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Zambia to receive $13 million for disaster management, mitigation
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Boeing reports first revenue drop in 7 quarters as deliveries decline
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Tesla profits slump by more than a half
In Local Business and Finance News
This is an Investrust Bank Plc Q&A to aid the Zambian public with a smooth comprehension of the Bank of Zambia’s takeover of Investrust Bank based on the central bank’s 11th April 2024, Investrust media briefing. The Bank of Zambia took management control of Investrust Bank Plc on 2 April 2024. Investrust Bank Plc became insolvent, with value of its assets falling below its liabilities, resulting in a negative capital position. The bank faced high overhead costs and accumulated losses over the years with the losses exceeding k11 million at the time of takeover. It underwent restructuring, including the divestiture of original shareholders. The preliminary level of insolvency, stands at around K850 million. Investrust had existing liquidity challenges that worsened in recent months, leading to reliance on costly and unsustainable short-term funding sources. Read more on Financial Insight
The collective bargaining for improved conditions of service between unions and Mopani Copper Mine (MCM) has resulted in management awarding a 13 percent salary increment. The situation two days ago almost resulted in a confrontation as miners planned to down tools after word went round that management had awarded them a 10 percent increment to unionised workers. It took Information and Media permanent secretary, Thabo Kawana, to plead with workers through a radio programme in Mufulira for patience. Speaking during the signing ceremony on Tuesday in Kitwe, Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) president, Joseph Chewe, said after a successful collective bargaining process, management had awarded its unionised employees a 13 percent salary increment. He said in addition, negotiations had resulted in funeral grant increasing from K3, 000 to K10, 000. Read more: Zambia Monitor
Zambia will this year benefit more than US$13 million for disaster management and mitigation from the Africa Risk Insurance Programme under the African Union. Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit National Coordinator, Dr Gabriel Pollen, said the funds were expected to be released by June this year. Pollen said this on the sidelines of the African Risk Capacity (ARC) Agency Conference of the Parties in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Tuesday. This is according to a statement issued in Lusaka on Wednesday by Inutu Mwanza, the First secretary for Press and Tourism at the Zambian mission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “Zambia has substantially benefited from being a member of the Africa Risk Capacity, including an insurance premium payment amounting to 5.5 million dollars during the 2022 drought,” he said. Read more: Zambia Monitor
In response to Zambia’s recent declaration of a national emergency owing to a severe drought affecting power generation, copper miner First Quantum Minerals is taking measures to ensure the continuity of its operations. Power utility Zesco has introduced daily eight-hour loadshedding for its retail customers and initiated consultations with mining companies to reduce power supply to the sector by 150 MW from May 1 to December 31. First Quantum’s operations are expected to have power curtailed by about 80 MW over this period. In response, First Quantum is busy finalising binding offtake agreements with third-party traders to source power from alternative sources within the Southern African Power Pool. The company is securing power from Mozambique’s Electricidade de Moçambique and Namibia’s NamPower to mitigate the impact of reduced power supply in Zambia. Read more: Mining Weekly
In International News
The US Senate has approved a bill that could see TikTok banned in America over national security fears. It gives TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, nine months to sell its stake or the app will be blocked in the United States. The bill will now be handed over to US President Joe Biden, who has said he will sign it into law as soon as it reaches his desk. TikTok has told the BBC that it did not have an immediate response to the move. Previously, Bytedance said it would oppose any attempt to force it to sell TikTok. “It’s a big deal”, Doug Calidas, a tech expert at Harvard University’s Belfer Center, told the BBC. “In the period of a few weeks they managed to pass a law through both chambers which very rarely happens – to see them act so quickly on a matter of public concern.” If the US is successful in forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok, any deal would still need approval from Chinese officials – but China has vowed to oppose any such move. Read more: BBC News
Tesla has announced its profits fell sharply in the first three months of the year to $1.13bn (£910m), compared with $2.51bn in 2023. It caps a difficult period for the electric vehicle (EV) maker, which – faced with falling sales – has announced thousands of job cuts. Boss Elon Musk remains bullish about its prospects, telling investors the launch of new models would be brought forward. Its share price has risen but analysts say it continues to face significant challenges, including from lower-cost rivals. The company has suffered from falling demand and competition from cheaper Chinese imports which has led its stock price to collapse by 43% over 2024. Figures for the first quarter of 2024 revealed revenues of $21.3bn, down on analysts’ predictions of just over $22bn. Read more: BBC News
Boeing on Wednesday reported its first quarterly revenue drop in seven quarters, but the U.S. planemaker beat Wall Street expectations that were lowered after a January mid-air blowout of a cabin door prompted it to slow production of its strongest-selling jets. After the report, Boeing’s Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told CNBC that a deal to acquire its key supplier Spirit AeroSystems is more than likely during the second quarter. The two have confirmed tie-up talks, although pricing remains a challenge in the complex deal. Boeing said first-quarter cash burn, a metric closely watched by investors, was $3.93 billion, better than average analyst expectations of a cash burn of $4.49 billion. In March, Boeing indicated it would use between $4 billion and $4.5 billion due to a crisis following the Jan. 5 accident involving a nearly new 737 MAX 9 jet. Boeing’s shares, which have sunk 35% year to date, were up 1% in early trading after its loss per share was narrower than expected. Spirit Aero’s shares rose 1%. Read more: Reuters
The World Bank has suspended funding for a tourism project in Tanzania that caused the suffering of tens of thousands of villagers, according to a U.S.-based rights group that has long urged the global lender to take such action. The World Bank’s decision to suspend the $150 million project, which aims to improve the management of natural resources and tourism assets in a remote part of southern Tanzanian, was “long overdue,” the Oakland Institute said in a statement Tuesday, charging that the bank’s “failure to take immediate action resulted in serious harms for the local communities.” At least $100 million has already been disbursed for the project, which started in 2017. The suspension of World Bank financing took effect April 18. The Oakland Institute, a California-based rights watchdog whose work focuses on marginalized communities, for years led calls for the World Bank to stop funding the project known by the acronym REGROW, documenting serious rights abuses suffered by Indigenous communities in the area. Read more: Africa News