JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Bidvest Group Ltd on Monday said it plans to spin off and separately list its food business on the local stock exchange, beginning the industrial conglomerate’s latest attempt to separate its biggest division.
Bidvest, a sprawling company involved in businesses from shipping to selling household mops, has said in the past that the food business should be separated because its value was not reflected in the company’s share price.
Founder and chief executive Brian Joffe jettisoned plans to list the division in London in 2014, and rejected buyout bids for it three years earlier.
“To provide shareholders with the opportunity to participate directly in Bidvest’s food service operations, Bidvest intends to unbundle and separately list the food service business,” the company said in a statement.
The division, Bidvest’s biggest and one that contributes over half of the company’s sales of 200 billion rand ($12.51 billion), supplies pubs, restaurants and hotels in Europe, South America and Asia.
The division competes with companies such as Sysco Corp of the United States.
($1 = 15.9814 rand)
(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Workers at Ivory Coast’s state oil company Petroci have extended a strike for an additional 72 hours as they sought to bring in employees from other companies in the sector to join their protest against layoffs, union officials said on Friday.
Fifty of Petroci’s 600 employees were made redundant last month and another 150 are expected to be dismissed, union leaders have said, in the wake of an audit recommending that the company cut costs and staff amid falling oil prices.
Workers launched a 72-hour strike on Tuesday.
“Next week we will intensify the strike and see if other employees from other companies in the sector join the Petroci employees in this strike,” said Geremie N’Guessan Wondje, secretary general of the SYNTEPCI union.
Petroci offered to pay 10 dismissed managers six months salary while the 40 other laid-off employees were to receive eight months salary. However, a member of the company’s management said the union was demanding 20 months.
“That’s not possible. We don’t have all that money,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
Petroci is a small oil and natural gas producer but it is heavily involved in the downstream sector, controlling 36 percent of domestic gas distribution in French-speaking West Africa’s largest economy as well as about 30 filling stations.
It also partners with companies with production and exploration operations and manages a logistical base that services offshore blocks.
SYNTEPCI represents workers from 16 companies in addition to Petroci that could be called upon to strike out of solidarity.
Those companies include state-owned Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR), which operates a refinery with a capacity of 65,000 barrels per day, as well as logistics firms and fuel retailers such as Total.
(Reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Joe Bavier, editing by David Evans)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand weakened slightly early on Friday, pausing a rally that has seen the unit trade below the crucial 16 rand per dollar mark for three straight sessions as global risk appetite has improved.
Stocks were set to open flat at 0700 GMT, with the JSE securities exchange’s Top-40 futures index slipping 0.1 percent.
By 0645 the rand was flat at 15.8995 per dollar, easing off its firmest level in one month after statements from the United States Federal Reserve this week suggested interest rates there would remain lower for longer.
Government bonds were also firmer, with the benchmark paper due in 2026 shedding 2 basis points to 9.115 percent.
Traders said currency moves would be limited ahead of the U.S. non-farm payrolls data due later in the session.
“Markets are still deciding on a consensus view for how many U.S. rate hikes we will see this year, and a weak jobs report could put the impetus back in the hands of doves,” said research house NKC African Economics in a note.
Recently weak U.S. economic data, and dovish comments from New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley, have led investors to pare bets on a steady pace of Fed rate increases.
(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Ed Stoddard)
LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria plans to raise 90 billion naira ($452.26 million) worth in local currency denominated bond at an auction on Feb. 10, the second of such this year, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Thursday.
The debt office said it will sell 40 billion naira in paper maturing in 2020 and 50 billion naira in the debt maturing in 2026, using the Dutch Auction System, in which the price is lowered until the bond is bought.
Both debt notes are reopening of the previously issued bond.
Nigeria is planning to borrow as much as $5 billion to help fund its budget deficit due to the plunge in oil, which has also sent the naira NGN=D1 currency into a tailspin.
It expects a deficit of 3 trillion naira ($15 billion) in 2016, up from an initial 2.2 trillion naira ($11 billion) estimate.
Nigeria’s total debt rose to 12.60 trillion naira ($65.42 billion) as of December 2015, up from 11.2 trillion naira in 2014. [nL8N15I3J3]
($1 = 199 naira)
(Reporting by Oludare Mayowa Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa must formally declare a national disaster for the government to release relief funds to help farmers through the worst drought in a century, the country’s largest grain producer group said on Wednesday.
While higher than expected January plantings saw Grain SA reduce its 2016 maize imports figure to 3.8 million tonnes from 5 million tonnes previously, late seeding has put young plants at high risk from extreme weather over their growth cycle.
With five out of nine provinces labelled disaster zones due to drought, the country now needs to acknowledge the situation nationally as farmers are starting to capitulate, Grain SA Chief Executive Jannie de Villiers told Reuters.
“Our Minister of Agriculture is well informed but I think we need leadership to declare it a disaster so that the process can be triggered,” he said.
The Agriculture Ministry did not immediately respond to request for comment by email and phone.
