By Tawanda Musarurwa

HARARE - Listed conglomerate Innscor Africa Limited is set to separately list its Speci-ality Retail and Distribution Business.

This comes as the company's board recently approved the unbundling of the business.

Said Innscor in a statement today:

"Shareholders are advised that the Innscor Africa Lim-ited board of directors has approved the unbundling and separate listing of the Com-pany’s Specialty Retail and Distribution Business.

"Shareholders will be pro-

vided with more details in due course."

The conglomerate seem to be accruing significant benefits from spin-offs.

Last year, the group unbun-dled its Quick Service Res-taurant (QSR) business - Simbisa Brands Ltd - and

listed it on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange In Novem-ber, on the need to "to pur-sue strategies that maximise shareholder value and enable a clear operational focus that is attractive to investors," said Innscor at the time.

Simbisa's separate listing was the second Innscor Africa Lim-

ited unit to list on the bourse over a five year period.

In 2010, another Innscor unit Padenga listed on the local bourse.

Innscor has a wide range of interests spanning from retail to light manufacturing and quick service restaurants.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the group announced that it has divested from the SPAR Cor-porate Stores group operat-ing in Zimbabwe.

In 2014 the company became the first Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed firm to breach the $1 bill ion revenue mark in the full-year to June 2014. ●

News Update as @ 1530 hours, Friday 22 January 2016Feedback: bh24admin@zimpapers.co.zwEmail: bh24feedback@zimpapers.co.zw

Innscor to separately list Speciality Retail business

Innscor CEO Mr Antonio Fourie

BH242

By Funny Hudzerema

HARARE -Zimbabwe is targeting a rapid growth in tourist arrivals from Spain in view of the country's partic-ipation at the Feria Internacional de Turismo [FITUR].

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority corpo-rate affairs Mr Sugar Chagonda said participating during the FITUR is a big opportunity for Zimbabwe which is going to increase tourists from Spain.

“Our participation during the 36th edition of the FITUR is big move which will allow us to meet different tourist organisations and agencies

and see we can promote and market our tourism facilities.

“Zimbabwe needs to be well known to benefit from the tourism sector advertising electronically is essen-tial but there are some events which we need to go physically and meet face to face with different people,” he said.

Feria Internacional de Turismo is a Latin tourism international travel show which is being held every year in Spain’s capital Madrid targeting to market tourism facilities in different countries.

“Our marketing efforts have seen an

increase in arrivals from about 7500 in 2013 to 9000 in 2014, statistics for 2015 are not yet available but indications show a growing trend in arrivals from this market.

“Participating in these travel shows allows us to meet with other coun-tries’ tourism agencies, national tourism organisations and potential investors so this is a big milestone which will bear fruits,” he said.

FITUR is one of the major global Tourism fairs and this year’s edition registered 9 500 companies from 165 countries taking up over 60 000 square metres of exhibition space.

Mr Chagonda also added that during the fair Zimbabwe will engage with buyers, wholesalers and potential investors with the aim to attract mice and business tourism events in Zimbabwe like Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo to be held in June this year.

“Zimbabwe has consistently exhib-ited at FITUR as this tourism fair gives Zimbabwe the impetus in reaching the Spanish market,” he said.

This year Government is targeting 2,5 million tourists arrivals during the year end through using different marketing strategies.●

3 NEwS

Zim eyes increase in tourist arrivals from Spain

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BH244

HARARE – Business leaders on Thursday expressed mixed views on Zimbabwe’s economic outlook for 2016 amid calls for the Govern-ment to implement critical reforms to aid growth.

Government is targeting a 2,7 percent gross domestic product growth this year buoyed by min-ing, tourism, construction and financial sectors.

The Zimbabwean economy appears to have hit a plateau in recent times, with the formal sec-tor slowly collapsing while a vibrant informal sector is emerging.

Stakeholders at a symposium that the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) and the country’s leading daily newspaper The Busi-ness Herald organized, noted that there were many inhibiting factors which if not addressed, could see the country missing its growth tar-get.

The El Nino induced drought which the country, an agrarian based economy is facing, was among top

factors that business leaders said would affect the growth prospects.

CZI president Busisa Moyo said the government should capitalise on deals signed and agreed last year with the Russian, China and Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote among others to stimulate growth.

“A concerted efforts needs to be made to arrest the decline regis-tered in 2015. We need to start moving towards growth in capacity utilisation,” he said.

“We would want capacity utilisa-tion to move to 65 percent from the current 34 percent. We believe capacity utilisation can grow and when it grows, we create employ-ment,” Mr Moyo said.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe gover-nor, Dr John Mangudya was how-ever more optimistic.

“I am positive about the out-look,” he said. “I do believe it is the impediments that make us stronger but we need to work very hard.”

Dr Mangudya said it was critical that Zimbabwe exploits its abun-dant natural resource endow-ment to its advantage, while call-ing for increased transparency and accountability in use of the resources.

He said a deal struck with multilat-eral creditors last year to address the country’s debt crisis, would, if the country meets its end of the bargain, assist development efforts through provision of fresh capital.

The central bank, he said, would at the end of this month also announce a number of measures in its monetary policy to drive expansion in critical sectors of the economy. Bankers Association of Zimbabwe president Mr Sam Mal-aba said it was imperative for the government to rationalize the civil service for the country to drive its own development agenda.

