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| South Africa's Mondi full-year earnings, dividend up Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 11:23 PM PST  South African paper maker Mondi posted higher 2013 full-year earnings on Friday, helped by benefits from acquisitions in its packaging business. Mondi, which is also listed in London, said diluted headline earnings per share for the year to end-December totalled 91.1 euro cents from 62.7 euro cents a year earlier. Headline EPS is the key measure of profitability in South Africa and strips out certain one-off and non-trading items. "The packaging paper business was the stand-out performer, benefiting from higher average pricing in all key grades and good volume growth," the company said. Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's rand weakens slightly ahead of trade data Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 11:19 PM PST  South Africa's rand was slightly weaker against the dollar on Friday and could suffer further losses if trade data due later in the session disappoints. "Given that we expect a larger trade deficit reading today, coupled with the fact that market positioning is no longer excessively short rand, we believe that there is significant risk of a renewed bout of rand weakness into the weekend," Barclays Africa wrote in a note. Full Story | Top |
| Pearson says 2014 earnings to fall Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 11:17 PM PST  British publisher Pearson said it expected 2014 earnings to fall, after publishing full-year results within the range of already downgraded forecasts due to the hit from the deteriorating U.S. education market. Pearson, the 170-year-old education and media group which is restructuring under new leadership to grow again in 2015, has endured a tough 2013, downgrading its guidance twice. On Friday it reported 2013 adjusted earnings per share of 70.1 pence after restructuring charges, down from 82.6 pence last year. The British group, which also owns the Financial Times, warned in January that its 2013 earnings would be lower than expected due to higher restructuring costs and poor demand for its North America education business in its key selling quarter. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine's interior minister condemns seizure of Crimea airports Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 11:05 PM PST Ukraine's interior minister said on Friday Russian forces had taken control of two airports in the Crimea region and condemned them an armed invasion and occupation. He said there had been no bloodshed or clashes when armed men he described as Russian naval forces took over a military airport near the port of Sevastopol where the Russian Black Sea fleet has a base. "I consider what has happened to be an armed invasion and occupation in violation of all international agreements and norms," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page, describing it as an armed provocation and calling for talks. Full Story | Top |
| House prices show biggest annual increase in nearly four years in February Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 11:02 PM PST  British house prices recorded their biggest annual rise in nearly four years this month despite a slowdown in the month-on-month rate of growth, data from mortgage lender Nationwide showed on Friday. House prices rose 0.6 percent in February, the slowest pace of monthly growth since June last year and down slightly from an upwardly revised increase of 0.8 percent in January, Nationwide said in a statement. But in year-on-year terms, house prices in February were 9.4 percent higher than in the same month last year, stronger than a rise of 8.8 percent in the 12 months to January and the biggest annual jump since May 2010. January saw a similar increase, a rate of growth last seen in November 2009 when prices were bouncing from a trough reached earlier that year. Full Story | Top |
| Russia's Putin orders government to work with partners on Ukraine Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:40 PM PST Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his government to continue talks with Ukraine on economic and trade relations and to consult foreign partners including the IMF and the G8 on financial aid, a statement on the Kremlin's website said. It said Putin also ordered the government to consider a request from Ukraine's largely ethnic Russian southern region of Crimea, a bastion of opposition to the new pro-Western leadership in Kiev, for humanitarian aid. They were the first orders Putin has made in relation to Ukraine since Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich's ouster over the weekend after a bloody three-month standoff with opposition protesters. Full Story | Top |
| World Bank postpones Uganda loan over anti-gay law Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:39 PM PST  By Anna Yukhananov WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank on Thursday postponed a $90 million loan to Uganda's health system over a law that toughened punishment for gays, an unusual move for an institution that typically avoids wading into politics. "We have postponed the project for further review to ensure that the development objectives would not be adversely affected by the enactment of this new law," World Bank spokesman David Theis said in an email. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed an anti-gay bill earlier this week that strengthens already strict laws against homosexuals by imposing a life sentence for certain violations and making it a crime to not report anyone who breaks the law. The World Bank, a poverty-fighting institution based in Washington, usually refrains from getting involved in countries' internal politics or in issues such as gay rights to avoid antagonizing any of its 188 member countries. Full Story | Top |
