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EgyptAir to launch 10-year restructuring plan

27 October 2015 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

DUBAI (Reuters) – EgyptAir, the state-owned flag carrier, is in final stages of launching an overhaul and expansion plan that will reverse its downturn and propel it towards growth, its chairman said on Tuesday.

“We’re developing a 10-year restructuring plan, which should be finalised by mid-December,” Sherif Fathi Attia, chairman and chief executive of EgyptAir Holding told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Abu Dhabi. Attia is optimistic the plan will get government approval.

The plan includes a network and fleet expansion and Attia said the airline could place aircraft orders in the first quarter of 2016. He said wide-body aircraft would account for 20 to 30 percent of its total order.

The airline has struggled to make a profit, facing setbacks during the 2008 financial crisis, which was followed by the turmoil after the overthrow of then-president Hosni Mubarak.

EgyptAir reported an annual loss of 2.20 million Egyptian pounds at the end of June 2011, the last results the group published since the revolution.

The turnaround project, that could see changes in middle-management, aims for profitability at the end of the current fiscal year.

Attia ruled out initial public offering for the company, which had previously been under consideration.

EgyptAir is part of a group of seven companies which includes EgyptAir Cargo. It currently has a fleet of about 66 aircraft and flies to about 162 countries.

(By By Nadia Saleem, Reuters)

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Kenya’s Housing Finance Jan-Sept pretax profit up 7%

27 October 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

kenya housing finance

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenyan mortgage lender Housing Finance Group posted a 7 percent rise in nine-month pretax profit on Tuesday, helped by growth in net interest income.

Pretax profit rose to 1.1 billion shillings ($10.8 million)for the nine months to Sept. 30. Net interest income rose 24 percent to 2.72 billion shillings, it said in a statement.

Housing Finance said net loans and advances to customers rose to 51.71 billion shillings from 43.27 billion shillings, with net non-performing loans falling by a fifth to 2.7 billion shillings.

Housing Finance’s earnings per share fell to 2.98 shillings from 4.15 shillings in the same period last year. It declared a dividend per share of 0.65 shillings, down from 0.75 shillings.

It did not give a reason for the fall in earnings per share, but it conducted a rights issue in March in which it offered 116.67 million new shares, raising 2.95 billion shillings.

(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Anand Basu, Reuters)

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South Africa’s rand firmer after weak U.S. data, stocks fall

26 October 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand recovered from three week lows on Monday, aided by a weak greenback after softer than expected U.S. new home sales dropped to near one-year low while stocks fell, led by telecommunications provider MTN.

At 1500 GMT the rand firmed 0.23 percent to 13.6080 per dollar, after touching its weakest since October 6 on Friday as upbeat manufacturing data from the United States put bets of a rate hike there back on the table.

Yields on government bonds were down across the curve, with the benchmark paper due in 2026 shedding 0.5 basis point to 8.345 percent.

The greenback dipped as a steeper-than-forecast drop in new home sales stirred doubts about the U.S. economic recovery ahead of a two-day policy meeting of the Federal Reserve, where policy makers are expected to keep rates unchanged.

While there has been an improvement in risk appetite in the near term, traders warned that the rand could be under pressure no matter what the Fed decides with plenty of local negativity available for investors to latch on to.

“Unfortunately, rand strength will be limited. There might be some after the Fed comes out with a no hike in interest rate but it’s probably going to be short lived,” said Ion de Vleeschauwer a chief forex dealer at Bidvest Bank.

“The rand has got its own problems,” he said citing South Africa’s strained economy. “You need economic growth for people to invest in your economy and if you don’t have it, they will disinvest.”

On the stock market, the blue-chip Top 40 index fell 0.47 percent to 48,569 points while the All-share index slipped 0.27 percent to 54,150 dragged by telecommunications provider MTN.

Shares in Africa’s largest mobile operator fell more than 15 percent but closed 12.49 percent lower at 167 rand, after its Nigerian operation was fined $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect subscribers with unregistered and incomplete SIM cards.

“Whenever the Nigerian regulator steps up enforcement, MTN takes a hammering,” Africa Analysis telecoms analyst, Dobel Pater said.

MTN said it was in discussions with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to resolve the matter.

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Cameroon inflation rises but can still hit 3% target

26 October 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Cameroon’s inflation rate rose to 3.4 percent in the first half of the year but the country can still hit its full-year target of 3 percent, the national statistics bureau said on Monday.

Inflation rose due to increased transport costs and the impact of the country’s fight against Boko Haram, which has driven up prices in the Far North region where the Islamist militant group has staged dozens of attacks.

Cameroon is participating in a regional task force led by neighboring Nigeria against the group.

“The overall rate during the last twelve months is largely due to the surge of 14.5 percent in prices of transport, 5.2 percent for restaurants and hotels and 4.1 percent for alcohol and tobacco,” a statement said.

In September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised Cameroon’s 2015 growth forecast up to 6 percent, saying it could be higher but for a drop in oil prices and the Boko Haram operation.

The IMF said inflation would remain below 3 percent in 2015.

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Kenya’s Equity Bank Group says Jan-Sept pretax profit up 14%

26 October 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s Equity Bank Group posted on Monday a 14 percent rise in pretax profit for the first nine months of the year to 18.14 billion shillings ($177.58 million), helped by higher interest income.

Equity, which focuses on the lower-income part of the Kenyan market and also operates in Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo, said interest income rose 21 percent to 31.60 billion shillings, while customer deposits rose 30 percent to 317 billion shillings.