Should a national disaster be declared, emergency relief funds would be released from the National Treasury to eligible farmers. However, any funding would probably come too late to secure the future of farmers on the brink of going bankrupt or selling their holdings, De Villiers said.
The Mpumalanga, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and North West provinces have been declared disaster zones for agriculture as a blistering drought sucks moisture from the soil and dam levels fall, causing a delay in planting crops for the crucial southern hemisphere summer season.
The South African Weather service said last week the El Nino weather pattern which triggered the historic drought is expected to persist, toughening the situation for farmers who scrambled to plant crops when rains started.
Farmers of cattle, sheep and goats have been urged by the government to cut the sizes of their herds as the drought has scorched grazing land and the 2016 maize harvest is expected to fall 25 percent from last year to 7.44 million tonnes.
Industry sources say food prices may rise 20 percent or more this year, putting upward pressure on overall inflation, which rose to 5.2 percent in December from 4.8 percent in November.
The most traded July white maize contract closed 1.6 percent higher at 4,943 rand a tonne on Wednesday. White maize for delivery in March is trading near record highs above 5,000 rand a tonne.
De Villiers also signalled trouble ahead for the subsequent crop season, saying farmers would struggle to obtain crop finance after this year’s disaster and restrictions on insurance for lost income.
“Can the farmers plant again if they don’t have crop finance? If they can’t pay their debt the farmers are not going to plant next year even if its raining.”
(By Zandi Shabalala. Reporting by Veronica Brown and Zandi Shabalala; editing by James Macharia and David Clarke)
American-Senegalese rap star Akon is putting his fame to use: providing electricity for the millions of people who need it in 15 sub-Saharan African countries.
Rappers may be famous for many things, but philanthropy is not one of them. Akon, the Senegalese-American rapper famous for dance hits like “Smack That” and “I wanna love you”, is changing that perception through his latest business endeavor. Unlike his peers, Akon’s newest business is not a clothing line or new cologne, but the creation of a solar power company. In February 2014, Akon announced that he would be changing the public face of rap by launching his company to invest in capital development for millions of sub-Saharan Africans.
Lighting the Way
In September of 2013, Akon and his friend and soon-to-be-business partner Thione Niang, were discussing how they could improve their hometown of Kaolack, Senegal. Both had been born and raised in this West African country, in a town without electricity. They decided that infrastructure was a key priority in Senegal’s development, and that electricity was a fundamental key to promoting employment, education and positive change in Senegal and other sub-Saharan African countries. In regions without access to electricity, life slows after dark, and in equatorial countries, darkness falls around 6pm, year round. Light is a fundamental aspect of human activity, and without electricity, families are forced to resort to what can be dangerous alternatives: approximately 3.5 million people die per year from respiratory illnesses related to indoor burning.
Akon and Niang joined forces with Malian entrepreneur Samba Bathily to bring an end to energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. They decided that creating a company, Solektra International, would provide a clear path to Akon and Niang’s dreams. Through Solektra International, the three co-founders created Akon Lighting Africa, a for-profit company working to create jobs and stimulate economic growth through sustainable, low-cost electricity.
Going Against the Grain: A For-Profit Company in a Non-Profit Sector
When we think of “helping Africans”, images of smiling do-gooders and the logos of non-profit agencies like the United Nations Development Programme come to mind. Not often do corporate giants like Huawei enter the conversation, but this is exactly the conversation Akon is changing. Akon is working with companies like Huawei, Solektra and Sumec to implement his projects because he “doesn’t believe in aid in Africa.” By using their expertise, Akon Lighting Africa is able to access their enormous network of partnerships to provide low-cost electricity to thousands of Africans. Their projects are provided free-of-charge to the communities they work in from a US$1billion credit line established with various international banks. According to the Akon Lighting Africa website, the average cost of lighting a village is approximately US$75,000, which includes micro-solar grids, personal solar packs for homes, street lights, lights and wiring for educational and health institutions, and the elements needed to connect each light to the grid.
Changing the Rap Game
Not satisfied with the status quo that has left billions of humans in the dark, Akon took matters into his own hands when he co-created Akon Lighting Africa. This company “aims to develop an innovative solar-powered solution” for the 600 million Africans without electricity. Akon Lighting Africa works to enable school children to study so they can pass their exams; to increase economic opportunity for small business owners; make roads safer and improve the quality of services available at existing institutions, like health centers and schools; and to ensure better access to information, all while creating jobs for the young people of Africa.
In just twelve months, Akon Lighting Africa has brought solar powered electricity to 480 villages across 15 different African nations, including 100,000 solar street lamps and 1,200 solar micro grids. Through public-private partnership, Akon’s company has installed solar powered lights into schools, community centers, health institutions, streets and private homes in rural communities. Not only has this project provided villages with electricity for the first time, but the physical construction and maintenance of these solar power grids has indirectly created jobs for a reported 5,500 young people. Unemployment, especially among the under-35 population, is endemic across sub-Saharan Africa. Lack of infrastructure, such as electricity, is just one symptom of poverty; joblessness is another. Akon’s approach is tackling both.
