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The tangled fate of Leonardo's Salvator Mundi has taken another twist after it was claimed that the @MuseeLouvre will refuse to attribute the painting solely to him @thetimes Africa |
Ben Lewis, author of The Last Leonardo, said sources at the Paris museum had told him its curators did not believe the $450 million painting was solely by the Renaissance master. The Louvre, which has the largest collection of Leonardo paintings in the world, has asked Louvre Abu Dhabi if it can borrow Salvator Mundi for its autumn exhibition on the artist. Lewis told the Hay Festival that the owner of the painting would not allow it to be exhibited if it was not attributed to Leonardo. The painting was rediscovered in 2005 when two American art dealers bought it for $1,175. After substantial restoration — and its inclusion in the Leonardo show at the National Gallery in London in 2011, when it was listed as being solely by the artist — it was sold at Christie’s in New York in 2017 for $450 million, including auction house fees. It emerged that the buyer was an emissary for Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and that he had apparently agreed for Louvre Abu Dhabi to exhibit the painting. However, the museum cancelled its unveiling last year without explanation. There have been increasing concerns about the authenticity of the painting and its condition. It is thought that it is being stored in a free port in Switzerland. Lewis, a visiting fellow at the Warburg Institute in London, was asked at the festival what the chances were of it being shown. “That is the $450 million question,” he said. “We don’t know if Louvre Paris has told Abu Dhabi that it is willing to exhibit it as an autograph Leonardo. My inside sources at the Louvre tell me that not many Louvre curators think this is an autograph Leonardo da Vinci and if they did exhibit it, they really want to exhibit it as workshop, which adds to the case that it is very unlikely it will be shown. It is the painting that dare not show its face.” Fewer than 20 extant paintings are accepted as having been solely executed by Leonardo. Scholars debate how much was done by Leonardo and how much by workshop assistants under his supervision. Mona Lisa is regarded as an autograph work but there is continuing debate over how much workshop involvement there was in the National Gallery’s The Virgin of the Rocks.
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MBS, alleged owner of Leonardo Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi which is a painting of Christ as Salvator Mundi (Latin for "Savior of the World") dated to 1500 Africa |
The painting shows Jesus, in Renaissance dress, giving a benediction with his right hand raised and two fingers extended, while holding a transparent rock crystal orb in his left hand. The rock crystal orb of course reappeared during Trump's visit to the Desert Kingdom. The Painting is currently in the Louvre in Abu Dhabi because the ''optics'' of this $450m purchase did not sit well with being the son and heir to the Kingdom. The King is called the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (خادم الحرمين الشريفين) after all. MBS is also the Proud Owner of the Serene [yacht] which he bought for 500m Euros in 2015, while vacationing in the south of France. Bruce Reidel alleges MBS sleeps on the Serene off Jeddah because he too lives in fear of his life.
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Trump, standing next to Abe, called "Chairman Kim" a "very smart man," downplayed Pyongyang's missile tests and talked up "great waterfront property" in North Korea ripe for development? @asiatimesonline International Trade |
Shinzo Abe isn’t known for his “art of the deal” – that’s Donald Trump’s shtick. But in Tokyo, the Japanese prime minister flipped the script on his US counterpart. President Trump arrived in Japan on Saturday plagued by a world of troubles. Impeachment talk intensified at the same moment his much-hyped China trade deal was collapsing, and as Kim Jong Un resumes the missile-test programs that Trump claimed to have ended. But a deal was not to be. Prime Minister Abe distracted Trump from the bilateral trade pact, the big economic win he covets so badly, with the art of distraction. The day at the sumo dojo was great fun. Trump and Abe yucking it up for the cameras was diplomatic gold. The well-done steak dinners. The golf outing. The first audience with Japan’s new emperor and the palace banquet. The planned Japanese warship visit. Trump meeting with the families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in decades past. It all made for quite a postcard. Visuals aside, there is no US-Japan deal to speak of – or even the broad strokes of one – because Abe is trying to avoid one. Forget claims that Abe is waiting until after upper house elections in July. Expect Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party to come up with fresh excuses come August for why Tokyo needs more time. The second came at a business round table after Trump’s arrival in Tokyo. Trump ribbed Toyota Motor CEO Akio Toyoda for the supposedly unfair advantage Japanese automakers enjoy in the US. “Japan has had a substantial edge for many, many years,” Trump said. “But that’s OK, maybe that’s why you like us so much,” Trump told chieftains of leading Japanese companies including Honda, Nissan and SoftBank. The exchange exposed the dilemma facing Japanese officials: How do you negotiate with someone who seems to understand neither trade nor basic economics? Japanese automakers directly employ upwards of 1.5 million Americans. Add in related industries in Alabama, Louisiana, Ohio and Tennessee and the number of jobs approaches 3 million.
