HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwean banks are holding $120 million in cash and double that in offshore accounts, the central bank said in a statement on Wednesday, as the country struggles with a persistent shortage of cash.

The southern African nation last year introduced a “bond note” currency to try to end the shortages, but businesses say they are instead facing serious delays in paying for imports because banks have no dollars to make the payments.

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; editing by John Stonestreet)

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By Camillus Eboh

ABUJA (Reuters) – Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and ENI have asked a Nigerian court to lift a temporary forfeiture of a long-disputed oilfield, a copy of the court documents filed by the two firms showed on Tuesday.

Last month, a Nigerian court ordered the temporary forfeiture of assets and the transfer of operations of the OPL 245 field owned by Shell and Eni, among others, to the federal government.

The Nigerian court case is the latest of several inquiries, including by Dutch and Italian authorities, into the 2011 purchase of the OPL 245 block which could hold up to 9.23 billion barrels of oil, according to industry figures.

In a court filing Shell said Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had conducted “a gross abuse of process and an abuse of power” to get a court order asking for the forfeiture, the document obtained by Reuters said.

The commission “misrepresented material facts in obtaining the ex-parte order” and it was “in the interest of justice that the ex-parte order be discharged,” the document said.

The inquiry is investigating whether the $1.3 billion purchase of OPL 245 involved “acts of conspiracy, bribery, official corruption and money laundering,” according to court papers seen last month.

The Nigerian court will hear the case on Feb 27, judicial sources said.

The oil field’s licence was initially awarded in 1998 by former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete to Malabu Oil and Gas, a company in which he held shares.

It was then sold for $1.3 billion in 2011 to Eni and Shell. According to documents from a British court, Malabu received $1.09 billion from the sale, while the rest went to the Nigerian government.

Earlier this month, Italy’s Eni backed CEO Claudio Descalzi after judicial sources said prosecutors had asked for him to be sent to trial over alleged corruption in Nigeria.

Italian prosecutors in December wrapped up a probe into the head of Eni, its former CEO, the company itself and Shell over alleged corruption surrounding the licence’s acquisition, sources told Reuters at the time.

(Reporting by Camilus Eboh; Additional reporting by Libby George in London; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Italian oil and gas company Eni said on Tuesday that Zohr oil field, which the company discovered in 2015, will enter production before end of year, Eni’s chief executive said at an oil conference in Cairo on Tuesday.

Zohr is the biggest gas field ever found in the Mediterranean with an estimated 850 billion cubic metres of gas in place.

The approval process for developing the field was completed in February.

(Reporting by Lin Nouihed; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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By Tom Arnold

DUBAI (Reuters) – Standard Chartered will consider whether it can restart correspondent banking relationships with Sudan following the proposed lifting of U.S. sanctions, a senior executive said.

Anurag Bajaj, who oversees the British-based lender’s correspondent banking business, where it provides services for other banks, said the bank was reviewing the implications of last month’s move by the outgoing Obama administration to unfreeze assets and remove financial sanctions in return for its help in fighting Islamic State and other groups.

The sanctions relief will come in six months if Sudan takes further steps to improve its human rights record and makes progress resolving its military conflicts.

“How significant the unravelling of the sanctions are [in Sudan] we will look at,” Bajaj, Standard Chartered’s global head of banks, transaction banking, told Reuters.

“Our sanctions team will review it before taking a decision,” he added.

For Sudan, the resumption of correspondent banking relationships will be vital to turning around its economy, which has struggled since South Sudan seceded in 2011, taking with it three-quarters of the country’s oil output.

But banks are likely to be cautious given the tougher immigration rules imposed by President Donald Trump on citizens from seven countries, including Sudan, that could affect the country’s relations with the United States.

Standard Chartered admitted in 2012 to breaking U.S. sanctions against Sudan, as well as Iran and Libya.

Bajaj said Iran, which the Trump administration earlier this month imposed sanctions on following a ballistic missile test, remained off-limits for the bank as it was “sanctioned.”

However, he added that while the bank had cut ties with some clients in other countries to guard against the risk of falling foul of rules on sanctions or money laundering, it was still only a “minimal” number in global terms.

“There’s always the odd-one, rare client that will not match our risk appetite but there are also clients that we are growing our business with,” he said.

(Editing by Greg Mahlich)

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By Pap Saine and Lamin Jahateh

BANJUL (Reuters) – Gambia’s new government has told the United Nations it will remain in the International Criminal Court (ICC), state media reported on Monday, reversing the previous administration’s plan to withdraw from the tribunal.

Former president Yahya Jammeh announced in October that he would pull Gambia out of the ICC, accusing the world body of ignoring alleged war crimes of Western nations and seeking only to prosecute Africans.

