Author: Laurence Sithole

New Zimbabwe went on to report that the court ruled that in the case of First Merchant Bank failing to reimburse Shah and his company, the Bank of Zambia was held liable and, in the alternative, the Attorney General was ordered to pay if the funds could not be found. The culmination of this dispute is that Shah and his company are in for a particularly large windfall of cash. The reclusive Indian business tycoon is said to have business interests in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and India.

Despite his wins in business Jayesh Shah has never successfully shaken off the controversy that comes from the notable success a person enjoys in any endeavour. Success always breeds as many admirers as it does critics. Tendai Biti, who was Zimbabwe’s finance minister at one time during the Government of National Unity, called Jayesh Shah a “loan shark of Indian descent”.

The opposition leader …

Patrice Thlopane Motsepe has entrepreneurship baked in his bones.

It seems the South African born mining magnate has natural instincts for enterprise.

Looking at his accomplishments in the mining industry and business world its not hard to imagine that he possesses the so called “animal spirits” that renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes said drives entrepreneurs and causes them to see opportunities for value where others cannot.

• Patrice Motsepe is a South African billionaire who has made a fortune estimated by Forbes to be in the region of US$ 2.6 billion.
• His fortune has come from investments in the mining industry through a company he founded in 1997 called African Rainbow Minerals Limited.
• African Rainbow Minerals is involved in the mining of gold, platinum, coal, ferrous and base metals.

According to Forbes, Motsepe’s personal fortune is estimated to be in the region of US$ 2.6 billion. Motsepe founded and …

Conventional finance theory will advise that raising capital on the public markets can be an uphill task when an economy is slowing. A booming economy characterized by low-interest rates with increasing growth rates is the most conducive for an equity offering, more so an initial public offering. A further stroke of genius on the part of Volkswagen and Porsche is that the equity offering comprised preference shares.

The preference shares comprise 12.5% of the issued share capital of Porsche.

This is a stroke of genius in the sense that preference shares, by their nature, resemble fixed income security which would be in high demand in the current environment where interest rates are elevated or are on the upward path. The preferred share component of the IPO must have been appealing and contributed to the offering being oversubscribed.

Preference shares are shares that generally carry with them voting rights and accrue …

In terms of foreign exchange reserves, according to HM Treasury, Britain has net official reserves of US$ 114 billion whereas it plans to embark on an economic plan to pull itself out of the stagflation quagmire by spending no less than US$ 173 billion dollars. If Britain were to use all its foreign exchange reserves to meet the cost of its economic plan it would run short of money and still have a deficit of US$ 59 billion dollars before fully implementing its plan.

Fair enough and granted, governments do not always have to spend cash that they have on hand. They can always borrow if they do not have sufficient cash to finance their operations.

Herein is the problem, the current economic environment does not support borrowing either by individuals, households, or governments. The cost of borrowing is just simply too high either by domestic debt or foreign debt. …

Padenga Holdings Limited fits this description in letter and spirit. During the six months under review, the company achieved US$ 57 million in revenues, which was more than double what the company achieved the previous year. The company increased its revenues by 184% from US$ 20 million in 2021. The company’s mining operations contributed 91% of the revenues.

The crocodile operations contributed a negligible US$ 5 million to the top line. If this trend continues, supported by the elevated gold prices, it would not be unreasonable to surmise that Padenga will soon become a pure-play gold producer or even diversify into other precious metals.

The crocodile business could soon be a thing of the past since gold mining activities have largely eclipsed it. This is all speculation as the company has not made an official statement on the future strategic direction of the company.…

Mining MX the South African mining industry journal published its 2022 edition of the Mining Yearbook recently.

For many years, this publication produced in conjunction with leading business weeklies is the holy grail for stakeholders in the mining industry with a particular interest in South Africa and the region. This year’s publication is freely available on the Mining MX website.

The 2022 edition ran under the theme “Rock Bottom: Why South African Mining cannot risk more Mantashe blunders”. The theme is a harsh though factual indictment on the effect of government policy on the mining industry personified by the current minister of mines and former communist Gwede Mantashe.

• South Africa owes its existence as a nation to its mining industry which remains one of its largest contributors to its GDP.
• Mining MX published its annual Mining Year Book which shoed that mining investment in South Africa is on the decline.

Banks in Africa generally and in South Africa especially weathered the perfect storm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is testament to their resilience and confirms the findings of a study that was commissioned in 2015 by the African Development Bank titled, “The Banking System in Africa: Main Facts and Challenges”. The report found that while Africa’s banking environment is relatively shallow and less penetrated, it is as competitive as that in other developing and high-income regions.

• Banks in Africa showed their resilience when they weathered the existential threat and headwinds brought on by COVID.
• Banking in Africa is significantly ahead if the rest f the world according to the AFDB in terms of the penetration and adoption of mobile banking.
• Banks in South Africa especially have been making money as the economy shed off its last vestiges of COVID controls.

The continent has made improvements in banking technology and …

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) joined the East African Community (EAC) in March 2022 in a development that has been largely feted as positive.

This decision was reached by the heads of state of the other member countries. The BBC in a report that covered the development said that although the country had officially become a member of the regional bloc, not much would change right away. This is because at that time in March 2022 Congolese lawmakers still had to ratify the decision.

The report added that Congolese citizens looking to travel to other member countries of the East African Community had to wait a little while longer. The BBC gave the example of South Sudan which took four months to become a fully-fledged member in 2016.

• DRC recently joined the EAC which is a move expected to help the country realize its mineral potential through regional

China presently has the largest sum of foreign exchange reserves in the world. When its over US$ 3 trillion in reserves is added to the reserves of the other BRICS member states the questions as to why they cannot issue their own currency start to grow louder.

Talks of a common currency fizzled out as more pressing national and international matters eclipsed the idea. This year 2022 has seen renewed calls for a common reserve currency emerge once again. This time Russia is leading the call for the creation of a reserve currency that will be an alternative to the United States dollar as a mechanism for the settlement of international transactions.

Russia’s motive for making such a call is obvious, the country has been at war with Ukraine since February 2022. This aggression against Ukraine has earned Russia some of the most stringent economic sanctions in history. What has …

The calls for concrete, concomitant, and substantive actions against carbon emissions are not an exaggeration. The effects of climate change are obvious, even for the casual observer to see. Presently a devastating hurricane, Ian has made landfall on the United States coast of Florida. The tropical storm which tore through Cuba and made landfall in the United States a day ago has reportedly left an estimated 2.5 million people without electricity.

NBC News called hurricane Ian one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States. The hurricane it is said, has caused devastation and flooding that has left residents of Miami and Florida trapped in their homes. Hurricane Ian has been described as a category 4 hurricane with speeds of as much as 150 miles per hour or 240 kilometres per hour. Speeds like that make such a storm a threat to life and property. President Joe …