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If you are tracking the NSE Do it via RICHLIVE and use Mozilla Firefox as your Browser. 0930-1500 KENYA TIME Normal Board - The Whole shebang Prompt Board Next day settlement Expert Board All you need re an Individual stock.
The Latest Daily PodCast can be found here on the Front Page of the site http://www.rich.co.ke |
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Can the #G20 summit end trade wars and political infighting? #G20OsakaSummit @AJEnglish @AJInsideStory Africa |
Leaders of the world's wealthiest economies are in Japan to discuss the biggest challenges to global free trade. The group of 20 summit, or G20, has been held every year for the past two decades. This year's summit in Osaka is supposed to unite leaders around issues such as free trade and climate change. But political tensions and the trade war between the United States and China are creating divisions. Can the participants find consensus? And how relevant is this meeting for the rest of the world?
Presenter: Divya Gopalan Guests: Felicitas Weber - project lead at the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre @FelWeber John Kirton - director of the G20 Research Group, an independent network of global scholars providing analysis on the G20 @jjkirton Aly-Khan Satchu - economist and CEO of Rich Management
Macro Thoughts
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The Dark Secret Of Lake Malawi @NPR Africa |
The fishermen travel to different fishing spots along the lakefront and then bring their catch to the local community fishmonger, says Alfred Banda, an outreach worker with Youth Net Counseling in Malawi's Zomba district. If they have the virus, they can bring it into a community, or if they become infected in the course of their travels "they will transmit," Banda says. "The more mobile they are, the more they endanger the health of others." In Malawi, approximately 1 in 10 adults ages 15 to 64 is HIV-positive, according to UNAIDS — one of the highest rates in the world When the women had their own boats, "that really flipped the economic dynamic," Higdon says. They were in charge.
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Lake Malawi It is the fourth largest fresh water lake in the world by volume, the ninth largest lake in the world by area-and the third largest and second deepest lake in Africa. Africa |
It is the fourth largest fresh water lake in the world by volume, the ninth largest lake in the world by area—and the third largest and second deepest lake in Africa. Lake Malawi is home to more species of fish than any other lake,[6] including at least 700 species of cichlids.[7] The Mozambique portion of the lake was officially declared a reserve by the Government of Mozambique on June 10, 2011,[8] while in Malawi a portion of the lake is included in Lake Malawi National Park.[6] Lake Malawi is a meromictic lake, meaning that its water layers do not mix. The permanent stratification of Lake Malawi's water and the oxic-anoxic boundary (relating to oxygen in the water) are maintained by moderately small chemical and thermal gradients.[9] Lake Malawi is between 560 kilometres (350 mi)[1] and 580 kilometres (360 mi) long,[2] and about 75 kilometres (47 mi) wide at its widest point. The lake has a total surface area of about 29,600 square kilometres (11,400 sq mi).[1] The lake is 706 m (2,316 ft) at its deepest point, located in a major depression in the north-central part.[10]
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Osaka G20, Xi and Trump, a visit to the DMZ and a limit Short in the Eurodollar market Law & Politics |
These headline big ticket Events like the G20 which was held in Osaka are I find simply unputdownable and a Hollywood Bollywood level spectacle. The UK and South African Houses of Parliament are similarly unputdownable. Returning to the G20, We had Trump and Xi going Toe to Toe for the main course but this was preceded by Babette's Feast of hors d'oeuvres. [South Koreans served 12 cold Korean starters on the official menu -- among them steamed sea urchin with tofu and mini-hamburgers. The main dish was a sirloin steak made of US beef, accompanied by bulgogi sauce, pickled garlic leaves at a dinner for President Trump ahead of his handshake visit to the DMZ, which I will speak to momentarily] Bolsanaro waited 25 minutes for Xi and then cancelled which must be a first for the Supreme Leader. We had Daddy's little Princess Ivanka doing her ''Disney'' thing. MBS, of course, loomed over proceedings. Prime Minister Trudeau arrived well prepared clutching a clunky briefcase, Tito Mboweni took Photos with Vladimir. Theresa May did a Xi Jinping with Vladimir [Pulling a Face looking away as if there is an assault happening on your olfactory senses at the very moment the Photo is taken]. Trump has now found a way of deflecting the prima facie charge of Russian interference in the 2016 Election and it is the equivalent of
''You Bad Bad Boy Vlad. Don't do it again, you hear.'' or words to that effect.