Equity group’s ratio of bad debts to total loans rose to 4.5 percent from 4.3 percent in the first nine months of 2014, James Mwangi, its chief executive officer told an investor briefing.

Its total loan portfolio rose by 27 percent to 263.4 billion shillings from 206.7 billion shillings, while total assets rose to 445.8 billion shillings from 339.44 billion shillings.

In May, Equity Bank – which wants to increase operations to 10 more African nations by 2024 – bought a 79 percent stake in ProCredit Bank Congo, the seventh biggest lender in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Equity Bank launched its own mobile phone service – known as Equitel – in July and has 1.3 million users.

Mobile banking is seen as the future of the sector, with more people accessing financial services on their phones and other portable devices, spurring lenders to partner with telecom firms to offer services.

 

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Moroccan inflation eases to 1.6% y/y in September

22 October 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco’s consumer price inflation eased to an annual 1.6 percent in September from 1.7 percent in August as non-food prices dropped, the High Planning Authority said on Thursday.

Food inflation rose slightly to 3.9 percent from 3.5 percent in the 12 months to August. Non-food price inflation eased to 0.2 percent from 0.4 percent in the previous month.

Transport costs fell 4.7 percent, while hotels and restaurants were 2.3 percent more expensive, the agency said, without elaborating.

On a month-on-month basis, the consumer price index rose 0.2 percent in September, compared to 0.1 percent in August. Food price inflation was steady at 0.2 percent on the month while non-food inflation eased to 0.1 percent.

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Anglo American defers platinum investment decisions, cuts diamond output

22 October 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Mining group Anglo American said on Thursday it was postponing major project investment decisions at its platinum unit until at least 2017 and had cut diamond production in the face of soft demand.

In its production report for the three months to the end of September, the company said Anglo American Platinum’s output rose 14 percent to 614,300 ounces compared with 541,000 ounces in the same period last year, when many of its mines were rebooting after a five-month strike.

The decision to defer any major project plans for platinum until at least 2017 comes after the company reached an agreement to sell its labour-intensive South African assets to Sibanye Gold and as the white metal’s price trades near seven-year lows.

Anglo American, like its peers, is grappling with sliding commodity prices across the board, and exploration and evaluation spend for the quarter was down 34 percent to $70 million.

“Diamond production decreased by 27 percent to 6.0 million carats, following the decision to reduce production to better reflect current trading conditions,” the company said.

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Ugandan coffee exports jump 38% in September

20 October 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s coffee exports in September rose 37.7 percent year on year as good prices encouraged farmers to sell, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said.

UCDA said the East African country shipped a total of 286,322 60-kg bags last month, up from 207,923 bags exported in September 2014.

Uganda exported 3.46 million bags in the 2014/15 (Oct-Sept) crop year, down slightly from 3.5 million the previous year, the regulator said.

“Farm gate coffee prices improved in line with the global prices,” UCDA said, without providing details.

Coffee is Uganda’s leading commodity export and its single biggest source of hard currency.

UCDA said shipments in the 2014/15 crop year earned the country $410 million, up from $394 million the previous year.

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Value of coffee sold at Kenyan auction falls 18% in 2014/15

19 October 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – The value of coffee sold at Kenya’s auctions fell 18 percent to $142.5 million in the crop year to September, hit by lower volumes, the head of the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) said on Monday.

The east African nation, whose high-quality beans are sought by roasters to blend with beans from other producers, exports much of its coffee through the exchange and the rest is sold by growers directly to foreign buyers.

The NCE sold coffee worth $174.1 million in the 2013/14 season that runs between October and September.

“Drought conditions early in the year affected crop especially in the central Kenya growing areas and that has reflected in the overall performance,” Daniel Mbithi, the chief executive of the NCE told Reuters.

Officials said 568,766 60-kg bags were sold during the period, down from 671,438 the previous year. The average price at the exchange also dropped to $205.02 per 50-kg bag from $212.70 the previous year.

East African coffee is normally packed in 60-kg bags, but the prices are quoted for quantities of 50 kg.

Coffee exports were at one time Kenya’s leading foreign exchange earner but have slipped to under 50,000 tonnes in recent years from a record level of 130,000 tonnes in 1987/88.

Many smallholder coffee farmers, disillusioned with poor earnings, switched to other crops or sold land for real estate in recent years.

The area of coffee plantations in Kenya has fallen to 109,000 hectares from the average of 150,000 hectares in 1980s and 1990s, the regulator, the Coffee Directorate, has said.

 

(Editing by Duncan Miriri and Mark Potter, Reuters)

 

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Kenyan shilling strengthens ahead of bond auction

19 October 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – The Kenyan shilling strengthened on Monday, with the local currency supported by dollar inflows to be used for purchase of Kenya’s high-yielding government debt.

At 0715 GMT, commercial banks posted the shilling at 102.25/35 to the dollar, from Friday’s close of 102.40/102.50.

The currency, down about 14 percent against the dollar this year, was receiving support from inflows ahead of an Oct. 21 auction of an amortized one-year Treasury bond, and more broadly from its weekly Treasury bills auctions, said a trader at one Nairobi-based commercial bank.

“We have seen dollar inflows from foreign buyers coming in for the bond,” the trader said. “And, later in the week, as long as the T-bills continue to be this high, the shilling will continue to gain.”

In recent weeks traders have reported growing dollar inflows from foreign investors who have been attracted by interest rates on government Treasury bills of more than 20 percent, far above what Kenya usually pays for short-term debt.

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