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27-MAY-2019 :: China vs. US War Ballistic @TheStarKenya International Trade |
Trade War turns ballistic
For quite a while, the consensus view has been that the US and China would after all the theatrics reach some kind of Deal. President Trump is highly tuned to the markets and in fact something of a c21st Artiste. His Positive ''Trade War'' Tweets are timed around the US Market hours and designed to soothe, massage and finesse US asset prices
''Trump predicts 'fast' trade deal with China''
and he turns more negative in Chinese Trading hours. This is next-level Gaming of a very sophisticated nature and there are few Leaders if any that I can recall that have appreciated the Purity of the Market Signal and played the game at this Yehudi Menuhin virtuouso level. Of course, Carl Icahn has stayed real close. Trump's head spinning and high velocity tweets lulled the markets and as Joerg Wuttke pronounced ''Xi got Trump wrong [and the Chinese economy is ill prepared for what comes next]'' Xi misread the signals. The Point being in the Trade War Trump is no longer the Decider. In the US, There is clearly a consensus baseline for a Full-On Toe to Toe Slugfest as it were. In China, however, There is only one Decider that Decider was pronounced as much by Xinhua in a historical announcement in March 2018 The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China “proposed to remove the expression that ‘the president and vice-president of the People’s Republic of China shall serve no more than two consecutive terms’ from the country’s constitution.” In one fell swoop, President Xi Jinping was President for Life. President Xi is on a Pedestal and is faced with the Strong Man Conundrum. The Political Brand will not permit a retreat let alone a Surrender. Friedrich Wu, a professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore sums up the feelings of many when he describes them as “a list of surrender demands for China to acquiesce to”. [FT] “If there is a decoupling between the two economies, so be it. The Chinese people can endure more pain than the spoiled and hubristic Americans.” The FT said ''Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist president, is preparing to lead his country into an all-out trade conflict with the world’s leading economic and technological power, But just as Chinese forces ultimately fought the US to a stalemate in Korea by pitting sheer troop numbers and a far greater tolerance for mass casualties against superior American firepower, Mr Xi reckons he can direct a successful, society-wide struggle in the trade dispute'' Notwithstanding all the hyperbole and very partisan commentary, the following are the plain Truths. The US exported $120bn of goods to China last year, China shipped $540bn of goods to the US. This disequilibrium is the essential and overarching point. Furthermore, I estimate that 80% of the Tariff Increase is actually going to have to be absorbed by the Chinese Manufacturer and only 20% by the US Consumer. If you study the basket of Chinese Goods, they are commoditised and replaceable. Furthermore, its now a racing certainty that Trump will place 25% tariffs on around $300 billion of additional Chinese imports, setting a 25% Tariff on all $540b of Chinese imports. The US Economy is in fact more of an Island [autarkic] Economy than China's. Huawei is a Proxy and that has gone ballistic. 19 May - 01:34:34 PM [RTRS] (GOOGL.O) - GOOGLE SUSPENDS BUSINESS ACTIVITY WITH HUAWEI THAT REQUIRES TRANSFER OF SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, TECHNICAL INFO: SOURCE Driving Huawei out of the United States and Europe is “10 times more important” than a trade deal with China, according to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. He also said he would dedicate all his time to shutting Chinese companies out of US capital markets. Essentially, My Base-Line is that the Trade War is headed off the charts into Territory the market still continues to price as a ''Tail'' Risk. [Tail risk is the additional risk of an asset moving more than 3 standard deviations from its current price, above the risk of a normal distribution] Sunchartist tweeted The following commodities falling by > 3 standard deviation PTA, Rubber, Zinc, copper, Coking Coal in 3 std deviations. The margin calls on retail China oil futures meant they fell much more than Brent or WTI It will be an interesting few weeks ahead of us. The Markets across the World shivered in May, some caught a Fever and some on the Periphery have become as delirious as victims of cerebral malaria. The Markets are still pricing in a benign [but much less benign than a month ago] Outcome. We need to consider what a non benign or even maximum non benign outcome looks like. The Chinese Currency which is -8.8% on a Year on Year basis is surely a very visible proxy. And if this all turns ballistic as is my baseline scenario then this is going to fly through 7.00 like a hot knife through butter and the Chinese will surely use the value as currency as Push-Back. If they do they will be pushing at an open door. Its clear that directionally money wants to leave China and a great deal of the 2019 surge in Bitcoin is surely correlated to Chinese Flight Capital. Therefore, my prediction is when the currency slides its going to slide real quick and Dollar Call Options are an interesting risk adjusted trade. I wrote last week about the China Emerging and Frontier markets loop Phenomenon which has been super positive for more than 2 decades and is now in a Major Trend Change and has turned negative. I would be adding to short positions in the Australia Dollar [a Global Trade Proxy and Global Trade is slowing] and the South African Rand. The Periphery will get smashed as we are seeing it unfold in Lusaka. My Guest at Mindspeak today is the preeminent China Scholar Professor Howard French Author of most recently ''Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China's Push for Global Power'' and I look forward to gaining further insights on this.
