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South Africa’s AMCU, platinum mines fail to reach wage deal

6 September 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s biggest platinum mine-workers’ union and the industry have failed to reach a deal on workers’ pay, the union said on Monday, raising the prospect of industrial action in the world’s biggest producer of the white metal.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), which led a crippling five-month strike in 2014, has been in talks with Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin since July this year.

 

(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Ed Cropley)

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Despite cuts, Big Oil to expand production into the 2020s

5 September 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

By Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) – Never mind the drop in crude prices, huge spending cuts and thousands of job losses – the world’s top oil and gas companies are set to produce more than ever for some time.

While top oil companies struggle with slumping revenues following a more than halving of prices since mid-2014 after years of spectacular growth, their production has persistently grown as projects sanctioned earlier in the decade come on line.

Overall production at the world’s seven biggest oil and gas companies is set to rise by around 9 percent between 2015 and 2018, according to analysts’ estimates.

With an expected recovery in prices, the increased production should boost cash flow and secure generous dividend payouts, which had forced companies to double borrowing throughout the downturn.

“There are a lot of projects coming on stream over the next three years that will support cash flow and ultimately dividend,” Barclays analyst Lydia Rainforth said.

And despite a drop in new project approvals, companies have throughout the downturn cleared a number of mammoth undertakings such as Statoil’s Johan Sverdrop oilfield off Norway and Eni’s Zohr gas development off the Egyptian coast.

Others opted to acquire new production, such as Royal Dutch Shell, which bought smaller rival BG Group for $54 billion this year, and Exxon Mobil through investments in Papua New Guinea and Mozambique.

Shell is expected to see the strongest growth among its peers over the next two years at 8 percent, according to BMO Capital Markets.

Production is unlikely to drop after 2020, and could post modest growth as companies continue to bring projects onstream, albeit at a slower pace, BMO analyst Brendan Warn said.

French oil major Total, for example, plans to clear three major projects by 2018 – the Libra offshore oilfield in Brazil, the Uganda onshore project and the Papua LNG project – that will begin production after 2020.

“We won’t see 5 to 10 percent growth that we’ve seen from companies in recent years. It will be closer to 1 or 2 percent,” Warn said.

 

SUSTAINABLE

Capital spending, or capex, for the sector is set to drop from a record $220 billion in 2013 to around $140 billion in 2017 before modestly recovering, according to Barclays.

But companies have learnt to do more with the money after slashing expenditure and tens of thousands of jobs, while the cost of services such as rig hiring dropped sharply throughout the downturn.

“2017 is the sweet spot for integrated companies. It took two to three years to adjust to the drop in oil prices, and a lot of the efficiencies introduced in recent years will roll into 2017, when projects kick in and free cash flow will improve,” Rainforth said.

The resilience is mostly due to new gas projects coming on stream as companies shift towards the less polluting hydrocarbon that is expected increasingly to displace oil demand in coming decades.

The slower pace of project development after a decade of rapid growth that was accompanied by soaring costs will help companies, Warn said.

“That is much more sustainable for a major that will reduce the number of large capex projects.”

 

(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Dale Hudson)

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South Africa’s antitrust body rejects appeal to delay Massmart complaint

2 September 2016 Comments (0) Business, Economy, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African grocery retailers have lost a bid to delay a hearing into a complaint brought by Massmart that accuses them of anti-competitive behaviour, the antitrust watchdog said on Friday.

Large food retailers Shoprite, Spar, Pick n Pay had sought to delay the hearing into Massmart’s complaint on the grounds there is already a wider investigation into factors that could be distorting competition.

Massmart, a division of Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, lodged the complaint in 2014, saying its expansion into the grocery sector was being hampered by lease arrangements that restrict malls from renting out space to rival food retailers.

Known for its Game chain that mainly sells electronic goods, Massmart has been trying to push into the grocery market since Wal-Mart took a controlling stake in 2011, a move that pits it against rivals that also include upmarket food retailer Woolworths.

The Competition Commission has said exclusive clauses in leasing agreements, which can restrict malls from renting out space to rival food retailers for up to 20 years, could be one of the features preventing more competition.

Its sector-wide investigation, which will also examine competition between small informal foreign-owned shops and local stores popularly known as “spazas”, is expected to be completed by the end of May 2017.

 

(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; editing by David Clarke)

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Rwanda signs $818 mln deal for new international airport

2 September 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Economy, Latest Updates from Reuters

By Clement Uwiringiyimana

KIGALI (Reuters) – Rwanda has signed a deal with the African division of Portuguese construction firm Mota-Engil to build an international airport at a cost of $818 million, the company and government officials said.

