Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 08 April 2021

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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 08 April 2021

 


 

 


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ü  Beijing now has more billionaires than any city

ü  Study says bitcoin could derail China's climate change targets

ü  World Bank warns against 'high' global tax minimum

ü  Should firms be more worried about firmware cyber-attacks?

ü  Are pay-by-the-minute booths the future of work?

ü  Tax wealth to help shrink inequality caused by Covid says IMF

ü  High Street shops will 'bounce back' on reopening day

ü  Boohoo: Price differences for same clothes 'a genuine mistake'

ü  Covid: Shed and garage offices pose insurance risk

ü  JP Morgan boss plans for 'significantly' less office space

ü  Asia shares set to follow Wall Street's modest gains after Fed maintains
stance

ü  Amazon union election in Alabama has 55% voter turnout

ü  U.S. government, states ask judge to deny Facebook’s request to dismiss
lawsuits

ü  White House, U.S. companies could agree on 25% tax rate

ü  Prosus sells 2% of Tencent for $14.7 bln in world's largest block trade

ü  Oil falls after U.S. gasoline inventories unexpectedly surge

ü  GM offers clues to technology aimed at slashing EV battery costs

ü  Nigerian Businesses Groan Under Govt's New Registration Protocol

ü  Kenya: Uproar as Country's Debt to Hit U.S.$98 Bllion By 2025

 

 

 

 

 


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Beijing now has more billionaires than any city

Beijing is now home to more billionaires than any other city in the world,
according to the latest Forbes' annual rich list.

 

The Chinese capital added 33 billionaires last year and now hosts 100, said
the business magazine.

 

This narrowly beats New York City, which hosts 99 and has held the top
ranking for the last seven years.

 

China's quick containment of Covid-19, the rise of its technology firms and
stock markets helped it gain top spot.

 

Although Beijing now has more billionaires than the Big Apple, the combined
net worth of New York City's billionaires remained US$80bn (£58bn) greater
than that of their counterparts in Beijing.

 

Beijing's richest resident was Zhang Yiming, the founder of video-sharing
app TikTok and chief executive of its parent firm ByteDance. He saw his net
worth double to $35.6bn.

 

In contrast, New York City's richest resident, former Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, had a fortune worth $59bn.

 

China's e-commerce boom

China, along with the US, has seen its technology giants become even bigger
during the pandemic as more people shopped online and looked for sources of
entertainment.

 

This saw the massive creation of personal wealth for the founders and
shareholders of these tech titans.

 

China, whose figure included Hong Kong and Macao in the Forbes count, added
more billionaires to the list than any other country globally, with 210
newcomers.

 

Half of China's new billionaires made their fortunes from manufacturing or
technology ventures, including female billionaire Kate Wang, who made her
money from e-cigarettes.

 

With 698 billionaires, China is closing in on the US, which still leads with
724 billionaires.

 

One billionaire every 17 hours

A record 493 newcomers joined the list globally last year, roughly one new
billionaire every 17 hours, according to Forbes.

 

India had the third-highest number of billionaires, with 140. In total, the
1,149 billionaires from Asia Pacific were worth $4.7tn, compared with the US
billionaires' $4.4 tn.

 

Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, remains the world's
richest person for the fourth consecutive year. His net worth grew by $64bn
to $177bn last year.--BBC

 

 

 

Study says bitcoin could derail China's climate change targets

Bitcoin mining in China is so carbon intensive that it could threaten the
country's emissions reduction targets, according to new research.

 

China wants its emissions to peak in 2030, and has plans to be carbon
neutral by 2060.

 

The cryptocurrency's carbon footprint is as large as one of China's ten
largest cities, the study found.

 

China accounts for more than 75% of bitcoin mining around the world,
researchers said.

 

The study was written by academics from the University of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, Cornell University and the
University of Surrey. It was published by the peer-reviewed journal Nature
Communications.

 

"Without appropriate interventions and feasible policies, the intensive
bitcoin blockchain operation in China can quickly grow as a threat that
could potentially undermine the emission reduction effort taken place in the
country," it warned.

 

Some rural areas in China are popular among bitcoin miners, mainly due to
the cheaper electricity prices and undeveloped land to house the servers.

 

Miners play a dual role, effectively auditing bitcoin transactions in
exchange for the opportunity to acquire the digital currency.

 

The process requires enormous computing power, and in turn consumes huge
amounts of energy.

 

Already, bitcoin-related emissions in China exceed the total emissions of
the Czech Republic and Qatar in 2016.

 

By 2024, China's bitcoin operations will exceed the total energy consumption
of Italy and Saudi Arabia, and would rank 12th among nations.

 

At its peak, it could account for about 5.41% of China's electricity
generation emissions.

 

The researchers said a carbon tax would be relatively ineffective for
bitcoin, and suggested "site regulation" policies instead.

 

'Chinese financial weapon'

The researchers said the "attractive financial incentive of bitcoin mining"
has caused an arms race in dedicated mining hardware

 

The price of the cryptocurrency surged during the pandemic, rising from
$7,000 last April to pass $60,000 in March before hitting a period of
volatility.

 

Bitcoin's price increase was pushed higher by well-known companies adopting
it as a method of payment, including electric carmaker Tesla.

 

The Covid-19 pandemic also likely played a part, with more people shopping
online and moving further away from physical currencies.

 

Critics have long charged that in addition to its environmental impact, its
main use is as a financial speculation tool rather than as a currency.

 

They also worry that it is prone to market manipulation by a few large
players.--BBC

 

 

 

World Bank warns against 'high' global tax minimum

The head of the World Bank has warned world leaders against setting a global
minimum tax rate for companies that is too high.

 

In an interview with the BBC, David Malpass said he did not want to see new
rules that would hinder poor countries' ability to attract investment.

 

The 21% global minimum rate called for by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
"strikes me as...high", he added.

 

Officials said on Wednesday they hope to reach a global tax deal by
mid-year.

 

Ms Yellen has said a global minimum tax on companies is necessary to stop a
"30-year race to the bottom", which has seen countries slash rates on
companies, in an effort to woo business investments.

 

She is in favour of having all countries agree to a minimum tax rate of 21%.
Meanwhile, the US under President Joe Biden is seeking to increase its
minimum tax rate to 28%.

 

To US lawmakers, Ms Yellen has made the case that establishing a global
minimum tax would allow the US to remain competitive, despite that increase.

 

The UK is also looking to raise taxes on corporations from 19%, up to 25% in
2023, in what would be the first increase since the 1970s.

 

Global tax deal

Earlier talks led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) had focused on a minimum corporate rate of 12.5%.

 

While the European Commission this week said it supported the idea of a
minimum tax, officials declined to comment on a specific rate.

 

Some countries, such as Ireland, have expressed reservations about the US
proposal.

 

US pledges: 'America first is not America alone'

Who is Trump's World Bank pick Malpass?

The average corporate tax rate globally is about 24%, according to the Tax
Foundation. Europe has the lowest regional rate at roughly 20%.

 

Mr Malpass told the BBC he was encouraged by signs of renewed focus on the
global tax talks, which have dragged on for years without coming to
resolution.

 

But he cautioned that world leaders must consider how a new global minimum
tax might fit in with other proposals to tax carbon and digital services
provided by tech giants - other priorities for the negotiations.

 

"The critical thing is to have growth for countries around the world," Mr
Malpass said. "Tax rates matter for everyone and so there also needs to be a
legal environment that attracts new investment into the poorer countries."

 

He added that Ms Yellen's proposal of a 21% global minimum tax "strikes me
as a high corporate rate, but this is not my call".--BBC

 

 

 

Should firms be more worried about firmware cyber-attacks?

Computing giant Microsoft recently put out a report claiming that businesses
globally are neglecting a key aspect of their cyber-security - the need to
protect computers, servers and other devices from firmware attacks.

