Story of the Day
Real Estate Investments Zambia reported a loss after tax of ZMW 324.5 million for 2021 compared with a loss of ZMW 29.9 million in 2020. The Group and Company losses occurred predominantly due to the decreases in the fair values of the investment properties (Abridged Financial Statements, 2021). The investment property value for REIZ reduced by 37% as reported in Zambian Kwacha (ZMW) terms due to the currency appreciating by 21% against the US Dollar during the 2021 financial year. Read more
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China has committed to joining Zambia’s creditor committee, International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday, amid complaints from Zambia’s finance minister about delays to its debt restructuring. People’s Bank of China governor Yi Gang said that China intended to co-chair the committee, two sources with knowledge of the International Monetary and Finance Committee meeting told Reuters. Read more: Reuters
The Bankers Association of Zambia (BAZ) says the statistics from the first quarter of 2022 indicate that the market had sufficient liquidity to support the private sector, households as well as calls for bids from government. This is despite most domestic businesses and the general public complaining of low liquidity “no money in circulation” and reports of reduced demand in the retail sector. BAZ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Leonard Mwanza said that in terms of liquidity on the side of commercial banks, there has been sufficient liquidity that has been circulating on the Zambian market. Read more: Zambian Business Times
(NAIS) Fisheries and livestock Minister Makozo Chikote says government has embarked on an economic diversification agenda through investing in livestock development. Mr. Chikote explained that investing in the subsector will help to provide employment opportunities for the rural and urban people and enhance the country’s food basket. He disclosed that government is promoting research based improved technologies among smallholder farmers to enhance livestock production and productivity. Read more: ZNBC
The Zambian government says it has lobbied neighboring Angola to re-open the opportunity for the country to own a state in Angola’s oil refinery project. Energy Minister Peter Kapala said Zambia wanted to have a stake in Angola’s Lobito Refinery Project which will have a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day. He said the two countries last week signed an agreement to actualize the partnership. Read more: Lusaka Times
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Ukraine’s president has told the world’s finance ministers his country needs $7 billion every month until the summer to keep functioning. Volodymyr Zelensky also said “we will need hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild all this later”. He was addressing an International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank conference via video link from Kyiv. The World Bank has estimated that about $60bn of physical damage has so far been inflicted on Ukraine. Read more: BBC News
Shares in Netflix have slumped by 35% after it revealed a sharp drop in subscribers and warned millions more are set to quit the streaming service. It wiped more than $50bn off the firm’s market value as experts warned it faced a struggle to get back on track. Netflix faces intense competition from streaming rivals, but was also hit after it raised prices and left Russia. Read more: BBC News
South Africa and Tanzania have the highest concentration of commercial banks at 51 and 50, respectively. Kenya on the other hand has 42 commercial banks, followed by Egypt with 40, Ghana with 34, Uganda with 24 and Nigeria with 22. African banks also have significantly lower valuations compared to their foreign counterparts. But this is not to say that all the banks in Africa have low valuations. As you will see shortly, some African banks have total assets valued at over $100 billion. Read more: Business Insider
Elon Musk on Thursday said he has lined up commitments worth $46.5 billion to finance a Twitter takeover deal, one week after he first made a public offer to buy the social media company. Musk said he has commitment letters to finance the deal, including two debt commitment letters from Morgan Stanley and other unnamed financial institutions and one equity commitment letter from himself, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Read more: CNN
Capital Markets Report
In 56 trades recorded yesterday, 97,087 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K283,893. A share price gain of K0.08 was recorded in Zanaco. Share price losses were recorded in AECI of K1.75, in Copperbelt Energy Corporation of K0.01 and in Chilanga Cement of K0.01. Trading activity was also recorded in First Quantum Minerals Zambia and Zambeef. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 6,973.96 points, 0.20% up from its previous close of 6,959.86 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K71,172,289,877 including Shoprite Holdings and K36,389,604,437 excluding Shoprite Holdings.