But President Adama Barrow, who defeated Jammeh in a December election, pledged during the campaign to undo Jammeh’s decision, restore human rights and repair the country’s badly-damaged foreign relations.

“As a new government that has committed itself to the promotion of human rights … we reaffirm The Gambia’s commitment to the principles enshrined in the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court,” said a statement read on state television and radio.

The statement added that Gambia’s foreign minister notified U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of the decision in a letter last month.

The announcement constitutes a rare victory of late for the embattled tribunal. South Africa and Burundi also signaled last year they would quit the ICC and African Union member states earlier this month endorsed an unspecified “strategy of collective withdrawal”.

In another sign of Barrow’s intention to break with his predecessor, police opened their first investigations on Monday into unresolved deaths and disappearances under Jammeh.

Jammeh came to power in a coup in 1994 and his government established a reputation for torturing and killing opponents. He has denied these allegations.

The initial investigation ordered by Barrow will focus on at least 30 people whose family members reported them dead or missing, police inspector general Yankuba Sonko told reporters in the capital Banjul. The police also opened a complaint register so that additional people can file reports.

Jammeh fled to Equatorial Guinea last month under regional military pressure after refusing to accept his defeat to Barrow. Equatorial Guinea does not have an extradition treaty with Gambia.

(Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s automotive sector capital expenditure is projected to rise to 8.2 billion rand ($615 million) this year from 6.4 billion rand in 2016, the auto industry body said in a document seen by Reuters.

The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa said in a memo dated Feb. 7 that the sector’s estimated capex was based on details supplied by seven major car makers and data from various sources relevant to Beijing Automotive International Corporation.

Car manufacturers in South Africa include Ford, Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz SA, Nissan and Toyota, among others.

The automotive sector, South Africa’s largest manufacturing industry, expects a slight increase in new vehicles sales this year as economic growth gains pace thanks to commodity price rises and a recovery in farming.

($1 = 13.3433 rand)

(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by James Macharia)

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ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria has recovered some $151 million and eight billion naira ($26.32 million) in stolen state funds in less than two months as part of an anti-graft drive, the government said on Sunday.

The West African nation launched late in December a whistleblower scheme entitling those who help find stolen assets to up to five percent of the recovered sums, part of a drive by President Muhammadu Buhari to root out endemic corruption.

Sunday’s announcement was the first since the middle of last year to give an official figure for recovered assets.

“The looted funds … were recovered from just three sources through whistleblowers who gave actionable information to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation,” the Information Ministry said in a statement.

“The biggest amount of $136,676,600.51 was recovered from an account in a commercial bank, where the money was kept under an apparently fake account name,” it added. The other recovered funds were in dollars or naira.

On Friday, Nigeria’s anti-corruption watchdog said it had seized $9.8 million in cash from the former head of the state oil company NNPC, a recovery also made possible under the whistleblower programme.

Graft, particularly in the oil sector on which Nigeria relies, has taken large sums from the country’s coffers.

Buhari rode to victory in 2015 on an anti-corruption platform after widespread anger at the plundering of the state under his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan.

But some have criticized the current administration’s efforts as ineffective and called it a witch hunt against Jonathan’s supporters.

($1 = 304.0000 naira)

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh and Felix Onuah; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Stephen Powell)

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Privinvest just announced the delivery of “Sailing Yacht A”, “the most advanced sail-assisted superyacht ever built”, says the company. Measuring close to 143 meters (468ft) with a gross tonnage of nearly 12,600 GT, making the ship one of the greatest Passenger Yacht Code (PYC) superyachts in the world in terms of design and technology.

A ship designed by Philip Starck

“Sailing Yacht A” is a technical prowess boasting unique features such as an underwater observation pod, a hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system and state-of- the-art navigation systems. The three masts are the tallest and most highly loaded freestanding composite structures in the world. The mainmast towers 100 meters above the waterline.
Philippe Starck created the design, which aims to challenge the expectations of conventional aesthetics as he did for Motor Yacht A.

Iskandar Safa, Founder of the Privinvest Group, comments: “Sailing Yacht A” is a true revolution in the naval industry, she is the first of a new generation of ships embodying modernity, breaking both engineering and design boundaries”.

A major project carried out by Nobiskrug, a Privinvest Group subsidiary

Steel hull and steel superstructure with high-tech composite fashion plates that can be formed into any shape or size are key features of “Sailing Yacht A”. Nobiskrug, a luxury yacht builder,  has worked on the development of these technologies over the past 15 years, and was able to combine technological expertise with large facilities.

Privinvest, headquartered in the Middle East and founded by Iskandar Safa, has facilities and shipyards in a number of countries including France, Germany and the Middle East. Privinvest’s shipyards have delivered more than 2,000 vessels and its products are present in more than 40 navies around the world.

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