora is the second smallest of Kenya’s 39 lenders, with just 0.12%
market share and 17 branches.

 

The central bank said the proposed transaction, which requires regulatory
approvals, will “diversify the business models of the two institutions and
enhance the stability of the Kenyan banking sector.”

 

Jamii Bora is mainly focused on lending to micro-enterprises. Shares of
Co-op Kenya rose 3% in early trade.

 

There have been several mergers and acquisitions in Kenya since 2016 brought
about by the failure of three mid-sized and small lenders, as well as a cap
on commercial lending rates, which was removed last November.

 

KCB Group acquired National Bank of Kenya last year, while CBA Group merged
with NIC Bank to form NCBA in a deal that completed last year.

 

 

Nurseries 'pushed to the edge' by business rates

English nurseries are "horrified" not to have been included in a tax holiday
being given to small businesses to help them in the face of the coronavirus.

 

"We are being pushed to the edge," said Andrew Howarth, director of
Manchester-based firm Paint Pots.

 

Nurseries like his are warning they will struggle to survive if forced to
close doors due to the coronavirus.

 

High business rates were already forcing nurseries in his borough to go out
of business, Mr Howarth said.

 

Nurseries fear they may be forced to close temporarily due to the virus and
that some businesses won't withstand the loss of income, on top of already
stretched finances.

 

On Wednesday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that tens of thousands of
England's small retail, leisure and hospitality firms will not pay any
business rates for the next 12 months.

 

Business rates suspended for shops and cafes

Budget 2020: What it means for you

Chancellor pumps billions into economy to combat coronavirus

The tax holiday is part of a package of measures to support the UK economy
in the face of disruption from the coronavirus outbreak, but the list of
firms did not include nurseries.

 

"In Wythenshawe, a deprived area in South Manchester, our business rates are
more than our rents," Mr Howarth told the BBC. He owns three nurseries in
the borough. He says although business rates are supposed to relate to the
rentable value of the property he pays rates equivalent to 115% of the
rental value, when it should be 40-50%.

 

Five nurseries located within two square miles of his Wythenshawe nursery
have closed in the last six months, he says.

 

There are 12,387 day nurseries and play schools in England that are liable
for business rates according to the real estate adviser Altus Group.

 

Altus Group's analysis shows that nurseries will pay £134.5m in business
rates for 2020-2021, a fourth year cumulative increase of 45.3%, compared
with bills during 2016-2017, the final year before the 2017 revaluation of
business rates came into effect.

 

Sector under 'huge strain'

Victoria Banfield, owner of the Little Lane Nursery in Stamford, says
temporary closures would amount to "business suicide" for nurseries.

 

"We would be relying on our parents to continue to pay nursery fees whilst
we are closed."

 

"The sector is already under huge strain," she said. "Most nurseries could
be put out of business if forced to close for any period of time, with
nursery insurers advising that no cover will be available if we are forced
to close our doors.

 

 

Nurseries may have to close if staffing levels are affected by the spread of
the virus

Both nursery providers point out that any widespread shutdown of the
childcare sector would have a huge knock-on effect on other industries,
because parents wouldn't be able to go out to work if they lose access to
childcare.

 

"We're horrified that this government favours pubs and hotels above
essential nursery businesses which support children's development and enable
parents to work and train," said Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of nursery
industry body National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), which has lobbied
the government to change business rates for nurseries over the last three
years.

 

"Despite our evidence-based submission to the Treasury, the chancellor has
chosen to ignore the fact that nurseries are really struggling financially,"
she said.

 

A Budget measure to provide government funding for Statutory Sick Pay for
staff who are off work due to the coronavirus will be a help to childcare
businesses, the body added.

 

However, it is concerned that there will be no support or compensation if
nurseries are forced to shut.

 

"Nurseries are fearful that any temporary closure as a result of coronavirus
outbreak may push them out of business altogether. This risk appears to be
uninsurable and they need support now."--BBC

 

 

 

Young teetotallers help 'nolo' beer sales to rocket

Sales of no or low alcohol beer are up 30% since 2016, as 18-24 year olds
increasingly shun alcohol.

 

"Nolo" alcohol is set to be one of the driving trends of 2020, according to
the craft brewers' trade organisation.

 

It says growing health consciousness has prompted almost one in four young
people to become teetotal.

 

The number of alcohol drinkers across the British population also appears to
have fallen slightly.

 

The number of 18-24 year olds who say they don't drink has increased by 6%
in the past 12 months, to 23%, according to the Society of Independent
Brewers' (SIBA) British Craft Beer Report.

 

The report is forecasting that no alcohol, low alcohol and "free-from" beers
are set to be one of the fastest growing parts of the market in 2020, with
under 35s choosing low alcohol versions of drinks for a quiet night in or to
accompany meals.

 

"As the consumers in this age bracket get older, this is obviously going to
have an increasing impact on beer sales in the future," added the
association, which boasts more than 700 breweries.

 

"Consumers are more conscious of their physical and mental health than they
have ever been, and this has driven the fall in alcohol consumption we are
seeing, especially among young people."

 

Young drinkers lead the trend for alcohol-free beer

The challenges of catering for Generation Z

Six in 10 of those aged 35-44 drink beer, compared with 44% of 18-24 year
olds, the report found.

 

Growth in beer sales is slowing, with total beer sales in 2019 rising by
1.1%, compared with a 2.6% climb a year earlier.

 

The report also indicated a slight increase in the overall number of people
who never drink alcohol, with 17% saying they were teetotal, compared to 16%
a year earlier.

 

"The findings in this year's report show a drastically changing marketplace
- with consumers opting for no or low alcohol options, particularly young
people," said Caroline Nodder, editor of the report.

 

She added that there is likely to be more growth in no or low alcoholic
drinks over the next 12 months as people become more health-conscious,
providing a market for small independent breweries.

 

Research firm Kantar found that two-fifths of British people aged 18-24 do
not drink or are trying to moderate their alcohol consumption.—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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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
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
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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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