 

Its survey of 1,000 cyber-security decision makers at enterprises across
multiple industries in the UK, US, Germany, Japan and China has revealed
that 80% of firms have experienced at least one firmware attack in the past
two years.

 

Yet only 29% of security budgets have been allocated to protect firmware.

 

However, the new report comes on the back of a recent significant security
vulnerability affecting Microsoft's widely-used Exchange email system.

 

And the computing giant launched a range of extra-secure Windows 10
computers last year that it says will prevent firmware from being tampered
with.

 

So is this just an attempt to divert attention and sell more PCs, or should
businesses be more worried?

 

How a firmware attack works

Firmware is a type of permanent software code used to control each hardware
component in a PC.

 

Increasingly, cyber-criminals are designing malware that quietly tampers
with the firmware in motherboards, which tell the PC to start up, or with
the firmware in hardware drivers.

 

This is a sneaky way to neatly bypass a computer's operating system or any
software designed to detect malware, because the firmware code is in the
hardware, which is a layer below the operating system.

 

Security experts have told the BBC that even if IT departments are following
cyber-security best practices like patching security vulnerabilities in
software, or protecting corporate networks from malicious intrusions, many
firms are still forgetting about the firmware.

 

"People don't think about it in terms of their patching - it's not often
updated, and when it is, sometimes it breaks things," explains Australian
cyber-security researcher Robert Potter.

 

Mr Potter built the Washington Post's cyber-security operations centre and
has advised the Australian government on cyber-security.

 

"Firmware patching can sometimes be tricky, so for a lot of companies, it's
become a blind spot."

 

There have been several major firmware attacks discovered in the last two
years, such as RobbinHood, a ransomware that uses firmware to gain root
access to a victim's computer and then encrypts all files until a Bitcoin
ransom has been paid. This malware held the data of several US city
governments hostage in May 2019.

 

Another example is Thunderspy, an attack that utilises the direct memory
access (DMA) function that PC hardware components use to talk to each other.

 

This attack is so stealthy that an attacker can read and copy all data on a
computer without leaving a trace, and the attack is possible even if the
hard drive is encrypted, the computer is locked, or set to sleep.

 

"If device firmware has no protection in place, or if the protection can be
bypassed, then firmware compromise is both incredibly serious and
potentially invisible," explains Chris Boyd, a malware intelligence analyst
at security firm Malwarebytes.

 

"Remote or physical compromise which permits rogue code to run can set the
stage for data theft, system damage, spying, and more."

 

Big organisations beware

The good news is that firmware attacks are less likely to target consumers,
but big firms should beware, according to Gabriel Cirlig, a security
researcher with US cyber-security firm Human (formerly White Ops).

 

"It is a big deal, but fortunately it only works against big organisations,
because you need to target specific types of motherboards and firmware," he
tells the BBC.

 

Typically, cyber-criminals tend to attack operating systems and popular
software, because they only make money if they can infect the biggest
numbers of end users.

 

Firmware attacks are less common and more complicated to implement than
other types of cyber-attacks, but unfortunately the coronavirus pandemic has
accelerated the problem.

 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency within
the US Department of Commerce, continually updates a National Vulnerability
Database (NVD) with new security flaws.

 

The database has recorded a five-fold increase in attacks against firmware
in the last four years.

 

Coronavirus lockdowns in multiple countries have led to multiple employees
working from home and connecting remotely to work servers. Each one of those
computers and mobile devices is an opportunity.

 

Carrying out a firmware attack might be complex, says Mr Cirlig, but if
attackers could silently steal critical information from a c-suite
executive's laptop, like passwords, they could then use it to infiltrate a
company's networks and steal more data.

 

Nation-state hackers would be most likely to use such an attack, he adds.

 

"This is a big operation with big pay-offs - it's not something that a small
group of cyber-criminals has the manpower to do."

 

Creeping soon to a network near you

Although firmware attacks are not as ubiquitous as phishing scams, malware
or other cyber-attacks, the cyber-security experts the BBC spoke to say now
is the time for businesses, and the technology industry as a whole, to pay
attention to hardware security.

 

"Firmware attacks are not common on a day-to-day basis, but that's because
people don't realise they're being infected by such an attack," says Mr
Boyd.

 

"It's like when ransomware first came onto the scene - people didn't know of
anyone who was infected by it, and if big organisations were, they wouldn't
tell anyone about it, as there was an element of shame, not wanting their
clients to know they'd been infected."

 

Mr Boyd adds that a new generation of "budding hardware enthusiasts" who
have been learning their way around firmware by "modding video game consoles
over the last decade" could well pose additional threats to enterprise
cyber-security going forward - a point Mt Cirlig fervently agrees with,
since he hacked the firmware in his own car when he was younger.

 

"Microsoft is right to raise this as a major issue, because we need to bring
firmware designers and operational technologies along the journey of
cyber-security, the way we have with software companies," says Mr Potter.

 

"As we connect more things to the internet, we're connecting a lot more
devices that haven't been designed with cyber-security in mind. And if the
trend continues, bad guys will go after it."--BBC

 

 

 

Are pay-by-the-minute booths the future of work?

I don’t really like working from home.

 

Sure, there are advantages, but I find it isolating. I’m sick of sitting in
my apartment. I prefer to interact with colleagues face-to-face.

 

I find the endless Zoom meetings draining. I’m tired of the lunch options
nearby.

 

Also, construction noise is inescapable in Singapore, and I’m dreading the
day when builders start tearing down the building across the street, or the
neighbours start to renovate their kitchen.

 

In preparation for this, I tried out a new type of workspace. It’s a
pay-by-the-minute desk in a booth at my nearest shopping centre.

 

The pods, which cost less than four Singapore dollars ($3; £2.15) per hour,
have been created by a Singaporean company called Switch.

 

 

They follow similar booths that have been around for a few years in Japan,
where a handful of companies like Telecube and Cocodesk have placed them in
metro stations, hotel lobbies and convenience stores.

 

However, Switch's main competition in Singapore appears to be Starbucks, or
any other coffee shop with free wi-fi.

 

The booth is a reasonable work space, if a little utilitarian, and very
compact. The wi-fi works, and so does the fan. The chair is okay, but
unremarkable. The overhead light isn’t overpowering. The grey and white
colour scheme isn’t very exciting, but nor is it distracting.

 

But the main selling point for me is that it's not my living room. Switch's
founder Dominic Penaloza agrees.

 

“I certainly would agree with the notion that part of the value proposition
[of the booths] is that psychological separation that is created by a
physical separation between work and home,” he says.

 

Then again, if I’m sick of my apartment, leaving it is also a hassle.
Getting to the booth required a short train journey - and walking half way
around a shopping centre in the tropical heat to find an entrance that
opened before 10am.

 

Then I had to check in using a contact tracing app at the centre's entrance,
and then at the booth itself, using both the Switch app and the contact
tracing app. And once in the booth, wearing a mask was still compulsory.

 

These are not big problems, but they all require more effort than just
walking from my bedroom to my living room.

 

Switch has now opened more than 60 of its booths in Singapore. They are in
addition to its 3,500 hireable desks in shared co-working offices that are
the more typical way of hiring somewhere to work.

 

Switch aims to place many more booths across the city-state. And overseas
expansion is on the horizon too.

 

Mr Penaloza says its on-demand flexibility "means you pay only for what you
use, and you can use them where and when you need it".

 

While he thinks the firm's booths would have existed without Covid-19, the
pandemic made the business case for them more obvious.

 

Recent surveys from around the world suggest that a majority of employers
will permanently adopt a hybrid working model when the pandemic finally ends
- staff will be able to continue to work from home part of the time.

 

However, home working has raised new questions about who pays for what. For
example, if employees work from a kitchen table or study, should their
employers pay for their internet connection or their ergonomic chairs?

 

Switch thinks its booths may offer a solution, and some of its corporate
clients already allow their employees to charge the cost of a booth to the
company.

