Story of the Day
Metal Fabricators Zambia (ZAMEFA) has recorded a 10 percent reduction in revenue at the end of its latest financial year, according to a statement from the company. “Revenue at ZMW1 030 million is 10% lower than the prior period (2021: ZMW1 145 million)”, read the statement published on SENS on 20 May 2022 issued by BDO Zambia Limited – Company Secretaries. “This is as a result of lower sales volumes in the current period under review. Additionally, most of the company’s revenue is derived from USD denominated sales and the stronger Zambian kwacha, against the USD, compared to the same period in the prior year, negatively affected the revenue in this 6-month period”. The bullish run that copper has experienced over the last 12 months cushioned the company. “However, this was partly offset by the pass through effect of higher copper prices in the first half of the 2022 financial year when compared to the corresponding period last year”. Read more
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Zambia’s Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) plans to resume cobalt production that was halted more than a decade ago after international prices collapsed, an executive at state-owned ZCCM-IH said on Tuesday. Accelerating sales of electric vehicles have fuelled a scramble for nickel, cobalt and lithium, propelling prices of the battery materials to multi-year highs. Brian Musonda, chief investment officer at ZCCM-IH, Zambia’s mining investment arm, said the rising prices were a strong economic reason to restart cobalt processing. Read more: Reuters
Transparency International Zambia executive director Maurice Nyambe has urged government to implement agricultural programmes and interventions that will be devoid of corruption as a means of securing nutritional resilience and food security. Read more: News Diggers
Konkola Copper Mines’ provisional liquidator Celine Nair appoints KPMG’s Jason Kazilimani as her agent at the company, KCM says in emailed statement. Kazilimani will be acting on behalf of the official receiver on some of the matters relating to the functions of the provisional liquidator Kazilimani will “support the provisional liquidator in the efficient and prudent management of KCM” Read more: Bloomberg
The British government says it has set one billion pounds aside over the next five years to help boost its investment in Zambia. British High Commissioner to Zambia Nicholas Woolley says government will also help boost Finance for Zambia’s Small Medium Entrepreneurs (SMS) by £100 million. Mr. Woolley says the British Government has also increased investment in renewable energy by 500 Million pounds. Read more: ZNBC
Finance Minister Situmbeko has called for the promotion of private sector financing and investments in member countries. Dr Musokotwane says this can be achieved through enhanced collaboration on natural resource endowments like Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo done in the copper and cobalt value-chain initiative for the manufacture of electric car batteries. He has appealed to investors to consider the profitable option of producing electric engine motors for car assembly plants in the sub-Saharan region. Read more: ZNBC
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A UK-EU trade war would be “shocking” and “unnecessary”, the Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin has said. He called on the UK government to “get into the tunnel and negotiate” over changes to the post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland. The Taoiseach told the BBC that Ireland and the European Union “do not want a trade war” with the UK. Read more: BBC News
The head of the World Bank has warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could cause a global recession as the price of food, energy and fertiliser jump. David Malpass told a US business event on Wednesday that it is difficult to “see how we avoid a recession”. He also said a series of coronavirus lockdowns in China are adding to concerns about a slowdown. Read more: BBC News
The president of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has revealed plans by the financial institution to raise $5billion to support women-empowered businesses in Africa. Dr Adesina disclosed this in a statement on his official Twitter account moments after the institution commenced its Annual Meetings for 2022. In one of his tweets, Dr Adesina noted that the AfDB plans to lend $500 million to women in 2022 after paying $483 million to financial institutions to lend to women businesses in 2021. Read more: Business Insider
Twitter has agreed to pay $150 million in fines after the US government sued the social media company on Wednesday, alleging that it misled consumers about how it protects their personal data. According to the federal lawsuit, Twitter failed to tell its users for years that it used their contact information to help marketers target their advertising — in violation of a 2011 privacy settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. “This practice affected more than 140 million Twitter users, while boosting Twitter’s primary source of revenue,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. Read more: CNN
Capital Markets Report
In 60 trades recorded yesterday, 193,380 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K324,924. Share price gains were recorded in British American Tobacco Zambia of K0.01, in Zambeef of K0.01, in Zanaco of K0.01 and in Zambia Sugar of K0.01. Trading activity was also recorded in Copperbelt Energy Corporation, Chilanga Cement, Standard Chartered Zambia and ZAFFICO. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 6,791.56 points, 0.08% up from its previous close of 6,786.34 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K70,494,139,793 including Shoprite Holdings and K35,711,454,353 excluding Shoprite Holdings.