And I thought I noticed Vladimir was quite impressed with the role play and the ''political'' subtlety around the Trump side step.
The Big Issues were Climate Change [Macron had made this his red line], longevity and the Digital Economy but of course the Big Set Piece Event was Saturdays Trump Xi Sit Down. President Xi Jinping played his hand with extreme courtesy finesse and some old fashioned etiquette seeking out Trump the day before at the Official Photo session. This was a subtle triangulation move.
The Read Out was as follows.
President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, agree to restart China-US #Trade consultations. @ChinaDaily “We’re right back on track and we’ll see what happens,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters Reuters The 80-minute meeting with Xi was “excellent, as good as it was going to be,” Trump added. “Cooperation and dialogue are better than friction and confrontation,” Xi said. Trump responded that a fair trade deal with China would be “historic” and he hoped “We can go on to do something that truly will be monumental and great for both countries.” "Let's wait and Xi" said Citibank. ''A lot of people are drawing a lot of unwarranted conclusions about the course of the US-China relationship based on a meeting, which probably didn’t resolve very much, and a press conference with a guy who is liable to say anything and completely reverse it a day later'' said @prchovanec
Marco Rubio tweeted ''If President Trump has agreed to reverse recent sanctions against #Huawei he has made a catastrophic mistake'' which speaks to my first overarching Point that being President Trump is not the ''Decider'' in this matter. What we have witnessed is good Theatre but entirely meaningless. I think both sides are making an economic calculation. Trump wants to keep the US Economy ''blowing hot'' into his reelection. And Xi understands that this negotiation is much more than a ''Reality TV'' show 90 minute engagement and a Time-out will give some respite from what is now becoming a sharp slow down with asymmetric cliff edge downside risks . Therefore, this is a Christmas truce (German: Weihnachtsfrieden; French: Trêve de Noël was a series of widespread but unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of World War I around Christmas 1914]. However, this is 1914 and not 1918.
In the Spirit of ''Reality TV'' which of course sinks or swims on ratings, President Trump detoured into the DMZ AND became the first sitting US president to cross into North Korea after meeting Mr Kim at the demilitarised zone. The Ratings were off the charts. Of course, the Folks in Tehran must be calculating that they need to speed up Iranium enrichment and get a proper deterrent and then they too will be holding hands with President Trump. Trump will parlay these DMZ Photo Ops into a major Foreign Policy success.
The markets flew higher in June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its best June since 1938! Gold blew through $1,400.00 for the first time since 2013. Bitcoin which dropped $2,000.00 in a blink of an eye last week remains up around +200% in 2019. Interest Rates nose-dived specifically in the US where the market has now priced in a halving of the FED Fund rate from 2.50% to 1.25% over the next 12 months. You might not know this but I was a Short End Trader in my previous Career in the City of London and I made my first reputation-making Trade at Credit Suisse First Boston all those years ago in the Eurodollar market. And if I were back at that Desk I would be limit Short the Eurodollar [US interest rates] market as from Monday.
Reality will soon intrude on this Reality Show.
美国总统 #特朗普 与中国国家主席 #习近平 29号上午在日本大阪举行了会晤,特朗普与习近平在闭门会谈前分别发表了讲话。 #G20 #日本大阪 美国之音中文网 @VOAChinese https://twitter.com/VOAChinese/status/1144823927803432960
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Back on track": China and U.S. agree to restart trade talks @Reuters. Law & Politics |
“We’re right back on track and we’ll see what happens,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit of leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) in Japan. The 80-minute meeting with Xi was “excellent, as good as it was going to be,” Trump added. Xi told Trump he hoped the United States could treat Chinese companies fairly, it added. On the issues of sovereignty and respect, China must safeguard its core interests, Xi said. “Cooperation and dialogue are better than friction and confrontation,” he said. Trump responded that a fair trade deal with China would be “historic” and he hoped “We can go on to do something that truly will be monumental and great for both countries.”