 

Remote working expert Prithwiraj Choudhury says Switch's booths take the
concept to "the next level".

 

An associate professor at Harvard Business School, he says remote working
had already been growing in popularity before the pandemic.

 

He gives the example of Tulsa Remote, which started in 2018 and aims to
rejuvenate the Oklahoma city by offering remote workers grants of up to
$10,000 to move there.

 

Another company, MobSquab, helps US tech firms locate international workers
who are struggling to get US work visas in Canada, from where they work
remotely. It also started out three years ago.

 

Prof Choudhury thinks the booths could create an additional layer of
flexibility for such organisations, who often rely on putting the workers in
a typical shared workspace.

 

"These pods take this idea to the next level, and create the opportunity for
workers who want to work-from-anywhere to do so," he says.

 

New Economy is a new series exploring how businesses, trade, economies and
working life are changing fast.

 

But could they really take off in Europe and North America, where many
workers are accustomed to larger working spaces?

 

UK business psychologist Jess Baker thinks they could be popular with those
looking for a cheap alternative to working from home.

 

"Cultural differences may mean that Westerners would have to get used to
these compact working spaces," she says. "And while I'm honestly wondering
if I'll have to clear up the previous occupant's half-empty coffee cup, I am
also looking forward to trying one out."

 

It should be noted that food and drink isn't allowed in Switch booths, and
customers are expected to wipe them down after using them, although there
aren't any staff on hand to enforce the rule. Switch says the "space
provider" is responsible for cleaning, which in the case of the pod I
visited was the operator of the shopping centre.

 

Fellow UK business psychologist Stuart Duff, a partner at Pearn Kandola,
also thinks they may be popular. "As we increase in our need for private and
cheap working spaces, our concern about size and space will quickly be
outweighed by the value of privacy and convenience."

 

>From my own experience, the booth in a Singapore shopping centre was a good
place to get work done for an hour or two. But then the stores began to
open.

 

After the staff at the electronics outlet next to the pod finished switching
off a seemingly endless string of alarms, they turned on the music.

 

It wasn’t so loud that work was impossible, but it was loud enough for the
song-identification app Shazam to tell me I was listening to pop stars Demi
Lovato and Cardi B.

 

As I left, there was a flustered-looking man checking out of the pod next to
mine. He shook his head, complained about the music and then marched off.

 

I felt the same. One reason I came here was to avoid noisy neighbours.

 

Still, the booths seem potentially useful. I would consider using one again,
but probably not the same one.-BBC

 

 

 

 

Tax wealth to help shrink inequality caused by Covid says IMF

Governments should consider raising taxes on the wealthy to help pay for the
cost of Covid, the International Monetary Fund says.

 

It suggested a temporary increase in taxes on wealth or high incomes could
help tackle inequalities that have widened due to the crisis.

 

In its fiscal report, it added the move would help the worst affected by the
pandemic feel a sense of cohesion.

 

But the organisation urged governments to "carefully assess trade-offs".

 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) pointed to the reform of current
policies on inheritance taxes or property, for example, before turning to
wealth taxes.

 

"To help meet pandemic-related financing needs, policymakers could consider
a temporary Covid-19 recovery contribution, levied on high incomes or
wealth," the report said.

 

"To accumulate the resources needed to improve access to basic services,
enhance safety nets, and reinvigorate efforts to achieve the sustainable
development goals, domestic and international tax reforms are necessary,
especially as the recovery gains momentum," it said.

 

A wealth tax typically targets the assets owned by taxpayers, such as
property or investments. Its use has declined in recent decades.

 

The Wealth Tax Commission in the UK last year found that a one-off wealth
tax at a rate of 5% over £500,000 per individual would raise £260bn in the
UK. It warned that an annual wealth tax would be harder to deliver as rich
individuals were likely to change their behaviour to avoid being squeezed.

 

Vitor Gaspar, the director of the IMF's fiscal affairs department, added:
"Pre-existing inequalities have amplified the adverse impact of the
pandemic. And, in turn, Covid-19 has aggravated inequalities. A vicious
cycle of inequality could morph into a social and political seismic crack."

 

It said during the pandemic, younger and poorer people had suffered most,
being at greater risk of losing their jobs or incomes.

 

In the lender of last resort's recent economic outlook report, it forecasted
a stronger economic recovery than expected, both globally and in the UK,
than it had done in January.

 

It expects, however, that recoveries will diverge dangerously within and
between countries too.

 

Countries with slower vaccine rollouts, more limited support from economic
policy, and those more reliant on tourism are likely to do less well.--BBC

 

 

 

 

High Street shops will 'bounce back' on reopening day

The number of shoppers visiting retail parks and essential shops in March
shows consumers have missed bricks and mortar shops, says Springboard.

 

The analyst says sales at non-essential shops are likely to "bounce back"
once they reopen on 12 April.

 

While footfall was still lower in March, the annual decline had halved in
retail parks by the end of the month.

 

Springboard predicts a 48% rise in sales when lockdown restrictions are
lifted.

 

Between the first and last weeks of March, shopping centres saw the decline
in footfall move up from -69% to -62.5%, compared with the same period in
2019.

 

Meanwhile, a -29.8% annual drop in footfall at retail parks shrank to -14.8%
just before the Easter weekend.

 

And during the four-day bank holiday, footfall in central London and other
large British cities was three times greater than for the same period in
March 2020, which was just after the first coronavirus lockdown began.

 

Springboard says that the fact more consumers are visiting these locations
to buy from those essential shops allowed to stay open indicates a "pent up
demand" to make shopping decisions in person in bricks and mortar stores,
rather than online.

 

"Footfall in UK retail destinations has increased from week to week for 10
of the past 11 weeks despite all but non-essential stores being closed,"
said Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard.

 

"This is the longest period of sustained increases in footfall since the
lead up to the reopening of non-essential retail stores in June 2020 when
footfall rose for a consecutive six weeks."

 

Meanwhile, latest data from consultants PwC's Consumer Sentiment Index shows
that consumer confidence is now at its highest level since the tracking of
the data began in 2008.

 

PwC says the figures show there are consumers with more disposable income
and "a pent up demand to spend after a year of lockdown restrictions".

 

It says a big reason for the optimism stems from the coronavirus vaccination
rollout and the fact that people over 65 and many of those over 55 have
already received their first jabs.

 

The consultants added that it saw a "never before seen" jump in
leisure-spending intentions, rising from -7% to -16% in February, to a
positive 25-32% in April.

 

"Forced savings during lockdown have led to record levels of optimism and a
number of 'firsts' such as all regions being positive since we started the
survey in 2008," said PwC's consumer markets lead Lisa Hooker.

 

"Consumers have missed their favourite activities such as shopping, eating
out and going on holiday and so there is ample opportunity, over the spring
and into the summer, for operators to maximise this appetite to spend."--BBC

 

 

 

Boohoo: Price differences for same clothes 'a genuine mistake'

Identical clothing was sold at different prices across Boohoo's brands due
to a "genuine mistake and not business practice", the retailer says.

 

The same coat was sold by Dorothy Perkins at £55 and Coast at £89 and the
Coast item had the brand name cut off.

 

Joanna Sikora ordered a skirt from Karen Millen and found it had an Oasis
label with that branding crossed out.

 

Boohoo said it had not realised its companies had bought the same items and
branded and priced them differently.

 

It comes as the BBC was sent further examples of coats on the Oasis and
Coast websites at different prices.

 

Jess, who asked us not to use her last name, spotted the khaki coats
pictured, which have since been removed from both sites.

 

She said: "You buy a brand in good faith that what you are getting is
exclusive to the company. I initially assumed that the previous instances
were a slight mix up, however after finding these myself I now realise that
this is common practice in Boohoo. It doesn't speak well for the company if
fooling the customer is their main method for turning a profit."