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The Impact of US-China Trade Tensions @IMFNews International Trade |
The raising of US tariffs to 25 percent on $200 billion of annual Chinese imports on May 10, together with the announced Chinese retaliation, marks the latest escalation in the US–China trade tensions. The impact of previously imposed tariffs by the US and subsequent retaliation by China is already evident in trade data. Both the countries directly involved and their trading partners have been affected by rising tariffs. In 2018, the US imposed tariffs sequentially on three “lists” of goods from China, targeting first $34 billion of annual imports, then $16 billion more, and finally an additional $200 billion. As a result, US imports from China have declined quite sharply in all three groups of the goods on which tariffs were imposed. In cases where there was a delay between announcement and implementation of tariffs, as in the case of the $16 billion and $200 billion lists, or plans to phase in the tariff increase, as in the case of the $200 billion list, we observed an increase in import growth in advance of the effective dates. This suggests that importers stocked up ahead of the tariffs, accounting for the sharper decline in imports thereafter. Research by Cavallo, Gopinath, Neiman and Tang, using price data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on imports from China, finds that tariff revenue collected has been borne almost entirely by US importers. There was almost no change in the (ex-tariff) border prices of imports from China, and a sharp jump in the post-tariff import prices matching the magnitude of the tariff. For example, US imports from Mexico increased significantly among some goods on which the US imposed tariffs. After the $16 billion list was implemented in August, a sharp decline of nearly $850 million in imports from China was almost offset by about $850 million increase from Mexico, leaving overall US imports broadly unchanged. For other countries such as Japan, Korea and Canada, one can observe smaller increases in US imports relative to the levels in September-November 2017. Of course, aggregate data could be masking other factors driving the bilateral trade patterns, such as the use of inventories. For example, there was little or no change in imports from third countries in the case of photosensitive semiconductor devices.
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This was most clearly observed in the case of soybeans, where US exports to China fell dramatically in 2018 after China imposed tariffs @IMFNews International Trade |
The other channel by which producers could be affected is through market segmentation in the price of traded goods. This was most clearly observed in the case of soybeans, where US exports to China fell dramatically in 2018 after China imposed tariffs. The United States was China’s dominant soybean supplier, along with Brazil, in 2017. With the tariffs, the price of US soybeans fell while that of Brazilian soybeans increased, as US exports to China dropped to near zero and Brazilian exports to China trended higher. Though prices have since re-converged and soybean exports to China have resumed to some extent, US soybean farmers suffered, while those in Brazil benefited from trade diversion and market segmentation.
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Investors Scour Emerging Markets in Search for Trade War Gains Emerging Markets |
Brendan McKenna, a strategist at Wells Fargo in New York, says that investors should bet against any currencies with a high exposure to Chinese risk. In particular, he’s betting against the Korean won, the Philippine peso and the Taiwanese dollar. Outside of Asia, he says the usual suspects that are susceptible to trade risk will be hard hit, and people should stay away from the Brazilian real, Mexico’s peso, the Chilean peso and the South African rand.