They said the first phase of the airport, which is part of a push to attract more tourists and boost Rwanda as a conference destination, would cost $418 million and is expected to start in June next year and be completed by December 2018.

Rwanda’s plans for the new Bugesera International Airport date back to 2011 when it first announced it was seeking bids from the private sector to design, build, finance, maintain and operate the airport through a 25-year concession.

“The first phase is for 1.7 million passengers (per year) capacity and it gets all infrastructure associated for $418 million,” Mota-Engil Africa Chief Executive Officer Manuel Antonio Mota told reporters late on Thursday after signing an agreement with government officials.

Rwanda said in a statement that Mota-Engil would operate the airport for 25 years, with an option to extend another 15 years.

When it first sought bids, the government said the first phase would involve building passenger and cargo terminals and a 4.2 km runway to handle large commercial airplanes, while the second phase would be for a second runway and more terminals.

Mota-Engil said the second phase costing $400 million was expected to raise the airport’s handling capacity to 4.5 million passengers per year.

Neither Mota-Engil nor the government said when the second phase would start.

The existing international airport in the capital Kigali has an annual capacity of 1.6 million, according to the Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority, though it has little scope for expansion.

“Bugesera International Airport is coming in at the time when it is badly needed because we all know that the current airport capacity is not matching the growth of our traffic in terms of aircrafts, in terms of passengers,” James Musoni, Rwanda’s minister for infrastructure, said.

The coffee and tea producing country expects its economy to grow 6 percent this year and 2017 and then 6.5 percent in 2018.

 

(Editing by George Obulutsa and David Clarke)

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Kenya sees tourism revenues rising 18 pct to 100 bln shillings

1 September 2016 Comments (0) Business, Economy, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya sees earnings from tourism rising to 100 billion shillings ($990 million) in 2016, helped by improved security, infrastructure and marketing, the president’s office said on Wednesday.

The office did not give a comparative figure, but in June, Tourism Minister Najib Balala said Kenya earned 84.6 billion shillings from tourism in 2015.

Tourism, along with tea, horticulture and remittances are Kenya’s leading sources of foreign exchange.

($1 = 101.2500 Kenyan shillings)

 

(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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How did South Africa overtake Nigeria to be crowned South Africa’s largest economy?

30 August 2016 Comments (0) Business, Economy

According to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, South Africa has dethroned Nigeria to once again become Africa’s biggest economy. The two African nations have swapped the title many times in recent years. Nigeria previously held the designation since 2014.

The reasons behind South Africa’s re-coronation are fairly simple. When nations are compared to each other, the values of their respective economies are converted into USD, the international benchmark. Therefore, the results are heavily affected by the fluctuations of international exchange rates.

This most recent announcement has been arrived at by comparing the last GDP figures, from December 2015, with exchange rates from August 2016. The numbers state that South Africa’s economy is now worth $301bn and Nigeria’s is worth $296bn. However looking at this designation in isolation is largely meaningless, telling little about how the economies in these two countries are actually faring.

Currency crash sends Nigeria to second place

In June of this year, Nigeria ended its 16 month peg of the Naira against the USD. The peg was put in place in order to stabilize the currency, fixing the value of the Naira to 199 against the USD. However this measure was costly, as the government had to spend billions of dollars worth of currency reserves to uphold it.

Analysts say the global slump in oil prices inadvertently forced Nigeria to abandon the peg. With reduced oil revenues, and government reserves already at critically low levels, there was little choice but to end the fixed value of the Naira. As soon as the control was removed, the value of Nigeria’s currency went into a tailspin. Today the Naira is worth 308.5 vs the USD, compared with the fixed 199 a few months ago. As a result approximately $169bn has been wiped off the value of the Nigerian economy.

Conversely, the South African Rand has risen in recent months. The currency experienced major falls late in 2015; however the Rand is now 17% higher against the dollar than where it sat at the beginning of the year. These two factors explain the recent exchange in status as Africa’s biggest economy.

Alan Cameron, an economist at Exotix Partners said, “More than the growth outlook, in the short term the ranking of these economies is likely to be determined by exchange rate movements,”

Questionable results

A strong argument can be made that Nigeria’s economy has been overvalued since the introduction of the peg, and that the market has corrected itself now that the measure has been removed. However, it would only take a modest rally of the Naira for Nigeria to again eclipse South Africa as Africa’s biggest economy.

Some analysts have called these recent results into question, citing problems with the methodology used to arrive at the new figures. KPMG senior economist Christie Viljoen explained his concerns: “The time difference between the two data points (December 2015 GDP vs August 2016 exchange rates) makes these calculations spurious at best and not really a reliable indicator of recent developments.”