 

Boohoo said these coats were part of an issue that arose when the
coronavirus pandemic hit.

 

The closure of non-essential stores to stop the spread of Covid saw
thousands of High Street fashion chains shut their shops for good.

 

Boohoo bought up the online businesses of some of the fashion brands that
went into administration.

 

Most recently, it bought Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton from Arcadia. It
acquired Karen Millen and Coast in August 2019.

 

Retailers that were forced to close their doors cancelled their orders with
suppliers, a statement from Boohoo said.

 

These suppliers then offered products they had already made for sale to
other retailers that were still trading, it said.

 

Some of Boohoo's brands bought some of this excess stock to fill gaps in
their ranges as clothing stock began to run down.

 

"Our mistake was not realising that some of our brands had purchased the
same items from suppliers," the statement said.

 

"Therefore we failed to make sure prices were the same across our group of
brands."

 

Boohoo said the problem affected "about 10 lines out of thousands", it was
confident the issue was fixed and has apologised to customers.

 

It is not an offence for different retailers to sell the same item at
different prices even if they are owned by the same company.

 

But "it could be misleading if consumers think they are buying a particular
brand, when this is not the case," said Sylvia Rook, a lead officer from the
Chartered Trading Standards institute.

 

"Consumers may expect that items from one retail outlet are superior to
another, and therefore be willing to pay a premium for this," she said.

 

A trader could be in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading
Regulations 2008 if an advert misleads consumers and causes them, either to
make a purchase they would not have made, or to pay a higher price," she
explained.

 

Oli Townsend, assistant deals and features editor at MoneySavingExpert.com
said irregular pricing was not unique to one group.

 

In 2019, an MSE investigation found shoppers were paying up to 34% more for
the exact same item at Littlewoods compared to Very - even though both are
owned by the same company.

 

Mr Townsend said: "There's a question of ethics when there's such a price
disparity between retailers under the same parent company - especially when
in some cases they may share the same warehouse, courier and returns
department.

 

"These brands risk their customers feeling ripped off and losing trust in
that brand."

 

He said MSE encouraged shoppers to do price comparisons online to make sure
they were getting the best deal.

 

"But if some retailers are cutting off or obscuring the original brand name,
it makes this difficult and puts consumers at a disadvantage," he said.

 

Adam French, Which? consumer rights expert, said customers would
"understandably see this practice as dishonest".

 

He said: "Companies who switch items between brands for different prices and
cover up or remove the previous label risk losing consumer trust."--BBC

 

 

 

Covid: Shed and garage offices pose insurance risk

A growing number of people expect to be working from converted sheds,
garages and summerhouses as Covid changes our attitudes to home working, an
insurer has said.

 

The proportion planning a dedicated office in the house is also growing,
according to the survey by Aviva.

 

It appears some are moving away from operating from a sofa or armchair.

 

But there are warnings that some may not be covered by home insurance if
something goes wrong.

 

'Shoffice' plans

The Aviva survey suggests one in 10 of those asked work from a converted
shed, garage or summerhouse - a proportion expected to rise to 13%.

 

The popularity of so-called shoffices has risen, with some people spending
significant sums for a luxury cabin.

 

Wealthy home workers retreat to their sheds

How Covid has changed where we want to live

As previously reported, the word garage has become the most popular search
term on the property website Rightmove.

 

Offices within the home are also likely to become more common, with 43% of
the 1,400 people asked in the Aviva survey expecting to use such an
arrangement compared with 34% doing so now.

 

In contrast, the proportion working from their bed is expected to fall from
14% now to a still-noteworthy 11% in the future.

 

Gareth Hemming, from Aviva, said: "Flexible working and home-working
practices have been around for some time, but they have really come into
their own in the last year.

 

"While home-working is not the choice of every individual, we are likely to
see more flexibility as a basic benchmark for the future, with many people
working remotely, at least some of the time."

 

The survey suggested that one in five people found working from home more
stressful than being based at work.

 

That stress may increase depending on their line of work - with some new
businesses setting up from home, potentially without insurance cover.

 

Defaqto, which analyses the sector, said that some people risked
invalidating their insurance if they failed to inform their insurer about
their new line of work, if it created extra risks.

 

For example, craft workers using fire, or burning tools, or home cooks
selling their creations might require specialist insurance that protected
them from the risk of fire or food poisoning respectively.

 

While some insurers have allowed people setting up in business at home to
extend their cover at no extra cost, some people may need to buy new
policies or pay larger premiums owing to the extra risk.

 

There is also the risk that expensive equipment might bust insurance limits
in existing policies if stolen or damaged.

 

'Get advice'

Brian Brown, consumer finance expert at Defaqto, said the pandemic had made
many people rethink their work and expand a hobby into a business.

 

"It is fantastic to see such entrepreneurial spirit but running a business
from home is not without risk and should not be entered into lightly," he
said.

 

"Standard home insurance products are designed to cover your property for
domestic use and not as a business, although most will allow you to do
office work from home.

 

If you are using your home as a business premises, storing stock and
equipment at home or having customers visit, you could invalidate your
policy."

 

He suggested people discuss their business plans with their insurer. They
might consider a home worker insurance policy, with small business insurance
brokers able to offer guidance, he said.--BBC

 

 

 

JP Morgan boss plans for 'significantly' less office space

JP Morgan will need "significantly" less office space in coming years, as
some staff at the investment bank shift permanently to part-time work at
home.

 

The bank is expected to need just 60 seats per 100 people, boss Jamie Dimon
wrote in his annual shareholder letter.

 

He also warned that the bank is likely to move people out of London and to
Europe due to Brexit.

 

He said Europe "has had, and will continue to have, the upper hand" in
Brexit negotiations.

 

How many move out of the UK depends on still unresolved questions in those
talks about how financial services will operate, he said.

 

"We may reach a tipping point many years out when it may make sense to move
all functions that service Europe out of the United Kingdom and into
continental Europe," Mr Dimon said.

 

In the letter, he warned that the split from Europe will hurt the UK's
economic prospects in the years ahead.

 

"Brexit was accomplished, but many issues still need to be negotiated. And
in those negotiations, Europe has had, and will continue to have, the upper
hand, " he said.

 

"In the short run (ie, the next few years), this cannot possibly be a
positive for the United Kingdom's GDP."

 

His outlook for the UK contrasted with his forecast for the US, where he
said a "boom" could run through 2023.

 

'Fraying American Dream'

Mr Dimon said the growth in the US would come from the government's spending
plans - which have included trillions of dollars in emergency virus aid - as
well as "euphoria" about the end of the pandemic, backed by savings families
have built up during lockdowns.

 

"The permanent effect of this boom will be fully known only when we see the
quality, effectiveness and sustainability of the infrastructure and other
government investments," he said.

 

At the same time, he said the US was in need of major changes to address its
widening income inequality, which he blamed for driving populist political
movements on the left and right.

 

He called for raising the minimum wage, increasing taxes on the wealthy and
eliminating tax breaks that benefit private equity firms, race cars and
private jets.

 

The US should also invest in "modernising" the country's infrastructure and
introduce a carbon tax to help tackle climate change, he said.

 

"Many of our citizens are unsettled, and the fault line for all this discord
is a fraying American dream - the enormous wealth of our country is accruing
to the very few. In other words, the fault line is inequality," he said.

 

Rise of shadow banks

The 66-page letter from the head of America's biggest bank ranged widely,
touching on issues from healthcare to job training.

 

It comes as President Joe Biden is pushing a roughly $2tn spending plan that
would expand investment in climate and technology research and direct
billions to improve healthcare and upgrade the country's infrastructure,
including internet.

 

Mr Biden wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% to help pay
for the investments.

 

Mr Dimon did not directly address that proposal but warned in the letter
that taxing businesses reduces growth and the US should remain "globally
competitive".

 

On the question of remote work, he said he expected "many" staff to return
to office locations fulltime, with "some" working under a hybrid model.