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What Are Frontier Markets and Why Invest in Them? @BW Frontier Markets |
If emerging markets are the wild child of the investment family, offering potentially higher rewards in return for greater risk, then what about their smaller sibling, frontier markets? These include countries such as Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan and Nigeria where stock exchanges and currency markets are too small or underdeveloped to be classified as emerging markets. While frontier markets may bring investors more exotic thrills, and spills, they also somewhat counterintuitively can be a safe haven when markets are rocky. 1. What are frontier markets? In the investing hierarchy, they are the bottom rung of three. At the top are developed markets (such as the U.S. and U.K.), in the middle are emerging markets (such as China and Russia). The denomination is not so much a judgment on a country’s wealth or stage of development as about its markets. Depending on who’s doing the classifying, there are around 30 frontier markets, mostly in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. 2. How are they determined? According to MSCI Inc., the world’s biggest index compiler, frontier markets need to meet subjective criteria, including “at least some” openness to foreign ownership and “at least partial” ease of capital flows. Objective requirements include at least two companies worth about $800 million each. Next Big Thing? MSCI's list of frontier markets *The West African Economic and Monetary Union, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo ** Argentina to be reclassified as emerging market after May 28 3. How are they different from emerging markets? Everything’s on a smaller scale. Frontier markets have a combined market value of $715 billion; emerging-market stocks are worth $20 trillion. Trading volumes are relatively minuscule as are the number of listed companies; while Vietnam has more than 1,500, Burkina Faso counts just three and Benin one. Foreign participation tends to be much lower than in emerging markets and there are tighter restrictions on who can own shares. 4. Who invests in them and why? Mainly local and state investors. Among the overseas crowd, it’s mostly active funds that get involved. Passive investments such as exchange-traded funds make up just 10% of estimated foreign flows. One of the main investor attractions is getting into a market before the crowds arrive. That can lead to outsized growth as an economy prospers and financial infrastructure develops. Pakistan’s main stock index grew at an annual clip of more than 25% in U.S. dollar terms in the eight years through end-2016, shortly before it got promoted to an emerging market. 5. How have they performed? Some markets have rewarded long-term investors handsomely. Vietnam’s benchmark index rose by an annual average 9.8% in the decade through 2018 in local-currency terms -- including a 48% jump in 2017 and a 27% drop in 2011. That underlines the idiosyncratic nature of frontier markets and their increased sensitivity to local affairs. Sri Lanka’s main stock index fell 10% as a political crisis in October was followed by deadly terrorist attacks in April. As a group, the picture has not been especially rosy. Frontier markets under-performed their emerging counterparts in the four most recent calendar years, but over the past year they have edged ahead. Frontier markets outperformed in a tough year for risk-hungry investors 6. Can they be safe havens? They are less vulnerable to external shocks so can be a secure spot to sit out a surge in market turbulence. Frontier markets are less correlated with the rest of the world’s markets due to their limited financial links. They are also less correlated with one another due to their geographic diversity. So while individual frontier nations may experience high volatility, the poor correlation makes a basket of frontier stocks gyrate less. However, like emerging markets, they are likely to bare the brunt of any concerted global selloff; both asset classes lost about 50% of their value in 2008. Indeed, frontier markets are a risky asset class where investments can be locked up either because of a debt default, currency meltdown or capital controls. There’s also the risk of hyperinflation in some markets. 7. Is emerging-market status every frontier market’s dream? Not necessarily. Being upgraded to an emerging market can attract heaps more foreign investment and boost a country’s efforts to open up its financial sector. On the other hand, frontier markets that were once a big fish in a small pond can become lost in the emerging-market ocean. Pakistan’s market, for example, failed to attract sizable investment flows after its elevation to an emerging market in 2017 and experienced the worst foreign selloff since the 2008 financial crisis. 8. Are frontier markets disappearing? The frontier market class is shrinking, as more countries graduate to become emerging markets. In the past five years, some giants of the asset class have stepped up, including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and, as of May 28, Argentina. Kuwait, which accounts for one quarter of the MSCI Frontier Markets Index, may also get promoted in June. These frontier heavyweights have been replaced by smaller territories that cannot make up the loss in market value. Although the frontier-market universe has lost some of its bulk, the smallest countries benefit as funds are forced to diversify their allocations.