In the coming months, both South Africa and Nigeria will be releasing their official 2016 Q2 GDP reports. Viljoen believes that these figures will bring clarity to the situation, and that there is a possibility that Nigeria will regain the top spot.

Beyond the figures both Nigeria and South Africa are struggling

However these figures can be distracting. A look beneath the surface reveals a somewhat more troublesome picture. Both South Africa and Nigeria’s economies contracted in Q1 of this year. South Africa posted negative growth of -1.2% while Nigeria recorded -0.63%. If either nation posts a contraction for Q2, it will be in recession.

In South Africa, unemployment is at a distressingly high 26.7%, while in Nigeria employment has increased every month this year to 12.1%. South Africa’s economy is fairly dependent on the mining industry which exports heavily to China. The global slump in commodities prices along with China’s slowdown has heaped misery on the sector. What’s more it could see its borrowing power reduced if its credit rating is downgraded later this year. Nigeria has been staggered by extreme levels of inflation, currently at 16.5%, regional terrorism, and the oil crisis.

The rest of the world is no doubt more interested in the arbitrary title of “Africa’s biggest economy” than either South Africa or Nigeria, who both realizes they have serious issues to address.

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Shares in Kenya’s two biggest banks fall for third session after rate caps

29 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Economy, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Shares in KCB Group,, Kenya’s biggest bank by assets, and Equity Bank, the biggest in terms of number of customers, fell sharply on Monday for a third consecutive session as investors reacted further to a government move to cap commercial lending rates.

By 0647 GMT, shares in KCB and Equity were both down 9.3 percent on the Nairobi Securities Exchange at 24.50 shillings and 26.75 shillings respectively.

Co-operative Bank of Kenya dropped 9.7 percent to 9.75 shillings, while NIC Bank fell 8.3 percent to 22.00 shillings.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday signed into law a bill capping commercial bank lending rates in a bid to boost the economy.

Businesses in the East African country have complained that high rates, which average 18 percent or more, hobble corporate investment. Analysts, however, have said capping rates may be counterproductive as it makes banks less willing to lend.

 

(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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Egypt’s GASC receives offers from seven suppliers at wheat tender

26 August 2016 Comments (0) Business, Economy, Latest Updates from Reuters

ABU DHABI/CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), received offers from seven suppliers on Friday for its wheat tender, Cairo-based traders said.

The lowest offer was $177.70 a tonne free-on-board (FOB), for two cargoes each of 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat, the traders said.

Results for the tender, seeking shipment from Sept. 26 to Oct. 5, were due later on Friday.

An eighth supplier, Venus, was disqualified at the technical stage for not having the correct documents and was prevented from submitting an offer, traders said.

This is GASC’s first attempt to purchase wheat after Egypt’s Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafi resigned on Thursday, the most senior-level fallout from an investigation into whether millions of dollars intended for subsidising farmers were used to purchase domestic wheat that only existed on paper.

Egypt’s supply ministry, which also oversees GASC, is in charge of a massive food subsidy programme.

Trade minister Tarek Kabil has been put in charge until a new minister is appointed.

Traders said the following offers were made in dollars per tonne FOB:

*Union: two cargoes each of 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat at $177.70

*Nidera: 55,000 tonnes of Russian wheat at $179.70 a tonne

*Alegrow: 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat at $180.88

*Ameropa: two cargoes each of 60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat at $180.11

*Daewoo: 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat at $178.60

*Louis Dreyfus: 60,000 tonnes of Ukraine wheat at $179.94

*ADM: 60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat at $208.89

 

 

(Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Eric Knecht; Additional reporting by Valerie Parent in Paris; Editing by Jason Neely and Susan Fenton)

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Nana Boateng Osei and his sustainable vision for Ghana

26 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Leaders

bôhten

Nana Boateng Osei is the young man behind the stylish luxury eco-eyewear company: Bôhten. He hails from a Ghanaian family that is deeply proud of its heritage. He has travelled the world, conceived various outlandish business ideas and even appeared on the Canadian version of Dragon’s Den. Today his company Bôhten is going from strength to strength, while also giving back to his home country, Ghana.

Travel, the Big Apple, education and Lilo

Osei’s early life certainly wasn’t dull. Due to his father’s job as a diplomat for the Foreign Ministry of Ghana, Osei and his siblings spent long periods of time in countries such as the U.K, the U.S, Yugoslavia and South Africa. His family eventually settled to live permanently in New York City. However, they held on tightly to their Ghanaian roots; Osei has said that at home his family would always speak Twi and eat traditional Ghanaian dishes. They became closely involved in the Bronx’s large Ghanaian community and retained strong links with family in their home nation.