 

About 10% of employees - in "very specific roles" - may be allowed to work
from home completely, he said.

 

His comments are in line with many other bank bosses, such as Goldman Sachs
chief David Solomon who has said he is eager to see people return to the
office.

 

Mr Dimon also warned that players such as Amazon, Walmart and tech firms are
increasingly competing with the bank, drawing more activity out of the
traditional financial sector.

 

"While it is not clear that the rise in nonbanks and shadow banking has
reached the point of systemic risk, this trend is accelerating and needs to
be assiduously monitored, which we do regularly as part of our own
business," he said.--BBC

 

 

 

Asia shares set to follow Wall Street's modest gains after Fed maintains
stance

Asian equities are poised to track Wall Street's cautious gains on Thursday
after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting reiterated its
commitment to keep interest rates low until the U.S. economy makes a more
secure recovery.

 

The S&P 500 and Dow closed slightly higher on Wednesday, as the Fed's
commentary reinforced investor expectations that the central bank plans to
maintain its policy support despite massive fiscal spending from the recent
government stimulus package.

 

"Investors remain intensely focused on interest rates," said Jeff
Buchbinder, equity strategist at LPL Financial in Boston. "We in the market
didn't expect any signals of a change in policy and that's what we got."

 

Australian S&P/ASX 200 futures rose 0.52% in early trading, while Japan's
Nikkei 225 futures added 0.03%.

 

U.S. Federal Reserve officials expressed caution about ongoing risks of the
pandemic and reaffirmed their commitment to bolstering the economy given
"that the path ahead remained highly uncertain," the minutes from the March
16-17 meeting said.

 

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note moved higher late in
the session, yet remained below a 14-month high of 1.776% hit on March 30.
The recent pullback in yields has helped growth names and lifted technology
(.SPLRCT) and communication services (.SPLRCL) stocks as the best performing
sectors on the day.

 

"The 10-year yield didn't move much today and the rate seems to be settling
in to a little bit lower range that really coincides with the better
performance for the growth stocks, particularly tech," Buchbinder said.

 

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 0.05% to
33,446.26, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 0.15% to 4,079.95 and the Nasdaq
Composite (.IXIC) dropped 0.07% to 13,688.84.

 

Following the release of the Fed minutes, the benchmark 10-year notes last
fell 4/32 in price to yield 1.6686%, down from 1.656% late on Tuesday.

 

"We've already seen long-term 10-year rates jump up and with the Fed telling
us they are not going to move so interest rates could stay at the lows that
they are until maybe 2022 when they step in," said Jeff Carbone, managing
partner at Cornerstone Wealth Group in Charlotte.

 

The U.S. dollar advanced against a basket of world currencies after
oscillating for much of the session, rising in the wake of the Fed minutes
release. read more

 

The dollar index rose 0.148%, with the euro down 0.02% to $1.1868. The
Japanese yen was flat versus the greenback at 109.85 per dollar, while the
Korean won strengthened 0.03% versus the greenback at 1,118.71 per dollar.

 

Gold prices dipped as economic optimism drew investors away from the
safe-haven metal in favor of riskier assets.

 

Spot gold dropped 0.4% to $1,737.11 an ounce. U.S. gold futures settled 0.1%
lower at $1,741.6.

 

Crude oil prices rose on an improving global economic outlook, but were held
in check by rising gasoline inventories. read more

 

U.S. crude settled at $59.77 per barrel, up 0.74%, while Brent gained 0.67%
to settle at $63.16 per barrel.-The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

Amazon union election in Alabama has 55% voter turnout

Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) closely watched union election in Alabama had
voter turnout of about 55%, and the public vote tally is expected to begin
as early as Thursday afternoon, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store
Union (RWDSU) said in a statement.

 

More than 3,200 mail ballots were received by the U.S. National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB), in an election open to over 5,800 workers at
Amazon's warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, the union said. The workers are
voting on whether to join the RWDSU and have their warehouse be the first
Amazon facility ever to unionize in the United States.

 

According to the RWDSU, hundreds of ballots were challenged "mostly by the
employer." Ballots can be challenged by the union, Amazon or the NLRB if
they were believed to have been tampered, fraudulent or from a worker
ineligible to vote.

 

Amazon and the NLRB both did not immediately respond to requests for
comment.

 

By comparison, 432 other mail-ballot elections from mid-March 2020 through
September 2020 saw turnout of 72%, according to data disclosed by the NLRB
in a decision last year. In the nearly six months prior to that — pre-dating
the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States — mail-ballot turnout was 55%,
the NLRB decision document said.

 

The public vote count is expected to begin Thursday afternoon or Friday
morning, the RWDSU said.-The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

U.S. government, states ask judge to deny Facebook’s request to dismiss
lawsuits

The Federal Trade Commission and a big group of U.S. states asked a federal
court on Wednesday to deny Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) request to dismiss major
antitrust lawsuits filed against the social media giant in December.

 

The FTC, in its filing, said Facebook bought photo-sharing app Instagram
because Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg believed it was "a large and viable
competitor" and purchased the messaging app WhatsApp to neutralize a nascent
threat. The FTC has asked the court to order Facebook to sell those assets.

 

 

The states, which had filed a separate antitrust lawsuit against Facebook,
said in its filing: "Deploying a buy-or-bury scheme of predatory
acquisitions and exclusionary conduct, Facebook successfully squashes,
suppresses, and deters competition, entrenching its monopoly power to this
day."

 

Facebook had asked the court to dismiss the two lawsuits, alleging that they
were brought "in the fraught environment of relentless criticism of Facebook
for matters entirely unrelated to antitrust concerns."

 

It also said that the states, in their case, failed to show that they were
harmed by Facebook and that they waited too long.

 

The FTC and states accused Facebook of breaking antitrust law to keep
smaller competitors at bay and snapping up rivals, like Instagram for $1
billion in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion.

 

 

All told, the federal government and states filed five lawsuits against
Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google last year following bipartisan
outrage over use and misuse of social media clout both in the economy and
the political sphere.-The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.




 

White House, U.S. companies could agree on 25% tax rate

President Joe Biden has championed raising the U.S. corporate tax rate to
28% from 21% as the main way to fund his $2 trillion infrastructure plan,
but few people in Washington, including inside the White House, really think
the rate will land there.

 

Biden made it clear on Wednesday that he is open to compromise, after a
reporter asked if he would be willing to agree on a tax rate below 28%.

 

 

"I'm willing to listen to that, I'm wide open to it," Biden said.

 

Reuters interviewed more than a dozen corporate and White House officials
engaged in the infrastructure push. Most expect the White House and business
groups to compromise on a 25% corporate tax rate - a level neither side
would have chosen, but both can live with.

 

"We don't like it, but we expect to be at 25 percent," a lobbyist at a top
U.S. energy firm said, requesting anonymity. "If so, we are going to
consider that a win."

 

The U.S. corporate tax rate dropped to 21% from 35% after the 2017 tax cut
pushed by former President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans, but many
big U.S. companies pay much less. Increasing what companies pay into the
more than $4 trillion federal budget is an important part of Democrat
Biden's plan to restructure the U.S. economy to reduce inequality and try to
counter China's rise.

 

 

U.S. multinational companies including Alphabet Inc's Google (GOOGL.O),
Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Merck & Co (MRK.N) are among several that have been
adept at reducing their taxes, tax and legal experts said.

 

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O)supports a hike in the corporate tax rate as part of
an infrastructure overhaul, Jeff Bezos, chief executive of the largest U.S.
retailer, said on Tuesday. Biden said last week that Amazon was one of 91
Fortune 500 companies that "use various loopholes where they pay not a
single solitary penny in federal income tax," in sharp contrast to middle
class families paying over 20% tax rates.

 

Biden's infrastructure and investment package includes roads and bridges and
funding for affordable housing and elder care workers, among other items.

