The South African high court on 23 August, refused an application made by Zambia’s mining investment vehicle ZCCM-IH to stay an earlier made ruling that blocks the Zambian government from proceeding with liquidation and selling of Vedanta assets in Konkola Copper Mines. Judge Leicester Adams stated that the application by the 20% monitory shareholder, ZCCM-IH did not present anything new and as such he felt there was no reason to support the stay application. This is a case where Vedanta, 80% majority shareholder in KCM has been cited to breach of license requirements ranging from pollution to tax evasion. ZCCM-IH…
Author: The Editor
Africa’s second largest copper producer, Zambia was today 23 August downgraded to CCC+ with stable outlook by Standards and Poor’s rating agency. Both the long term foreign and local currency ratings were lowered in credit assessment to CCC+ from B-. This comes a month after Fitch lowered the copper producers credit assessment lower to CCC. Earlier in the year Moody’s rated Zambia Caa2 from Caa1. Zambia currently grapples with energy generation bottlenecks that has seen rolling black outs across the sectors which has impacted business pulse. Rising external debt fueled by infrastructure spend and ballooning domestic arrears are key concern.…
Rosy but thorny is the theme that market analysts see in the Zambian fixed income and term debt markets. The sweetest point on the Kwacha fixed income curve, the 5 year point, is now paying 32%. Locking liquidity in five year paper will now earn you 32%. Friday 23 August debt sale saw bids that successfully pushed yields a 175 basis points wider to 32% while other tenors infinitesimally moved. The move in the 5 year was anticipated by analysts with inference to the 1 year treasury bill that edged 75bps higher to 27.5% in last Thursday’s auction. The secondary…
Gemfields subsidiary Kagem mining sold $18.6million worth of emeralds in a precious stone auction held in the world’s colored stone hotspot, Zambia. The precious stone sale absorbed 74% of the 35 lots offered representing 37% of the carats offered to raise just below $19million in proceeds. This accounts for a 72.2% compared with $10.8million raised in the 18-20 February debt sale held in Lusaka. The per carat sale also grew 8.2% to $4.75 despite the percentage of lots sold by weight inching lower to 37% from 59% in previous auction. This then rally’s the total proceeds of thirty three (33)…
Mahogany Chief Executive Officer – Dr. Jim Belemu being interviewed at Kenneth Kaunda international airport in Lusaka.
Wheat field and storage barns in Mkushi farming block in Zambia.
A car dealer holds K50 notes at a car wash on BwinjiBwinjimfumu road in Lusaka.
Bank of Zambia Dr. Denny Kalyalya speaks on as Deputy Governor Administrtation Dr. Kankasa Mabula looks on.
Disruption at Nava Bharat Ventures Ltd (NBV) owned Maamba 300MW geothermal plant has worsened Zambia’s load management. A generator failure at the power plant will impact power generation, during peak hours, for 15 days as confirmed by the power utility ZESCO communique. Most parts of the country are already experiencing rolling black outs exceeding the prescribed 4 hours as a consequence. Zambia currently grapples with energy deficit exacerbated by drought effects impacting dam levels at the Kariba weighing energy generation. The 273MW deficit has been apportioned across the sectors through a 4 hours blackout schedule to ease pressure of the…
The world’s largest man made lake, the Kariba dam.