Newscast - Africa

South Africa’s rand firmed slightly early on Tuesday, pausing after a five-session long steep slide as demand for U.S. dollars eased, and waited for new signals on the pace of a global economic recovery that has stalled in recent days.

At 0645 GMT the rand was 0.35% firmer at 17.1250 per dollar, having tumbled to a one-month low of 17.3400 on Monday as tepid local economic data and surging coronavirus infections around the world saw a rush to safe haven assets.

economists at ETM Analytics in a note said Sentiment has improved tentatively with Asian equities mostly in the green while demand for the USD has paused. While this has not yet translated into any ZAR gains, it has halted the local unit’s five-session bear-run.

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Power utility Eskom and South Africa’s Special Investigating Unit (SIU) on Monday said they had issued a court summons in an effort to recoup 3.8 billion rand ($221 million) they allege was diverted by former Eskom executives and the Gupta family, who ran high profile businesses in the country.

The move by Eskom and the SIU relates to the 2015 acquisition of Optimum Coal by the Gupta-controlled company Tegeta Exploration and Resources.

Eskom claims that the deal involved a payment to the Guptas which was authorised by previous executives, damaging the company financially.

Eskom alleged a concerted effort corruptly to divert financial resources from Eskom, (and) to improperly and illegally benefit the Gupta family” in a statement issued jointly with the SIU.

It said that Eskom had issued a civil summons in the North Gauteng High Court against 12 individuals to recover funds lost.

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South African Breweries (SAB) on Monday said it was cancelling 5 billion rand ($290 million) of planned investments as a result of revenue losses sustained during a near three-month ban on alcohol sales during the coronavirus crisis.

The South African drinks industry has been among the hardest hit by restrictions, which included a ban on the sale of alcohol to the end of May, which was reinstated last month to free up space in hospitals burdened by what officials said were avoidable alcohol-related injuries.

SAB vice-president of finance Andrew Murray said the cancellation of this planned expenditure is a direct consequence of having lost 12 full trading weeks, which effectively equates to some 30% of SAB’s annual production

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Custodian Investment Plc has signed a binding agreement with UAC of Nigeria Plc to purchase a 51 per cent equity interest in UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) Plc.

In a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday, the Group Managing Director, Custodian Investment Plc, Mr. Wole Oshin, said the agreement marked the beginning of a partnership between Custodian and UAC that would achieve both companies’ respective objectives in the real estate industry.

The deal would involve the sale of sale of 9,465,584,668 UPDC ordinary shares held by UAC, representing 51 per cent of UPDC’s issued share capital, to Custodian. The shares would be sold in two tranches, that 946,558,467 shares and 8,519,026,201 shares.

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According to expectations from firms, the retail and wholesale trade sector will drive business expansion in August.

The statistics department of the Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed this in its business expectation survey report. The survey was conducted in July.

The report said the analysis of businesses with expansion plans in August showed that the wholesale/retail trade sector indicates the highest disposition to expand with an index 46.3 points;

At -7.9 index points, it stated that the overall confidence index indicated respondents’ pessimism on the overall macro economy in the month of July.

However, it added, respondents were optimistic in their outlook for August with a confidence index of 33.7.

They expressed optimism in the overall business outlook in September 2020 and January 2021 as shown in a greater confidence of the economy, at 45.5 and 62.4 index points respectively.

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Eni, a global oil giant, with operations in Nigeria, on Monday said it complied with the law on issues pertaining to Oil Prospecting License 245.

It said in a statement issued by Eni’s subsidiary, Nigerian Agip Oil Company, the international oil firm stated it had published on its website the documents of the judicial investigation into the acquisition of OPL245 in Nigeria.

The IOC said it carried out an in-depth fact-checking on all the main points of the ongoing trial at the Milan Tribunal.

The oil firm said it had decided this transparency initiative in the belief that the reading of the documents would allow people to verify directly how Eni acted with absolute correctness and in full compliance with the law.

The firm said the development of OPL245 would have brought and would bring great economic and social benefits to the Nigerian people.

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Several major oil and gas projects in Nigeria may suffer further delays as international oil companies operating in the country saw their financials take a dive in the second quarter of this year.

The slump in oil prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic has forced many companies, including IOCs to slash their capital budgets and suspend some projects.

The global oil benchmark, Brent crude, plunged to as low as $15.98 per barrel in April, its lowest since June 1999. It traded around $44 per barrel on Monday.

Royal Dutch Shell said last Thursday that it posted a loss of $18.4bn in the second quarter of this year, compared to a profit of $3.5bn in the same period of 2019.

The company warned that the outlook for oil demand continued to be uncertain, saying it had cut its exploration drilling plans for this year from 77 wells to just 22.

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US tech giant Microsoft has confirmed that it is continuing talks to purchase the US operations of Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok.

The tech firm said Microsoft boss Satya Nadella had a conversation with President Donald Trump about the acquisition on Sunday.

Microsoft stressed that it fully appreciates the importance" of addressing President Trump's concerns.

A full security review of the app will be conducted, the company added.

It said in a blog post Microsoft will also have to provide the US government with a list of the proper economic benefits to the country.

The tech giant hopes to conclude discussions with TikTok's parent firm ByteDance by 15 September.

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HSBC's profits for the first half of this year have plunged 65% as it battles the coronavirus downturn.

The UK's biggest bank posted pre-tax profits of $4.3bn (£3.3bn), compared to $12.4bn for the same period last year.

The fall was much larger than analysts had forecast as HSBC was hit by loans turning bad and interest rates remaining low.

HSBC said it has set aside $8bn to $13bn this year for bad loans as it expects more people and businesses to default on their repayments.

This is higher than previously budgeted for, taking into account the effects of the economic downturn.

The bank said it has given more than 700,000 payment holidays on loans, credit cards and mortgages, providing more than $27bn in customer relief.

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Algeria on Sunday said it had given the go-ahead to a plan aimed at offering Islamic finance services, as it seeks new funding sources to cope with financial problems caused by a fall in energy revenues.

OPEC member Algeria has been affected by the drop in global crude oil prices, mainly after the coronavirus outbreak. This has forced the government to cut spending and delay some investment projects planned for 2020.

Algeria’s Supreme Islamic Council said the National Bank of Algeria (BNA) had become the first state bank to obtain a sharia compliance certificate from the Sharia Board for issuing Fatwas for the Islamic Finance Industry, which is in charge of Islamic finance.

The government approved a plan this year to launch sharia-compliant services as part of wider reforms but its implementation faced delays, pushing President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in March to urge officials to speed up the process.

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