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Malawi's Mutharika narrowly wins presidential race with 38.57 % of the vote @ReutersAfrica Africa |
President Peter Mutharika won Malawi’s presidential election with 38.57% of votes, the electoral commission said on Monday, narrowly securing another five-year term after delays over suspected tampering. Voters in the southern African nation cast ballots for a president and parliament last Tuesday in a bruising race between Mutharika and two former allies, Lazarus Chakwera and Deputy President Saulos Chilima, with results due at the weekend. But on Saturday a court granted the opposition an injunction after the electoral commission (MEC) received 147 cases of irregularities, including results sheets with sections blotted out or altered with correction fluid. Reports of tampering sparked protests in some opposition strongholds. The court lifted the injunction of Monday, and the electoral commission confirmed Mutharika’s narrow victory. “I hereby declare Arthur Mutharika as the winner of the presidential election held on 21 May,” chairwoman of the MEC Justice Jane Ansah said.
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02-JUL-2018 :: Ethiopia Rising. @TheStarKenya Africa |
He is evidently a Virilian and Gladwellian Figure. “To create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.” “Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not, With the slightest push—in just the right place—it can be tipped.”—Malcolm Gladwell .
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Sudan opposition pushes ahead with two-day strike from Tuesday @ReutersAfrica Africa |
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan’s alliance of opposition and protest groups said on Monday that it would push ahead with a general two-day strike starting on Tuesday, in an escalation of tensions with the ruling transitional military council over the move to democracy. Talks between the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF) alliance are at a standstill after weeks of negotiations over who will have the upper hand after the ouster of long-time president Omar al-Bashir last month, civilians or the military. Wagdy Saleh, a representative of a coalition within the DFCF, told a news conference called by the alliance that the TMC had demanded a two-thirds majority, of eight to three, on the sovereign council that will lead the country. The deputy head of the TMC, Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, said earlier on Monday that the council was ready to hand over power swiftly, but said the opposition was not being serious about sharing power and wanted to confine the military to a ceremonial role. “By God, their slogans cheated us. I swear we were honest with them 100%,” Hemedti said at a dinner with police. “That’s why, by God Almighty, we will not hand this country except to safe hands.” Hemedti said the military council respects many members of the opposition movement, including Sadiq al-Mahdi, Sudan’s last democratically elected prime minister, who was overthrown by Bashir. Mahdi, who heads the Umma Party that is part of the alliance, rejected the strike on Sunday. However, his son, Al-Sadeeq Sadiq al-Mahdi, told Al Arabiya TV after Hemedti’s remarks: “Our stated position is not a rejection of the principle of strike, but our logic is that there is no need to escalate now.” The TMC has suggested that if an agreement cannot be reached between the two sides, elections should be held. “We are not saying we will not negotiate,” Hemedti said. “But we have to guarantee that all the Sudanese people are participating in the matter.” “We do not cheat, nor do we want power,” Hemedti said, adding that elections could be held in as little as three months in order to “...choose a government from the Sudanese people.” Mubarak Ardol, who represents the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, said at the news conference that it was essential to have an accurate and transparent census before elections can be held because millions of Sudanese remain displaced or refugees and would therefore be excluded. “Elections cannot be held in the current situation,” Ardol said. The DFCF said Tuesday’s strike would encompass public and private enterprise, including the civil aviation, railway, petroleum, banking, communications and health sectors. If an agreement is not reached with the TMC, the DFCF will escalate by calling for an open strike and indefinite civil disobedience until power is handed to civilians, Saleh said. The military ousted and detained Bashir on April 11, ending his 30-year rule after 16 weeks of street protests against him spearheaded by the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, part of the DFCF. Hemedti said on Monday: “These people’s goal is for us to hand over to them and return to our barracks.”
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On Monday, the local RTGS dollar was trading at 5 to the U.S. dollar compared to 5.5 on Friday. On the black market, the unit was weaker at 7.50 versus 7 on Friday, traders said. Africa |
Guvamatanga, permanent secretary for ministry of finance said that $500 million out of last year’s $4.3 billion export earnings was still being kept offshore. Another $400 million was outstanding from the January to May 2019 exports, which earned $1.4 billion, he said. Exporters were also keeping $800 million in local foreign currency accounts, he added. “There is $1.7 billion that should be available in this economy to pay for the pharmaceuticals, to pay for the fuel and all the requirements we need as an economy,” Guvamatanga said. Exporters have 90 days to repatriate earnings to the country, but some of them take longer. Some, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were reluctant to sell their money on the official market, where traders say the central bank is influencing the exchange rate. They also said they were worried that once they had sold their money, there would be delays in getting dollars again on the local interbank market when they wanted to pay for imports. Guvamatanga said the government “does not have the intention whatsoever to grab exporters’” dollars. Zimbabwe last week hiked fuel prices by around half, the second sharp rise in four months, a day after the central bank effectively removed a subsidy by ending oil importers’ access to U.S. dollars at a favourable ratE state power utility ZESA said last month it had applied to the energy regulator to raise its tariff by 30 percent for maintenance of its grid and after the price of diesel and other inputs went up. Finance Minister Ncube told the parliamentary committee although electricity was still cheaper compared to regional peers, at 2.5 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour, any further tariff increase would hit consumers hard. “Any ill-advised sharp tariff rate increase combined with the power outages will be most unpopular and unwelcome and will certainly trigger another round of price increases and inflation,” Ncube said.