 

In addition to raising the corporate tax rate, the White House is pushing a
minimum U.S. and global tax for companies, and increasing enforcement of tax
laws, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday.

 

OPPOSITION

 

Trade groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and U.S. Senator Joe
Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia who is a moderate on some issues,
have said the 28% rate is too high. However, Manchin, whose support is
crucial to any bill passing in the 50-50 Senate, said he could support a
rate of 25%.

 

The White House knew that proposing an increase to 28% would face
opposition, including from some Democrats. It is prepared to discuss
alternatives - including setting the rate to 25%, three administration
officials familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

 

Unlike the coronavirus pandemic relief bill passed by Congress and signed
into law by Biden in mid-March, where expiring unemployment benefits created
a sense of urgency, the White House believes the infrastructure plan can be
debated, and expects Congress will play a more pivotal role.

 

In 2013, then Vice President Biden and President Barack Obama proposed
cutting the corporate tax rate to 28% from 35% and to 25% for manufacturers,
but Republicans in Congress blocked the plan. So far, Republicans have
voiced no support for raising corporate taxes, and criticized the plan for
being too large.

 

"Debate is welcome. Compromise is inevitable. Changes are certain," Biden
said during a speech at the White House on Wednesday. He said he would soon
invite Republican lawmakers to the White House and that the administration
is "open to good ideas and good-faith negotiations."

 

Increasing the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% is expected to generate
$850 billion, a significant chunk of Biden's proposal, according to the
non-profit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget public policy
organization.

 

At 25% a little under $500 billion would be generated, the committee said,
forcing Democrats to search for additional revenue streams or cut spending.

 

That effort will be made more complicated by Biden’s campaign pledge to not
raise taxes on any American earning less than $400,000, making items such as
raising the gas tax or establishing a per-mile tax politically toxic.

 

“It’s a very difficult tax pledge and promise,” said the committee’s
president Maya MacGuineas.-The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Prosus sells 2% of Tencent for $14.7 bln in world's largest block trade

Holland-based technology investor Prosus NV (PRX.AS) has sold 2% of Tencent
Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) for $14.7 billion, the Chinese gaming and social
media giant said on Thursday, in the world's largest-ever block trade.

 

Tencent, in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing, said Prosus sold 191.89
million shares for HK$114.1 billion ($14.67 billion), reducing its stake to
28.9%.

 

 

That works out as HK$595 per share, confirming Reuters' earlier report in
which sources said Prosus sold the stock at the top of an indicative range
of HK$575 to $HK595.

 

The price was a 5.5% discount to Tencent's Wednesday close of $HK629.50. The
stock, which is up 10% so far this year, opened down 2.5% in Hong Kong on
Thursday following the news.

 

Prosus, majority controlled by Naspers Ltd (NPNJn.J), did not respond to a
request for comment on the pricing.

 

The block trade - or trade of a large amount of securities - surpassed the
previous record set in 2018 when Naspers also sold 2% of Tencent for $9.8
billion, Refinitiv data showed.

 

 

"The proceeds of the sale will increase our financial flexibility, enabling
us to invest in the significant growth potential we see across the group, as
well as in our own stock," Prosus Chief Executive Bob van Dijk said in a
statement.

 

Prosus also invests in online food delivery platforms, classified
marketplaces and digital payments businesses.

 

For the half-year ended Sept. 30, it reported a 29% increase in core
earnings at $2.2 billion, as proceeds from its Tencent stake offset losses
at other online interests.

 

"We expect the news to viewed cautiously until there is more clarity on how
the funds will be redeployed," analysts at Renaissance Capital said in a
client note.

 

 

The sale is unlikely to lead to any short-term reduction in the gap between
the market value of Prosus at 160 billion euros ($189.92 billion) and that
of its Tencent stake at 200 billion euros as of Wednesday, the analysts
said.

 

Citigroup Inc (C.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc
(GS.N) were joint global coordinators for the sale.

 

($1 = 0.8425 euros)

 

($1 = 7.7849 Hong Kong dollars)-The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

 

Oil falls after U.S. gasoline inventories unexpectedly surge

Oil prices fell on Thursday after official figures showed a big increase in
U.S. gasoline stocks, causing concerns about demand for crude weakening in
the world's biggest consumer of the resource at a time when supplies around
the world are rising.

 

Brent crude eased 36 cents, or 0.6%, to $62.80 a barrel by 0136 GMT. U.S.
oil fell 38 cents, or 0.6%, to $59.39 a barrel.

 

 

While crude stocks in the United States fell more than forecast by analysts,
gasoline inventories jumped sharply, also against expectations, the
Department of Energy said on Wednesday.

 

Oil inventories dropped by 3.5 million barrels last week to nearly 502
million barrels, while gasoline stocks increased by 4 million barrels,
against expectations of a decline, to just over 230 million barrels, as
refiners ramped up production before the summer driving season.

 

"Refiners may want to pull back on the run rate a bit to keep gasoline
storage from challenging the all-time record," said Bob Yawger, director of
energy futures at Mizuho Securities.

 

At the same time, supply is rising across the world with Russian output
increasing from average March levels in the first few days of April, traders
said.

 

 

Iran may see some sanctions lifted and add to global supplies, with the U.S.
and other powers holding talks on reviving a nuclear deal that almost
stopped Iranian oil from coming to market. read more

 

Still, the International Monetary Fund said earlier this week that the
massive public spending deployed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic may
increase global growth to 6% this year, a rate not achieved since the 1970s.

 

Higher economic growth would boost demand for oil and its products, helping
to reduce stockpiles.-The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

 

GM offers clues to technology aimed at slashing EV battery costs

General Motors Co (GM.N) is testing a variety of battery chemistries,
technologies and manufacturing processes aimed at slashing the cost of
future electric vehicle batteries and reducing its dependence on such
price-sensitive metals as cobalt, President Mark Reuss said on Wednesday.

 

Reuss, speaking at an investor conference, said GM is experimenting with
silicon-rich and lithium metal anodes, solid state and high voltage
electrolytes, and dry processing of electrodes for its next generation of
Ultium batteries, due around 2025.

 

 

The competition to fine-tune proprietary technology to cut electric vehicle
battery costs is replacing horsepower wars as the battleground for deciding
the industry's winners and losers.

 

GM has said it aims to reduce battery cell cost to well under $100 per
kilowatt-hour by 2025, compared with more than $150/kW today. GM executives
also have said the company expects its future EV batteries to last for a
million miles or more, with driving ranges of 500-600 miles (805 to 965 km)
between charges.

 

The automaker's $2.3-billion joint venture with Korea’s LG Energy Solution
(051910.KS) is due to start producing Ultium battery cells in Lordstown,
Ohio, in 2022.

 

That battery, which will be used in new GM electric vehicles such as the
Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq, uses graphite-based anodes,
nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum (NCMA) cathodes and liquid electrolyte.

 

 

GM and LG are expected shortly to announce a second EV battery plant in
Tennessee, to further support GM's production target of 1 million electric
vehicles a year by 2025. read more

 

Citing GM's investment in and technology partnership with
Massachusetts-based battery startup SES, Reuss said GM is "open to different
partnerships and different technologies" in its ongoing efforts to reduce
battery cost and improve energy density to extend electric vehicle range.
read more

 

He said "the supply chain is going to explode" with demand for cobalt,
nickel and other metals as GM and competitors ramp up EV production over the
next five years.

 

Reuss said the company is "looking for breakthroughs" in order to "reduce
dependency on some of those metals."-The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.




 

Nigerian Businesses Groan Under Govt's New Registration Protocol

A system upgrade by the Corporate Affairs Commission is doing more harm than
good to small businesses, and is hurting the country's Ease of Doing
Business record.

 

A system upgrade by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) that has
transferred business registration entirely online, has left businesses in
the country stranded for months, unable to register and function properly.