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10-DEC-2018 :: Canada will face "grave consequences" [Xinhua: (Ch.) Law & Politics |
10-DEC-2018 :: Canada will face "grave consequences" [Xinhua: (Ch.) 严重后果] The temptation to ''mug'' the handsome Justin Trudeau is something the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia could not resist and it seems Xi is experiencing the same impulse http://bit.ly/2rv1jv4
Canada will face "grave consequences" [Xinhua: (Ch.) 严重后果] if it does not immediately release Meng Wanzhou. The Vancouver Real Estate market which has boomed for decades on the back of Chinese demand looks horribly exposed. The temptation to ''mug'' the handsome Justin Trudeau is something the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia could not resist and it seems Xi is experiencing the same impulse.
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The main dish was a sirloin steak made of US beef, accompanied by bulgogi sauce, pickled garlic leaves and other side dishes. @YahooNews Law & Politics |
And as well as the 12 cold Korean starters on the official menu -- among them steamed sea urchin with tofu, and pan-fried mung beans -- mini-hamburgers were served, Blue House officials said. Serving western-style food along with Korean dishes symbolised the "collaboration and harmony" between the South and the US, Seoul's presidential office said. When Trump last visited in 2017, the Blue House prepared a menu infused with "local, traditional flavour" and featuring a beef rib dish accompanied by a gravy using a 360-year-old soy sauce. Then, Seoul also sought to score a diplomatic point by featuring a prawn caught in the waters off Dokdo, disputed islands controlled by the South but claimed by Japan.
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.@realDonaldTrump To Unleash Hell On Europe: @EU_Commission Announces Channel To Circumvent @swiftcommunity And Iran Sanctions Is Now Operational @zerohedge Law & Politics |
Europe announced that the special trade channel, Instex, that will allow European firms to avoid SWIFT and bypass American sanctions on Iran, is now operational. As a reminder, last September, in order to maintain a financial relationship with Iran that can not be vetoed by the US, Europe unveiled a "Special Purpose Vehicle" to bypass SWIFT. The mechanism would facilitate transactions between European and Iranian companies, while preventing the US from vetoing the transactions and pursuing punitive measures on those companies and states that defied Trump. The payment balancing system will allow companies in Europe to buy Iranian goods, and vice-versa, without actual money-transfers between European and Iranian banks.As a reminder, last September, in order to maintain a financial relationship with Iran that can not be vetoed by the US, Europe unveiled a "Special Purpose Vehicle" to bypass SWIFT. The mechanism would facilitate transactions between European and Iranian companies, while preventing the US from vetoing the transactions and pursuing punitive measures on those companies and states that defied Trump. The payment balancing system will allow companies in Europe to buy Iranian goods, and vice-versa, without actual money-transfers between European and Iranian banks.
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It could also be tied to the growing pile of negative-yielding debt worldwide, which just topped $12 trillion @bopinion International Trade |
It may be a cliche, but it’s often true that markets tend to do what causes the most amount of pain. And right now, the market is inflicting a lot of pain on Bitcoin bears. The cryptocurrency soared to almost $14,000 on Wednesday, bringing its gain this week already to about 40% and drawing comparisons to the huge run-up in late 2017, when Bitcoin prices reached almost $20,000 before crashing. Now, like then, nobody is truly sure what is driving the gains. It could be a bad case of FOMO (the fear of missing out) among the diehard crypto believers. It could be tied to the announcement by Facebook that it is developing an online payment system named Libra that the bulls say adds credibility to the crypto movement. It could also be tied to the growing pile of negative-yielding debt worldwide, which just topped $12 trillion. The thinking is that if investors are looking for a place to hide, it’s better to own an asset that isn’t exactly correlated to any other market and doesn’t guarantee a loss like negative-yielding debt. (That also explains gold’s rapid rise, by the way.) The last explanation may be the best: Bitcoin is getting caught in a huge short squeeze. Data from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and CME show that a record 4,431 outstanding contracts are betting on a decline in Bitcoin. The more Bitcoin rises, the more expensive it becomes to hold these positions. As such, reversing those bearish bets creates demand, pushing prices even higher.