| Kenya's Unga posts H1 profit jump, new taxes a strain Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:37 PM PST Kenyan flour miller Unga Group Ltd reported a 53 percent jump in pretax profit in the six months ended December, helped by slim foreign exchange gains after heavy losses on the local currency the year before. The miller said profit before tax rose to 298.7 million Kenyan shillings during the first half as net revenues climbed eight percent to 8.8 billion shillings. Meanwhile, a new 10 percent duty on wheat imported into Uganda and a 60 percent import duty on flour brought into Uganda from Kenya meant that illegal imports would pose an increasing challenge to Unga's Ugandan subsidiary. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt appoints Hany Dimian finance minister: government official Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:36 PM PST Egypt's prime minister appointed former finance ministry official Hany Dimian as finance minister in the new government on Thursday, a government official said. Dimian will face the daunting task of strengthening an economy battered by political turmoil since a popular uprising toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Dimian worked as a top ministry official for more than five years until he resigned 10 months ago during the term of deposed President Mohamed Mursi. Educated at Columbia University, he was described by a senior European diplomat as the only ministry expert able to deal professionally with the International Monetary Fund during a failed Mursi administration bid to secure a loan last year. Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's Implats declares force majeure as strike talks set to resume Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:35 PM PST By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Impala Platinum on Thursday declared force majeure on supply contracts at its strike-hit Rustenburg mine, as five weeks of labour unrest took their toll on the battered mining industry. The world's top three platinum producers, including Impala, and South Africa's striking AMCU union are due to resume wage talks on Friday, in hopes to end the strike that has taken out more than 40 percent of global output of the precious metal. Implats' decision to declare force majeure underscores the wider effect the strikes are likely to have on South Africa's economy, especially on the smaller and mid-size companies that supply mines with tools and equipment. "We have no choice, the mine is shut," spokesman Johan Theron said, referring to the decision to declare force majeure, which literally means "higher power" and allows certain terms of an otherwise legally binding agreement to be ignored. Full Story | Top |
| Senegal's Africa Energy to build 300 MW coal plant by 2017 Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:34 PM PST Senegal has signed a contract with locally registered firm Africa Energy SA to build a coal-fired power plant with a capacity of at least 300 megawatts by 2017, according to a tender document and industry sources. "We signed a contract with Africa Energy, which will sell its whole production to (state utility) Senelec," Pape Tory Gaye, an official at the utility, told Reuters on Thursday. A consultant on the project, eGateway India Pvt., published a tender on Thursday in a Senegal paper seeking a partner for engineering, procurement and construction. Senegal, one of the most stable democracies in West Africa, secured pledges worth about $7.8 billion at a donor conference that began in Paris on Monday to help kick-start a development plan, which includes energy projects. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt central bank keeps key interest rates on hold Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:34 PM PST Egypt's central bank left official interest rates on hold on Thursday, as it tries to stimulate an economy hurt by three years of political turmoil while keeping inflation in check. Economic growth in the Arab world's most populous nation has slowed markedly and many foreign tourists and investors have shied away from Egypt since the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Egypt's interim government, installed by the army after Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was forced from office in July, unexpectedly resigned on Monday, but many ministers have been reappointed since then. Egypt's annual urban inflation rate slowed to 11.4 percent in January from 11.7 percent in December. Full Story | Top |
| China paves way to charge ally of former security tsar in graft crackdown Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:33 PM PST  A former vice minister of public security and ally of China's retired domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang, has resigned from his position as a national lawmaker, state media said, possibly opening the way for criminal charges against him. Li Dongsheng was formally sacked this week after being suspended last December for suspected "serious discipline violations", a term normally used to refer to corruption. China's parliament - whose annual session opens in Beijing next week - has accepted Li's resignation as a member of parliament for southwestern Sichuan province, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday. Li joined the Public Security Ministry in 2009, having previously served as a deputy propaganda minister, and helped oversee security for the 2010 Asian Games in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, according to state media. Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's credit growth quickens to 8.16 pct in January Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:28 PM PST JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Growth in credit demand from South Africa's private sector quickened to 8.16 percent year-on-year in January from 6.14 percent in December, data from the Reserve Bank showed on Friday. Expansion in the broadly defined M3 measure of money supply also quickened to 6.41 percent from 6.15 percent the previous month. Full Story | Top |
| Kenya's Uchumi posts H1 profit fall as insecurity hits retail Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:28 PM PST Kenya's Uchumi Supermarkets Ltd posted on Friday a 19 percent drop in pretax profit in its first half, hit by a fall in sales which it blamed on rising inflation and a deadly Somali militant attack on a Kenyan shopping mall. The firm, Kenya's second-largest retail chain with stores in neighbouring Uganda and Tanzania, said profit before taxes fell to 106.9 million shillings in the six months ended December. It said lower-than-expected government spending hurt private sector spending, while rising inflation in Kenya, the region's biggest economy, placed a strain on disposable income. "Insecurity in Uganda and Kenya continued to impact negatively on retail business following terrorist threats and actions during the period," Uchumi said. Full Story | Top |
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