 

The impact is huge for the country's struggling small businesses, and
Nigeria's ease of doing business record.

 

The commission announced last December the upgrade of its online
registration portal for businesses.

It said the upgrade would include features that allow the automation of key
services and processes in line with the federal government's effort to
improve Nigeria's ease of doing business.

 

But the exercise has instead slowed down registration for several months,
leaving prospective registrants frustrated and causing a huge backlog of
unattended cases.

 

Many business owners and lawyers who act as registration agents told PREMIUM
TIMES applications they filed since 2020 were still pending at the
commission.

 

Usually, the process of registering a business name may take one to two
weeks, depending on the CAC workload and other factors, according to the
commission. A registrant can do it themselves or engage an agent, usually a
lawyer.

 

But since 2020, that process has lasted as long as six months in some cases.

A footwear entrepreneur, Johnpaul Okonkwo, based in Ekiti State, said his
application for business name registration sent to the commission more than
four months ago were still pending approval.

 

"I have been trying to log into the website to check if my registration has
been done but the response I am getting from them is that the registration
is under process" he said.

 

"This has affected me in getting a name for my business. My initial plan was
to get my registration done and also get a business account with it.

 

"Up till now, I can't process the account without a business name.

 

"It's a delay because I can't do much with my business."

 

An Aba-based fashion entrepreneur, Okezie Peters, shared a similar
experience.

 

"Registering a business is very important when you want to do a serious
business.

"But the way with which business registration in this country is done is
unbearable and frustrating.

 

"It has been almost three months that I have been trying to register my
business but everything proves abortive.

 

"I think the commission doesn't want us to do business again in this
country," he said.

 

Ease of Doing Business

 

Nigeria ranked 169th out of 190 countries in the World Bank's Ease of doing
business in 2016, compared to 170th in 2015 and 147th in 2014.

 

In 2020, Nigeria moved 15 places up the ladder according to the World Bank's
EDB report to 131st from 146th position in 2019.

 

The Buhari administration has made efforts to improve the ease of doing
business ranking in the country, and one area of attention has been the
registration of businesses.

 

In 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari established the Presidential Enabling
Business Environment Council (PEBEC), in line with the federal government's
economic recovery and growth plan (ERGP 2017-2020).

 

The plan targeted improving Nigeria's ranking and pushing the country to be
amongst the top 70 countries in the World Bank doing business index by 2023.

 

The PEBEC set an objective to make it possible to set up a business in 24 to
48 hours.

 

To achieve this, the following measures were enlisted: allowing online
registration of businesses, online name searches, improving the reliability
and user interface experience of the online portal, reducing the forms from
seven to one and integrating the payment for stamp duties with the
registration process.

 

Lawyers who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said the system upgrade by the CAC has
become so frustrating, and it discourages business owners from applying for
registration.

 

Arome Okwori, a Jos-based lawyer, said, "It's been quite frustrating to be
candid as it is now, most incorporation processes have stopped.

 

"You know because you don't do anything physical they said it should be
online.

 

"How do you do a post-incorporation process online?

 

"If you want to register a process and you go to the website, the website
does not recognise you want to do post-incorporation," Mr Okwori told
PREMIUM TIMES.

 

Mr Okwori said not too long ago, he was to register a company and in the
end, the company certificate came out without a registration number, which
was "strange and it was so embarrassing."

 

"The client wanted the document so urgently he couldn't get the document,"
he said. "We have to start the process all over again."

 

Mr Okwori noted that the delay in the business registration process has a
huge implication for both entrepreneurs and lawyers.

 

"The implication is huge: loss of confidence by the client, loss of business
for entrepreneurs and even the lawyers who are mainly into corporate
companies. We sympathise with them because when there's no work, no pay this
is the reality of the situation.

 

"Unlike before if you have an issue there's somebody you can call and
approach but now you can't access them. Who do you call?

 

"If you have a process online you have to just keep waiting until you get
the response and it is very frustrating," he said.

 

He urged the commission to do the right thing.

 

"I don't know what is happening. Things are not just working the way they
are supposed to work," he said.

 

Another lawyer, Joseph Felix, said the ease of doing business was a mere
"political statement."

 

"Nothing like the ease of doing business; it's just a political statement.
How can you do an incorporation? They tell you the ease of doing business is
one-stop but it takes like six months to get registration.

 

"And the client won't understand that it will take you that long. There's
nothing like that," he said.

 

"The experience has been very difficult. The waiting time is very outrageous
because you don't even get answers to your request.

 

"Like in Jos here when you go to their zonal office they will just tell you
to wait for a text message or email which may never come," he added.

 

He noted that the consent for incorporation of trustees has become very
frustrating.

 

"I had an experience in which I applied for consent to file corporate
trustees but it took almost six months before I got a response that they
have upgraded their systems and I needed to go back again and make another
application.

 

He said the delay made it difficult for clients to trust lawyers. More
importantly, the process has badly affected small businesses in the country.

 

"This is affecting the small scale businesses in the country because you can
not access any facility without being registered and most of these SMEs
funds need registration.

 

"And by the time the client wants to access these facilities and they tell
them to bring their certificates may be within one or two months and they
come to us to register them and it's taken six months definitely, they will
not get those facilities.

 

"So it is affecting the small scale businesses," he said.

 

More lawyers speak

 

An Abuja-based lawyer, Damilola Olafusi, said "Doing business with CAC has
been terrible, they are making business so difficult for me, they are making
my clients even lose confidence in me, my ability to deliver.

 

"It has been terrible since last year. There are works that I started since
last year and I'm yet to get approval for them. And then when those work
don't get approved, a client that will ordinarily refer you can't bring a
referral because you've not even delivered their job to them.

 

"Also, certainty in delivery time is difficult to give when a client brings
a job.

 

"You can't tell them the actual time that you will deliver because, a job
that takes a week, two weeks now takes months to get delivered. It's been
terrible and then the fact that we don't even have access to the commission
any more, makes it even more difficult because you send complaints via
emails and they don't still respond," she said.

 

She said previously when an application is queried, the CAC sends the reason
for the query for the applicant to know how to resolve it. That hardly
happens now.

 

"The portal upgrade they do or whatever they said they did has caused a lot
of problems and issues for them because things were going on fine before
now," the lawyer said.

 

"You will go into CAC and get your job done within five to 10 minutes you
are out of there.

 

"At most an hour you will resolve whatever you want and you are out and
lawyers didn't have issues with that.

 

"But now, there is a particular work I have been doing, they queried the
work almost 15 times and I keep resolving it but they don't even attach the
reason for the query.

 

"So how would the person identify what exactly they are trying to talk
about?" she queried.

 

According to her, prompt and timely registration is essential if the
government wants entrepreneurship to have a surge effect on the economy
because every business ought to be legally registered for that to happen.

 

"Money inflow that is supposed to come is not coming in," she said.

 

"With the system they are running now the economy will be affected because
now, let's not look at it from the registration aspect, companies are
existing that are doing businesses with either foreign companies or bigger
companies that pick contracts. There are requirements for picking contracts:
filing annual returns, doing a lot of post-incorporation work.

 

"If those things are not complied with, you can't get the contract, you
can't proceed with some things of filings," she said.

 

She added that the inability of CAC to offer timely business registration
has many implications for the country economy and won't attract foreign
investors if things continue the way it is now.

 

"The foreign investors that want to come and incorporate companies in
Nigeria when they see all of this, it discourages them because they look at
it like if to register or incorporate business takes a lot of such time,
what will it now be when running the business?

 

"Ordinarily, security is a major issue for foreign bodies, delegates or
investors to come into the country and invest.

 

"Timeline for service delivery is another problem and then other agencies,
all of the tax issues, the money you have to pay for a foreigner to just
come and invest then, now CAC is bringing a lot of issues also.

 

"So all of that is discouraging enough.