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Bitcoin Is (Probably) Here to Stay The resilience of cryptocurrency has a lot to do with the volatility of the real world. @bopinion @tylercowen World Currencies |
In case you hadn’t noticed, Bitcoin has made a major comeback. After falling below $4,000 for much of 2018, the price reached almost $14,000 earlier this week. It’s still volatile, and fell sharply later in the week, but some Bitcoin optimists believe it will soon approach its late-2017 high of $20,000. The obvious question is this: If Bitcoin was just a bubble to begin with, why has it been bouncing back in this manner? The answer is that cryptocurrencies, in some form or another, are probably here to stay. One reason for the rise in Bitcoin’s price may have to do with the U.S. and China and the trade war. It no longer seems that China will join the international economic order as that term might have been understood 15 years ago. Instead, there will be an ongoing cold war; China will not liberalize, and capital controls may persist. In that world, Bitcoin will continue to prove a useful way of getting funds out of China. The Chinese Communist government may or may not crack down on that practice, but outright liberalization would have ended this use of Bitcoin altogether. For related reasons, a China that does not liberalize may influence the broader tenor of the global economy away from freedom, again giving Bitcoin additional uses around the world for evading central authorities. A second development is that the Democratic Party in the U.S. continues to shift to the left, including on the possibility of a wealth tax. As America’s fiscal deficits grow (due often to the Republicans, I might add), there will be a long-term need to restore fiscal sanity. No matter what you think of this idea, it likely would boost the demand for Bitcoin and other crypto assets, as cryptocurrencies are potentially a way to store assets out of reach of many tax authorities. And the U.S. is hardly the only nation that may be looking to a wealth tax in the future to balance the books. In essence, the new and higher price of Bitcoin is telling us that fiscal solvency will be hard to come by, and the wealthy will not give up their assets without a fight. Third, Facebook is now leading a movement to introduce a new cryptocurrency, namely the Libra. I’m not sure Libra will be allowed by the law to get off the ground, but still the new proposal is backed by a pretty striking and radical innovation: the idea that transaction costs on remittances and other fund transfers can be lowered significantly by defining a new medium of payment, piggybacking on older media of exchange. It would be a major advance if the current 7% to 8% remittance fees could be lowered significantly to say 1% or 2%, and crypto still holds this promise. Again, you may not be convinced by what is on the table. But seeing a major new idea in the crypto space is proving bullish for the sector as a whole. And now one of America’s best-known global companies is putting its imprimatur on the proposal. Think of this as a sign that the crypto space is still evolving. While that means Bitcoin likely will face more competition in the future, it lowers the chance of crypto as a sector vanishing altogether, which was starting to look like a risk. One final possible explanation for the resurgence of Bitcoin: Populism is spreading, the Middle East is not calming down, and the world is not solving its geopolitical problems. To the extent Bitcoin is a general hedge, much like gold, the conditions for its value seem to be favoring a high future demand for portfolio insurance. Even a small percentage of global wealth put into Bitcoin can sustain a high Bitcoin price. It is missing the point to wonder if the new and higher Bitcoin price is fully rational. In some economic models, the price of a cryptocurrency can be whatever people think it should be. Whether or not those models are your favored approach, a lot of people seem to believe they are true — and they are buying cryptoassets, including Bitcoin, accordingly. So crypto is alive and well these days, even if (like me) you reject the utopian predictions that it will somehow displace money as we know it. If we have had a hard time seeing the resiliency of the crypto space, it is because we are not used to thinking of futures that are radically different from the present. But those futures — for monetary institutions at least — now seem to be closer than ever before.
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27-MAY-2019 :: President Trump is highly tuned to the markets and in fact something of a c21st artiste. International Trade |
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 and he turns more negative in Chinese trading hours. This is next-level gaming and there are few leaders 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 tweets lulled the markets and as Joerg Wuttke pro- nounced ‘’Xi got Trump wrong [and the Chinese economy is ill-prepared for what comes next]’’. Xi misread the signals.
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Brazil's @jairbolsonaro Calls Off Xi Meeting Over Chinese Delay @bpolitics Emerging Markets |
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called off a meeting on Saturday in Japan with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping after his delegation was left waiting. While delays in meetings at multilateral summits are not unusual -- timetables often slip, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is famous for running behind, for example -- it is less usual for a leader to call off a chat entirely. The meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit in Osaka was set to start at 2:30 pm local time. At 2:55 pm, a press officer told reporters the meeting had been canceled. Bolsonaro’s spokesman Otavio Rego Barros said the Brazilian delegation had to pack its luggage at the hotel and make sure it was on time for the presidential plane departure. “ The president decided to call off this bilateral meeting,” he said. “The meeting was much delayed already, we were waiting in the bilateral meeting room.” China is Brazil’s top trading partner and invests heavily in the country. Bolsonaro is due to visit in October. While he spoke on the campaign trail of lessening Brazil’s economic dependence on China, some in his administration have since sought to mend fences. “The Chinese can buy in Brazil, but they can’t buy Brazil,” the president said at a breakfast with journalists in April. Vice-President General Hamilton Mourao said in May that pragmatism was needed for the health of Brazil’s economy.