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"Al-Shabab are like djinns [spirits]. They are everywhere," said one young man via @BBCAfrica @mary_harper @JBKB2 Africa |
Jinn or djinn (singular: jinnī, djinni, or genie; Arabic: الجن al-jinn, singular الجني al-jinnī) are supernatural creatures in Islamic mythology https://www.rich.co.ke/srch/results.php?str=DJINN
The Quran says that the jinn are made of a smokeless and "scorching fire",[1] but are also physical in nature, being able to interfere physically with people and objects and likewise be acted upon.
They are usually invisible to humans, but humans do appear clearly to jinn, as they can possess them. Jinn have the power to travel large distances at extreme speeds and are thought to live in remote areas, mountains, seas, trees, and the air, in their own communities. Like humans, jinn will also be judged on the Day of Judgment and will be sent to Paradise or Hell according to their deeds.[10]
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Airtel Africa Plans London Share Sale to Help Reduce Debt @business Africa |
The Africa unit of Bharti Airtel Ltd. plans an initial public offering in London to help reduce debt at the continent’s second-largest mobile carrier. The offer by the wireless carrier on the London Stock Exchange would comprise new shares and the sale would seek a free float of at least 25%, the company said Tuesday in a filing. It is also considering a listing in Nigeria, it said. The sale of shares to the public could raise about $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month. The London listing could be this month and aims to start trading in June, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Airtel Africa Ltd. already raised $1.25 billion last year from investors including Temasek Holdings Pte and SoftBank Group Corp., giving it an equity value of about $4.4 billion. JP Morgan Securities Plc is sole sponsor for the planned sale, according to the statement. BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and JP Morgan are joint global coordinators and bookrunners. The business has operations in 14 African markets including Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Ghana, according to Bharti Airtel’s latest annual report. Bharti Airtel, backed by billionaire Sunil Mittal, has spent heavily to defend its position in India against disruptive upstart Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.
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Tanzania Targets Big Increase in Mineral Revenue @business Africa |
Tanzania intends to collect 470.9 billion shillings ($205.5 million) from minerals in 2019-20, compared with a projected income of 310.6 billion shillings in the fiscal year ending June 30. The East African nation plans to boost production and exports, open new mineral trading centers, curb smuggling and ensure closer supervision of the industry, Mining Minister Doto Biteko told lawmakers Monday. By the end of March, Tanzania had collected 244.3 billion shillings from the industry, he said. The state expects to open seven new centers for trading minerals in the next financial year in addition to the 21 already in operation, Biteko said. The Mining Commission has put on notice for revocation 1,131 licenses after investors failed to comply with the country’s regulations, he said. By the end of March, a total of 13,177 applications for mining licenses had been submitted and 4,831 permits had been granted. About nine companies expressed interest in constructing smelters and refineries in the country, the minister told lawmakers.
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.@SafaricomPLC has been named as one of the most admired listed brands in the continent by @brandafrica. The company jumped 11 slots to an overall position 17 from 28 the previous year. Kenyan Economy |
The Kenyan telco was lauded alongside other African and international brands such as Nike and MTN during the 7th annual Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands. The company jumped 11 slots to an overall position 17 from 28 the previous year. “MTN (South Africa), Dangote (Nigeria) and Safaricom (Kenya) are the most admired highest listed brands on sub-Saharan Africa’s leading bourses, the JSE (Johannesburg Stock Exchange), Nigeria Stock Exchange and Nairobi Securities Exchange respectively,” reads part of the report. Nike retains the overall number one brand in Africa spontaneously recalled by consumers. “The presence of multiple mobile money brands on the list, including Safaricom M-Pesa (ranked 13), Orange Money (18), MTN Mobile Money (19) and Tigo (23), underscores the impact of not only M-Pesa as the catalyst but mobile as a key enabler for financial access,” said the report.
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