A Bright Future
Akon’s vision is that Solektra and Akon for Africa will be the dominant provider of renewable energy in Africa within the next decade. In 2016, Akon Lighting Africa plans to expand to 10 additional countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Chad. Both Akon Lighting Africa and Solektra International are emerging as key players in the future of solar power for unlit African communities–Solektra International has been invited to attend the Powering Africa Summit for 2016, showing their increasing importance in the development conversation.
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Activity in South Africa’s private sector remained in decline at the start of 2016, a survey showed on Wednesday, with employment, new orders and output all falling since December.
The Standard Bank Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, edged up to 49.6 in January from 49.1 a month before, but remained below the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction.
“While the weak rand helped exports to stabilise, it also exerted some upward pressure on input costs, resulting in the steepest increase in overall input costs for five months,” Markit said. South Africa’s rand slid about 25 percent against the dollar last year, weighed down by a dim outlook for Africa’s most developed economy and slowing growth in China, a key consumer of local commodities. Investors are also worried about the prospect of undue political interference in economic policy after President Jacob Zuma suddenly fired the finance minister in December.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Kumba Iron Ore said on Tuesday it expected full-year earnings to December 2015 plunge as much as 67 percent as it battled slumping prices for the steel-making ingredient.
The unit of Anglo American said headline earnings per share (EPS) are expected to fall by between 65 percent and 67 percent to 11.45 rand and 12.05 rand.
Kumba is due to release its full-year results on Feb. 9.
Headline EPS is the main gauge of profit in South Africa and strips out certain one-off items.
Iron ore prices fell about 35 percent in 2015 due to a supply glut and growth concerns in top consumer China, forcing Kumba to cut jobs and restructure its main mine, Sishen.
Kumba took a 6 billion rand ($374 million) writedown charge in 2015 for the reconfiguring of the Sishen mine.
Its shares initially fell as much as 8 percent before recouping losses to close 3.1 percent higher at 37.51 rand.
“The market had expected that there will be some write off. It is good that Kumba is taking the medicine it needs and focusing on cutting costs,” said Sanlam Private Wealth portfolio manager Greg Katzenellenbogen.
The world’s largest producer of iron ore, Vale SA, said on Thursday it would recommend to its board that no dividend be paid to shareholders this year because of the slump in commodity prices.
($1 = 16.0535 rand)
(Reporting by Zandi Shabalala and Thekiso Anthony Lefifi; Editing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng and David Evans)
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – Tanzania plans to lift spending on industrial and infrastructure projects but wants to cut the budget deficit, its finance minister said in an outline of the draft budget for 2016/2017, which will be the first under the new president, John Magufuli.
Finance and Planning Minister Philip Mpango presented the figures in a document outlining budget plans for 2016/17 that was presented to parliament on Monday. The detailed draft budget will not be finalised until closer to July 1.
Growth was expected to rise to 7.2 percent in 2016 from 7.0 percent in 2015, Mpango said in his budget draft, making it one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.
The document is the first indication of spending plans under Magufuli, who was elected in October. The former public works minister promised to improve the African nation’s creaking infrastructure and create more jobs.
Under the plans, spending would rise to 22.99 trillion shillings ($10.6 billion) in 2016/17 from 22.49 trillion shillings, but the deficit would shrink to the equivalent of less than 3 percent of gross domestic product from 4.2 percent.
Mpango said the government would hike government revenue collection and find savings through some austerity measures.
Magufuli began his presidency with a series of high profile moves to slash wasteful government spending, such as scrapping official functions, and reining in corruption.
The finance minister said the government would borrow the equivalent of 1.78 trillion shillings, now worth roughly $817 million, from external commercial sources during 2016/17.
Mpango said the goal in the medium term was to hit 8 percent growth.
Financial aid and loans from development partners were expected to fall by 9.3 percent to 2.1 trillion shillings in 2016/17, Mpango’s document said.
Inflation was expected to remain in single digits and fall to 6.0 percent by June 2016 and stay between 5 and 8 percent in the medium term, the minister’s guideline document said. Year-on-year inflation edged up to 6.8 percent in December.
Spending would focus on industrial projects, new infrastructure to improve poor roads and a power shortfall, and a project to start gas exports. Tanzania says it has finalised land acquisition for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.
BG Group, being acquired by Royal Dutch Shell, along with Statoil, Exxon Mobil and Ophir Energy plan to build the plant in partnership with the state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC). They aim to start it up in the early 2020s.
($1 = 2,180.0000 Tanzanian shillings)
(By Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala. Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Dominic Evans and Raissa Kasolowsky)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Eskom will use coal from Glencore, South32 and five other suppliers to power the Arnot power station, including Exxaro Resources with whom it did not renew a 40-year contract in December, the utility’s spokesman said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.
The short-term supply agreements are separate from the list of bidders for the new long-term contract, the outcome of which Eskom said it will announce before the end of the first quarter of this year.
Eskom listed lesser-known Tegeta, Keaton Energy, Hlagisa Mining and Umsimbithi Mining as the other short-term suppliers to the 2,100 MW Arnot plant.