 

"People that also partner with foreign bodies when they have to do some
filings and then those filings are not done, it also makes the foreign
companies look at it that these people are not competent enough," she said.

 

She advised the CAC to bring back the old way of registration if the new way
is not working.

 

Johnson Omede, an Abuja-based lawyer, said his experience with the
commission was not different from what others narrated. He said while CAC's
aim was lofty, the system upgrade had made achieved the opposite.

 

"The only challenge that we are having is that the changes are having a slow
pace and the sooner they can address that the better for everybody," he
said.

 

"Truly for the time we have had these issues, it has affected the ease of
doing business," he said.

 

He urged the commission to fast-track the process of developing the website
and releasing it for business.

 

"It's highly welcome by every one of us. We will only encourage the
registrar-general to fast-track the process so that all these delays we
have, will not be there," he said.

 

CAC speaks

 

Reached by PREMIUM TIMES, Duke Ukaga, the Director, Public Affairs,
Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, said, "Well, you know, we have a new
system on the ground and with every new system there will be challenges and
those challenges have been worked upon every single blessed day."

 

"And very soon it shall all be over and everything will be smooth saving,"
he said.

 

"And then also, don't forget that this is COVID pandemic, the workforce of
the federal government has been reduced by up to 50 per cent.

 

"Even though CAC has tried to meet up that gap by some online services,
that's also a factor.

 

"In other words, as I said earlier at cservice at cac.gov.ng any complaint just
send anything you should have a response," he added.-Premium Times.




Kenya: Uproar as Country's Debt to Hit U.S.$98 Bllion By 2025

The National Treasury is getting ready to present its request to Parliament
to increase Kenya's debt ceiling above Sh9 trillion, even as Kenyans protest
Jubilee administration's insatiable appetite for loans.

 

The Nation has learnt that the request will be in the House before the end
of June for it to be processed alongside the new budget since it will be
impossible to fund the new budget within the current borrowing limit.

 

This comes even as angry Kenyans on Monday went online to protest the latest
Sh257 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), asking the
multilateral lender to cancel any additional loans until the government
accounts for the previous loans.

 

By the end of November last year, the total public debt stood at Sh7.2
trillion. Going at the current pace of Sh120 billion per month, the debt
will be at Sh8.7 trillion in December, and will have crossed the Sh9
trillion mark by June next year.

The 2021 Budget Policy Statement (BPS) projects that Kenya's stock of public
debt will hit Sh10.6 trillion by the close of June 2025.

 

This means that Kenya will have borrowed an additional Sh3.4 trillion adding
to the current debt stock of Sh7.2 trillion at the end of November 2020,
which implies a 45.2 per cent surge in new borrowing over the next five
years.

 

Kenyans on social media have criticised international lenders such as the
IMF and the World Bank for advancing the Jubilee administration more loans
despite some scandals like the one at the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency.

 

"Have you ever cared to know how the loans you give to the Kenyan government
are utilised? You are making individual billionaires while the rest of us
keep suffering. Kenya does not need loans," Mr Laban Maloi told the IMF
while responding to its announcement that it had cleared new loans for
Nairobi.

Kenya's public debt

 

More Kenyans went online to protest the additional loans on Facebook and
Twitter, with some going as far as starting an online petition to the IMF to
cancel the latest Sh257 billion loan to Kenya.

 

The Nation reported on Monday how Kenya's public debt has risen sharply by
more than Sh1 trillion in the last one year under the cover of fighting
Covid-19 pandemic.

 

This now makes the period between March 2020 and March 2021 Kenya's worst in
terms of borrowing, after the government's appetite for debt shot up by 69
per cent.

 

In the eight months between March and November last year, Kenya had
increased its stock of public debt by Sh971 billion.

 

This translates to about Sh121 billion every month, a sharp rise compared to
the Sh71 billion the country was borrowing per month on average in the year
to March 2020, before coronavirus landed in Nairobi.

When the government factors in the latest loans from the IMF and other
development partners, and adds to the other loans taken between November
last year to date, Kenya's mountain of public debt is likely to swell by an
additional Sh1.2 trillion in just one year.

 

This amount is enough to build three Standard Gauge Railways (SGR) between
Mombasa and Nairobi that were constructed at an inflated cost of Sh327
billion.

 

But despite borrowing such huge amounts, the critical areas of health
continued to suffer last year as medics downed their tools for more than
three months.

 

Increase the debt ceiling

 

The 2021 Medium Term Debt Management strategy revealed that the government
must increase the debt ceiling beyond Sh9 trillion to get the headroom to
borrow the billions the Treasury needs to finance the new financial year
that starts in June.

 

The debt strategy notes that it will be impossible to fund the new budget
for the 2021/22 and into the medium term if this limit is not increased.

 

"To accommodate the fiscal deficits in FY2021/22 and into the medium term,
the statutory debt limit has to be expanded," the document reads in part. It
notes that the government's debt strategy formulation has been on a
background of public debt fast approaching the statutory ceiling of Sh9
trillion as set out in the Public Finance Management Act, 2012.

 

"As a result, the implementation of this strategy may require the revision
of the debt ceiling through the amendment of the PFM Act based on future
borrowing requirements," the document notes.

 

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani said that debt accumulation is the
result of fiscal deficits and when it becomes necessary to increase the
ceiling, Treasury will table that request in Parliament.

 

"If Parliament approves expenditures that will lead to borrowing beyond the
Sh9 trillion debt limit, the National Treasury will request Parliament to
expand the debt ceiling to accommodate the necessary additional borrowing as
required by the PFM Act 2012," he said.

 

Mr Yatani has defended the excessive borrowing on shrinking revenues in the
wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

As soon as Covid-19 hit Nairobi last year, Kenya stepped on the borrowing
gas pedal hard, reaching out to multilateral lenders in a bid to build its
war chest in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Covid-19 war chest

 

The World Bank was the first to open its purse strings, extending an
immediate Sh6.8 billion support to the Health ministry for preparations and
response, as it retreated to consider a bigger loan.

 

Then its Bretton Wood sibling, the IMF, came in second advancing Nairobi
with Sh78.3 billion to deal with the pandemic. At the time, Kenya said it
was expecting a major cash shortage due to the containment measures.

 

After IMF disbursement, the World Bank wired another Sh108 billion to the
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), as both budgetary support and extra resources
to help fight the deadly viral infection.

 

That was not all. The African Development Bank also joined the fundraising
effort, sending Nairobi an extra Sh22.5 billion boost as concessional loan.
The European Union topped this up with an additional Sh7.5 billion in form
of grants.

 

In just under 60 days, Kenya had already secured Sh223 billion as part of
its Covid-19 war chest.

 

This was before it launched other fundraising efforts from the commercial
lenders at both local and international markets. It did not stop there, it
also went out, seeking debt relief from the big lenders.

 

A year, down the line and another lockdown, Kenya appears to be repeating
2020.

 

On Friday, the IMF again approved a fresh Sh257 billion loan for Kenya
through a 38-month programme, at a time Kenya is struggling with repaying
its mountain of debt.-Nation.

 


 


 


Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

 

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Skype:         Bulls.Bears 



 

 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2021

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

Independence Day

 

18/04/21

 


 

Public Holiday in lieu of Independence Day falling on a Sunday

 

19/04/21

 


 

Workers Day

 

01/05/21

 


FCB

AGM 

virtual

06/05/21 : 3pm

 


 

Africa Day

 

25/05/21

 


 

 

 

 

 


Companies under Cautionary

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


ART

PPC

Dairibord

 


Starafrica

Fidelity

Turnall

 


Medtech

Zimre

Nampak Zimbabwe

 


 

 

 

 


 <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.

 


 

 


(c) 2021 Web: <http://www.bullszimbabwe.com>  www.bullszimbabwe.com Email:
<mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw Tel: +263 4 2927658 Cell: +263 77
344 1674

 


 

 

 

 

 

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