Frontier Markets
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"Ethiopian Gorbachev's" reforms unwittingly opened up the Pandora's Box of ethno-regionalist tensions @AKorybko Africa |
In spite of PM Abiy’s well-intended reforms, modern-day Ethiopia has become just as much of an ethno-regionalist tinderbox as the former Soviet Union was in the twilight years of Gorbachev’s leadership, with the only thing missing being the spark to set the whole state ablaze.
Asaminew planned to wage Hybrid War on Ethiopia by using Unconventional Warfare (terrorism, assassinations, bombings, etc.) to catalyze a Color Revolution that he and his cohorts hoped would lead to the reversal of reforms and/or regime change.
Asaminew’s coup attempt was an entirely indigenous response to PM Abiy’s radical Gorbachev-like reforms and represents the fourth actual or attempted military seizure of power this year after Gabon, Algeria, and Sudan, proving that the “African Spring” continues to roll on.
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02-JUL-2018 :: He is evidently a Virilian and Gladwellian Figure. Africa |
He grew up in a Muslim family (Ahmed Ali, his Oromo father; Tezeta Wolde, his mother) and with Oromo Muslim and Christian grandparents. 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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Middle East's power struggle moves to the Horn of Africa @FinancialTimes Africa |
After troops launched a deadly night-time raid on Sudan’s pro-democracy protesters, blame immediately focused on the Rapid Support Forces. The notorious paramilitary unit, made up of remnants of a militia that wreaked havoc in war-torn Darfur in the 2000s, had led the June 4 assault, victims said. Demonstrators were beaten, shot and raped. The bodies of dozens of the 100 people killed — according to local estimates — were tossed into the Nile. The crackdown suggested the country’s military leaders, who have ruled since the protests triggered a coup against Omar al-Bashir in April, were sending a deadly message that they would not bow to popular pressure and accept a transition to civilian rule. But it was not just the RSF and the generals who faced scrutiny: as the body count mounted, attention intensified on their regional backers — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Two days after the attack, the US state department issued an unusually curt readout of a call between a senior US official and Prince Khaled bin Salman, the Saudi deputy defence minister and brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader. David Hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs, described the crackdown as “brutal” and told Prince Khaled of the “importance of a transition from the Transitional Military Council to a civilian-led government”. Nevertheless, the crackdown raised scrutiny over the countries’ role in Sudan, while fuelling wider debate about the interventionist polices being pursued by assertive Gulf states at a time when they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars buying concessions to manage ports and other infrastructure in the Horn of Africa. “All our problems are about Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt,” says Salman Osama, a 27-year-old surgeon who has been on the frontline of the Sudan protests and treated wounded people during the RSF raid. “They were supporting the [Bashir] regime that was oppressing us and they are supporting this regime too.” The kingdom and the UAE — its closest regional ally — have pledged $3bn to Sudan’s Transitional Military Council since Mr Bashir was ousted, the two joining Egypt as the generals’ most important backers. For many protesters the Khartoum crackdown reinforced their fears that the foreign powers were bent on keeping their regime allies in power at the expense of democracy. In its wake, Saudi Arabia and the UAE both called for “constructive dialogue” among Sudanese parties. But it is the generals they appear to be banking on to protect their interests, including Sudan’s deployment of troops in Yemen as part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. “The Saudis and Emiratis know Burhan and Hemeti [Lt Gen Hamdan] well due to their command of Sudanese forces in the Yemen war,” the International Crisis Group said in a report. “They trust the generals to shepherd the country through a managed transition from one military-led regime to another, avoiding the interlude that occurred in Egypt [in 2011] — elections with uncertain outcomes followed by brief Muslim Brotherhood rule — by sidelining those favouring more wholesale reform among civilian protesters.” “The surge of political, economic and strategic ties is unprecedented,” says Zach Vertin, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Doha. “This is about two regions fast becoming one.” One of the starkest examples of the new relationship has been a dash for maritime real estate. In 2014, Turkey’s Albayrak Group secured the right to operate the main port in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. The UAE’s DP World followed up by signing port deals in the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland and the self-declared independent state of Somaliland. Later Turkey, in 2017, and Qatar, in 2018, both agreed rights to develop ports in Sudan. The Red Sea corridor that separates the African continent from the Arabian Peninsula has long been contested. Britain established the Protectorate of Somaliland in 1888 to help it control the shipping routes from east Asia through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal. Saad Ali Shire, Somaliland’s former foreign minister, says the new investments from the Gulf are about projecting power and controlling trade, just as they were in the 19th century. “The interest has always been there but Turkey and the UAE are now wealthy states. They want to show they are powers to be reckoned with in the region,” he says. The UAE has been the most assertive actor with the clearest maritime strategy. In addition to DP World’s agreements for ports in the Somali towns of Berbera and Bosaso, the UAE has established a naval base at Assab in Eritrea and controls, via its military intervention in Yemen, at least six ports on the other side of the Red Sea. The UAE last year pledged $3bn in financial aid and investment to Addis Ababa, and the Gulf state and Saudi Arabia helped broker a peace deal between Ethiopia and Eritrea, mediating talks to end the 20-year conflict. Mr Gargash says the expansion of economic links with the Horn is consistent with the transformation of the UAE into the Middle East’s main financial and trade hub. “Anything to do with airline rights, free zones, storage, ports, for us is part of the narrative of why we are successful,” he says. “So, clearly we have to find a way to reach 100m Ethiopians who need more than one port.” The coming together of trade, security and geopolitical faultlines in the Horn of Africa means the militarisation of the region is only likely to continue, says Ahmed Soliman, a researcher at Chatham House. It also means African powers risk getting sucked into regional rivalries, he adds.
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New boss same as the old boss in Zimbabwe @thesundaytimes @christinalamb Africa |
Mandy Chimuti looks at the menu board of the small cafe she manages in northern Harare and takes out a black marker. One by one she crosses items out. Coffee: no. Orange juice: no. Cheeseburger: no. Toasted sandwich: no. In the end only salad and homemade lemonade remain. “No power,” she explains. “Welcome to Zimbabwe. No power, no water, no cash.” But last month inflation hit 98% and prices spiralled so much that a basic margherita pizza in St Elmo’s cafe was priced at $180 on Friday, while a bottle of cooking oil was on special offer at $26 in Spar. “We used to have a political and economic crisis,” said Peter Mutasa, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). “Now we have a humanitarian crisis. The system has created a whole sea of people living in abject poverty. Workers are literally starving in their houses.” “I’m one hell of a satisfied customer,” he wrote. “This Super SUV is unbelievable; that primordial roar is simply enthralling.” When someone questioned how he got the $210,000 reported by ZimLive to buy the supercar, he replied that it actually cost double that figure. Her monthly salary is 600 RTGS (real-time gross settlement) — a virtual currency, transferred by phone, an ingenious way for the government to avoid printing money. It was supposed to be worth 2½ to the dollar when introduced in February. However by last week the rate had fallen to 14, equivalent to £1 a day.
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Airtel Africa fell as much as 15 per cent to 68p after Africa's second-largest mobile operator listed on the London Stock Exchange, knocking (pound)500m off its opening valuation to give it a market capitalisation of around (pound)2.6bn. @FT Africa |
Shares in Airtel Africa dropped sharply on Friday in a disappointing debut for the SoftBank-backed company, which had priced its initial offering at a valuation below that secured in two recent private funding rounds. The stock fell as much as 15 per cent to 68p after Africa’s second-largest mobile operator listed on the London Stock Exchange, knocking £500m off its opening valuation to give it a market capitalisation of around £2.6bn. Airtel Africa — which operates a telecoms and mobile money business across 14 African countries — raised £595m through the offer, which took place concurrently on the London and Nigerian exchanges and represented 19 per cent of its total stock. The African subsidiary of Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel had priced its shares at 80p, at the bottom of its previously announced 80-100p price range. This valued it at around £3.1bn, already significantly below the valuations implied by earlier funding rounds. In October, it secured $1.25bn from a consortium of investors including private equity house Warburg Pincus, Singapore’s Temasek, SoftBank and Singapore Telecommunications at a valuation of around $4.4bn. A $200m investment by the Qatar Investment Authority earlier this year put its valuation closer to $5bn.
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