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Mozambican Airline to fly into Lusaka
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Interest rate ‘rigging’ evidence ‘covered up’ by banks
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Shoprite Holdings PLC was the highest priced security in the third week of May
Story of the Day
As funding goes dry and rising interest rates threaten some fintechs predicated on cheap money, the recent collapse of several banks including Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has rocked fintech and much of the banking industry. In developed markets, digital banks, running on thin margins and relying on high growth, have struggled to reach sustainability, with layoffs and restructuring becoming the norm of late. Yet in the emerging market context, the digital banking sector — some spectacular failures notwithstanding — offers signs of surprising resilience. Since the collapse of SVB, there has been the noted transfer of deposits in developed markets away from smaller banks and towards bigger, incumbent banks seen by regulators as “too big to fail.” One Gallup poll in late April found that 48% of Americans were concerned about the money they held in deposits at financial institutions. Read more
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The United States of America’s investment in the Lobito Corridor rail line has been hailed as a significant development by Hon. Museba Frank Tayali, the Minister of Transport and Logistics in Zambia. The announcement was made by President Joe Biden during the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) Meeting held in Hiroshima, Japan. President Biden revealed that the United States has already mobilized over $30 billion in investments and is committed to furthering its efforts. This declaration has been welcomed by the Zambian government, particularly the New Dawn Administration, as it aligns with their vision of unlocking the region’s business potential and stimulating economic growth through private sector involvement. Read more: Lusaka Times
Mozambican Airline (LAM) will on 30th June 2023 launch its inaugural direct flight between Maputo and Lusaka. This came to light when a Mozambican airline head of marketing Eunice Adelina Matediane announced the development when she led a delegation that visited the Zambia High Commission in Maputo. Ms Matediane said the airline will fly to and from Maputo and Lusaka three times a week. Zambia’s Acting High Commissioner to Mozambique Lloyd Himaambo told ZANIS in a press statement that the development was one of the fruits of President Hqakainde Hichilema’s recent state visit to that country. Mr. Himaambo explained that, when President Hichilema visited Mozambique in April this year, he instructed that the process of allowing Mozambican Airline to start operating the Lusaka route be expedited. Read more: Lusaka Times
The Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZAMMSA) has announced that three globally renowned Indian companies have expressed interest in setting up pharmaceutical manufacturing plants in Zambia. ZAMMSA Director General, Billy Mweetwa, disclosed this at the conclusion of the discussions with Torrent Group, Path kits, and Akums Healthcare Limited on Friday in India. Mweetwa said this could be part of the government’s solution to address drug shortages on a short-and long-term basis. Read more: Zambia Monitor
The Zambia Metal Fabricators (ZAMEFA) says it is concerned that local value addition to Copper continues to be low, estimated at five percent. ZAMEFA Managing Director, Kangwa Bwalya, said the company is hopeful that government will help the sector grow. He said this during a Zambia Association of Manufacturers (ZAM) Pre – Budget Meeting in Lusaka on Friday. Bwalya said government can address the challenge around the pricing of copper for domestic use, despite copper being priced using the London Metal Exchange (LME). He said the price of the London Metal Exchange considers freight and other charges of moving copper from the mine site to an LME approved warehouse. Read more: Zambia Monitor
Bank of Zambia Exchange Rates
| Currency | Buying | Selling |
|---|---|---|
| USD | 18.7174 | 18.7659 |
| GBP | 23.2882 | 23.3542 |
| EUR | 20.2260 | 20.2803 |
| ZAR | 0.9660 | 0.9689 |
In International Business News
The World Bank has warned that green house emissions will remain above the level required to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius due to lack of innovation and investment in greening cities in lower and middle income countries such as Zambia. The Bank has warned that without innovation and investment in greening these cities, global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would remain above the level required to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius – even if high- and upper-middle-income countries successfully transitioned to net zero by 2050. Read more: Zambia Monitor
President Joe Biden and top Republican Kevin McCarthy are due to meet at the White House on Monday for talks on lifting the US debt ceiling. The pair spoke on the phone on Sunday as the president was travelling back from the G7 summit in Japan. The two sides remain at odds over budget cuts demanded by the Republicans as a condition for raising the ceiling. Failure to do so by June could result in the US defaulting on its debt. Read more: BBC News
UK and US regulators were told of a state-led drive to “rig” interest rates in the 2008 financial crisis, but covered it up, evidence indicates. Documents suggest lenders sharply dropped their interest-rate estimates after pressure from central banks. Evidence was not shown to juries at the time when bankers were jailed for smaller-scale interest-rate “rigging”. Regulators said they had followed disclosure rules, declined to comment or in one case rebutted the claims. Read more: BBC News
The European Union is poised to impose a ban on imports of Russia’s diamonds — cutting off the world’s biggest diamond producer from one of its key markets. “Russian diamonds are not forever,” European Council President Charles Michel said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on Friday. A plan to sanction the Russian industry, worth $4 billion in exports, could be unveiled as soon as this weekend, a senior EU official told journalists during a briefing on Thursday. Russia produces around a third of the world’s diamonds, and is the single biggest exporter, according to the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), which represents the world’s biggest diamond trading hub in Belgium. Read more: CNN
During Thursday’s meeting with the CEOs of large banks, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told executives that more bank mergers may be necessary as the industry continues to navigate through a crisis, two people familiar with the matter told CNN. The comments from Yellen provide further evidence that Biden officials are starting to warm up to the idea of bank mergers despite concerns from progressives and the administration’s own scrutiny of corporate concentration. The worst banking crisis since 2008, marked by a series of bank failures, plunging stock prices and concern about the business model of regional and mid-size banks, has forced a regulatory rethink. Regulators, of course, prefer corporate mergers where strong banks take over weaker ones over destabilizing bank failures. Read more: CNN
According to French authorities, the affluent members of the Group of Seven (G7) need to take greater responsibility for increasing crisis finance for weaker states throughout the globe and collaborating with them to change the post-war financial structure. The “Summit for a New Global Financial Pact” will be held in France on June 22–23 and will address issues such as the debt crisis, finance for green technology, the reform of multilateral development banks (MDB), new international taxation and financing tools, and special drawing rights, as seen on the American news agency, Reuters. “It’s urgent for us to act and rethink collectively the international financing architecture,” a French presidential official said, adding that Paris had lobbied its G7 partners before next month’s conference. “Today we have a network of development banks in the world which finance international solidarity and which find themselves limited in their capacity to act,” he added. Read more: Business Insider
In the third week of May 2023, there were twelve company securities that recorded trades of which Shoprite Holdings was the highest priced security. In comparison to week three of May 2022, we see fourteen companies recorded trades with ZCCM Investment Holdings as the highest priced company security. Thursday’s equity trading was the best performance of the week. Read more
In 115 trades recorded on Friday, 27,411 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K114,570.07. A share price increase of K0.05 was recorded in Zanaco. Trading activity was recorded in CEC Zambia, Chilanga Cement, Pamodzi, PUMA, Zambia Breweries, ZCCM, Zambeef and Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 8,171.21 points, 0.20% higher than its close previous at 8,154.62 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K76,499,456,280.97 including Shoprite Holdings and K41,716,770,840.97 excluding Shoprite Holdings
Picture of the Day