In 2007, Osei moved to Canada to study at Environmental Science at the University of Ottawa. It was while at University that he first began to create and pursue his own business ideas. In 2009, Osei opened a marketing firm Lilo Enterprises, which was designed to connect sustainable and environmental product manufacturers to consumers. Lilo foreshadowed the creation of Bôhten, highlighting the causes that Osei holds dear. He also flirted with other unorthodox businesses such as vertical gardens and limousine services during this time.

Ghanaian beginnings and the Dragons’ Den

Bôhten eyewear was born from the culmination of multiple ideas. Firstly, Osei was inspired by a trip back to Ghana where he was moved by the natural beauty of the area. Also, some of his family worked in the local wood business which interested him. These factors swirled with his love of fashion and passion for sustainability. He said “At some point, my interests began to play off of each other and during that trip, the seed of the idea for using reclaimed wood for glasses was planted.”

In 2012 he started initial work on Bôhten while still at University. He derived the company from his own name, Boateng, which means prosperity in Twi. Osei got the chance to pitch his business in the infamous Dragons’ Den during a student special episode. While he impressed with his pitch, he didn’t receive an offer from the Dragons, who felt the business was too young.

Osei wasn’t deterred by the Dragons’ decisions. He went on to bring family members into the business to help him grow the organization. Osei has said that with hindsight, investment partners may have stifled his creative freedom, and that the company has managed to move forward without them by knuckling down and getting things done.

The exposure from appearing on the show led to skyrocketing sales and growth. Some say the Dragons missed out.

A sustainable vision for Ghana

Sustainability is at the heart of the business; Bôhten uses reclaimed wood from items such as chairs and tables, all sourced in Western Africa. Additionally Osei wants to use Bôhten as means to better the economy in Ghana. The company currently manufactures its glasses in Canada. However, later this year the firm intends to open a full-scale manufacturing plant in Ghana. The plant going live will be the realization of a long term ambition for Bôhten. “Our ultimate mission is to create a zero-waste facility in Africa that will not only serve to create jobs but also educate people the importance of eye care, sustainable design and social entrepreneurship.”

Osei says that eye care is woefully inadequate in Africa. He explained that the high levels of UV radiation on the continent are responsible for some of the issues that African’s face. To combat such problems, Osei has partnered Bôhten with eyesight charity Sightsavers. For every sale Bôhten makes, the company will make a donation to Sightsavers programs, aimed at eradicating avoidable blindness in West Africa.

As Bôhten grows, so will the benefits that it brings to Ghana and other nations in the region. Nana Boateng Osei is tenacious, compassionate and conscientious individual; a great example for Ghana and Africa as a whole.

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Kenya finalises agreement for development of crude oil pipeline

24 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Economy

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya has finalised an agreement with oil explorer Tullow Oil and its partners Africa Oil and A.P. Moller-Maersk for the development of a crude oil pipeline, as it bids to become an oil exporter, the president’s office said.

Tullow and Africa Oil first struck oil in the Lokichar Basin in the country’s northwest in 2012. The recoverable reserves are an estimated 750 million barrels of crude.

The two firms were 50-50 partners in blocks 10 BB and 13T where the discoveries were made. Africa Oil has since sold a 25 percent stake in those blocks to A.P. Moller-Maersk.

A statement from President Uhuru Kenyatta’s office quoted Energy and Petroleum Minister Charles Keter as saying the three partners and the government had finalised the pipeline’s development plan.

“He said the Government and its upstream partners, Tullow Oil, Africa Oil and Maersk Companies, have concluded a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) for the development of the pipeline,” the statement said.

In April, Keter said the pipeline – to run 891 km between Lokichar and Lamu on Kenya’s coast – would cost $2.1 billion and should be completed by 2021.

The government and the companies are pushing to start small scale crude oil production in 2017, at about 2,000 barrels per day to be initially transported by road.

“We have started and we are not moving back. We want to be at the top of the pile. So, we have set a path and by 2019, Kenya is going to be a major oil producer and exporter,” Kenyatta said.

The statement said Tullow Oil had confirmed it would start production in March 2017 and quoted Paul McDade, its chief operating officer, as saying the company would be ready to start exports in June next year.

Neighbouring Uganda is also looking to build a pipeline to export its oil. Though it initially favoured a route though Kenya, Kampala has decided to build its pipeline through Tanzania instead.

 

(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Aaron Maasho and Mark Potter)

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