Story of the Day
ZCCM IH has advised shareholders and stakeholders that its 2021 audited financial statements will be further delayed due to the non-completion of the fair valuation of Mopani Copper Mines PLC, according to an official statement. “Shareholders are referred to the Company announcement dated 28 February 2022 where it was communicated that the audited 2021 financial statements would be issued by 31 March 2022. ZCCM-IH is yet to publish its financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021”, read a statement issued by Company Secretary Chabby Chabala on 10 October authorized by the Dolika Banda led Board. The official reason for the non-issuance of the said financial statements was occasioned by the “delayed completion of the audit of the financial statements”. Grant Thronton are currently ZCCM IH’s auditors and were responsible for the audited financials in the groups 2020 Annual Report. Read more
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Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, said on Monday the number of mining licences that a company can hold at a time will be restricted to five to curb speculative purchases within the country’s licensing system. The ministry of mines in February suspended the issuance of mining licences and commissioned an audit in response to public complaints about a lack of transparency. Read more: Mining Weekly
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a decline in Trade in Sub- Saharan Africa by the end of this year. The IMF says trade in the region is expected to grow by 3.6%, indicating a 1.1% decline from the 4.7% recorded between the same period last year. The decline has been attributed to muted investments and overall worsening of its balance of trade in the region. Read more: ZNBC
Leaders League, a French based international company designed to bring the world’s markets together has invited Zambia to participate at the Africa Investments Forum and Awards to be held in Paris, France. Scheduled to take place on February 7th ,2023, the Forum will bring together business executives across Africa, Europe, decision makers and solution providers interested to do partnerships together. Read more: Lusaka Times
The Zambian government said on Monday that it was in the process of formulating a national climate change adaptation plan aimed at building resilience against the negative effects of climate change. Collins Nzovu, the Minister of Green Economy and Environment, said the plan will identify the country’s medium and long-term climate risks and vulnerabilities and mainstream them into the national development planning and budgeting processes. Read more: Xinhua
International Business and Finance
French cement maker Lafarge has pleaded guilty in the US to supporting the Islamic State and other terror groups. The firm agreed to a $777.8m penalty for payments it made to keep a factory running in Syria after war broke out in 2011. Prosecutors said it marked the first time a company had pleaded guilty in the US to aiding terrorists. Lafarge said it “deeply regretted” the events and “accepted responsibility for the individual executives involved”. Read more: BBC News
Soaring food prices have pushed the increase in the UK’s cost of living back up to the 40-year high seen in July. Inflation – a measure of prices – accelerated to 10.1% in September as rising living costs continued to hit household budgets. The Bank of England has said inflation could peak at 11% this year. Read more: BBC News
Ghana’s currency, the Cedi is currently the world’s worst-performing currency. This follows the currency’s sharp decline in value as it was reported to have lost 45.1% of its value against the US dollar since the year began. This report is courtesy of Bloomberg which also noted that Ghana’s currency depreciated 3.3% on Monday to 11.2750 per dollar. Read more: Business Insider
Members of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) who recently paid a visit to Aliko Dangote’s multi-billion-dollar refinery disclosed that the refinery is 97 per cent near completion. The Dangote Refinery, situated on 6,180 acres (2,500 hectares) of land, is Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train petroleum facility. Upon completion, the refinery will be able to process 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day into refined petroleum products, which will help Nigeria become an oil refining country. Read more: Business Insider
After two quarters of bleeding subscribers, Netflix appears to be back on track — in a big way. The streaming company reported Tuesday that it notched 2.4 million subscribers in the third quarter of 2022 — a number that far exceeded expectations of 1 million subscribers. In more good news, it said it will likely add 4.5 million subscribers for the fourth quarter, which also is ahead of what investors were expecting. In short, Netflix is seemingly back to growing after watching its stock and reputation take a hit all year due to subscriber losses. It currently has 223 million subscribers worldwide. Read more: CNN
Capital Markets Report
In 61 trades recorded yesterday, 15,886 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K50,426. A share price gain was recorded in Airtel of K0.04. Trading activity was also recorded in Copperbelt Energy Corporation, Investrust, PUMA, Standard Chartered Zambia, Zambeef, Zanaco, Zambia Sugar and CEC Africa on the quoted tier. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 7,233.72 points, 0.01% up from its previous close of 7,232.76 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K72,418,746,522 including Shoprite Holdings and K37,636,061,082 excluding Shoprite Holdings.