Mr Malaba said with over 80 per-cent of the country’s budget going towards employment costs, it was impossible to fund development programmes.

“It is a tough issue to deal with politically,” he said, stressing that the government should tackle it head on.

He also said progress made last year in improving the ease of doing business in the country, a process which was still continuing, might also positively aid the economy’s growth prospects.

World Bank economist, Dr Johannes Herderschee said addressing the country’s huge trade deficit was a critical success factor.

”Zimbabwe’s current account deficit is bigger than that of other countries in the region,” he said, while urging the government to put more effort in attracting foreign direct investment.

Economist Dr Godfrey Kanyenze called on government to be more serious about consistent imple-mentation of its policies rather than continuing to introduce strategies that were never applied.

- New Ziana●

5 NEwS

Mixed views on Zimbabwe’s economic outlook

BH246

HARARE - HarareTransport and Infrastructural Develop-ment Minister Joram Gumbo has ordered the National Rail-ways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) board and management to do everything within their means to alleviate the plight of work-ers who have gone for months without salaries.

Minister Gumbo told a press conference that his Ministry had instituted short-term ini-tiatives to curtail cash flow challenges at the parastatal.

“In the interim, the Ministry directs NRZ board and man-agement to do all that is within their means to ensure that the plight of workers is alleviated,” he said.

He said the initiatives that the Ministry was undertaking included engaging NRZ debt-ors and monitoring payment of rentals for properties.

“The ministry therefore implores NRZ members of staff

and other internal stakehold-ers to exercise restraint and avoid any form of industrial and other actions that may derail Government efforts to ensure credit lines to recapi-talize the parastatal,” he said.

Recently, NRZ employees demonstrated in Bulawayo over unpaid salaries.

Minister Gumbo, said the gov-

ernment was making frantic efforts not only to address the situation, but also to recapital-ize the ailing public entity.

“Government is making efforts to recapitalise NRZ, but as will be appreciated, the benefits will in the medium to long term,” he said.

The NRZ is reeling under a debt of over US$30 million,

while parastatals such as the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and Ziscosteel owe it $7 mil-lion and $9 million respec-tively.

“The Ministry of transport and Infrastructural Development will approach Government for resolution of those debts once Cabinet resumes its sittings,” said Minister Gumbo.-New Ziana●

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Ministry orders NRZ management to solve workers dilemma

BH248

HARARE -- Sustained losses throughout the week saw the mainstream industrial index dropping 6.83 (or 6,22 per-cent) on a week-on-week basis.

In today's trades, the indus-trial index declined 0.33 to close at 103.05 as selected heavyweights underper-formed.

Conglomerate Innscor slid $0,0053 to trade at $0,2050 after it announced that had received board approval unbundle and separately list its Speciality Retail and Dis-tribution business.

Banker Barclays shed $0,0025 to $0,0385 while beverages giant Delta was down $0,0007 to settle at $0,5493. And telecoms giant Econet was

$0,0005 weaker at $0,1955.

Trading in the positive was Turnall which bumped $0,0010 to close at $0,0110, and Zimre Holdings which gained an insignificant $0,0002 to $0,0130.

Short-term insurer NicozDi-amond inched up $0,0001 to trade at $0,0162.

The mining index lost 1.97 to settle at 19.77 points as Bind-ura declined by $0,0025 to $0,0103.

Falgold, Hwange and RioZim maintained previous price levels at $0,0050, $0,0300 and $0,1040 respectively.

Week-on-week, the mining index retreated 1.97 points (or 9,06 percent).

- BH24 Reporter ●

ZSE9

Industrials lose 6.83 point week-on-week

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MovERS CHANGE TodAy PRICE USC SHAKERS CHANGE TodAy PRICE USC

Turnall 10.00 1.10 BINDURA -19.53 1.03

ZIMRE 1.56 1.30 BARCLAyS -6.09 3.85

NICOZDIAMOND 0.62 1.62 INNSCOR -2.52 20.50

ECONET -0.25 19.55

DELTA -0.12 54.93

INdEx PREvIoUS TodAy MovE CHANGE

INDUSTRIAL 103.38 103.05 -0.33 points -0.32%

MINING 21.74 19.77 +1.97 POINTS +9.06%

10 ZSE TABlES

ZSE

INdICES

Stock Exchange

11 dIARy oF EvENTS

The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.

PowER GENERATIoN STATS

Gen Station

22 January 2016

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 491 MW

Kariba 285 MW

Harare 30 MW

Munyati 32 MW

Bulawayo 20 MW

Imports 0 - 200 MW

Total 1165 Mw

10 February 2016 - Nampak Zimbabwe Annual General Meeting: venue 68 Birmingham Road, Southerton, Harare: Time 12:00

THE BH24 dIARy

JoHANNESBURG - South Africa's rand was mostly flat against the dollar in early Fri-day trade, with traders and analysts expecting it to take its steer from global trends as investors await next week's domestic monetary policy statement.

The local bourse looked set for a strong start at 0700 GMT, as indicated by a 1,7 percent jump in the Top-40 futures index.

The rand was changing hands at 16,5400 to the greenback by 0655 GMT, just 0,13 per-cent firmer than its 16,5610 Thursday close in New york.

The rand has had a turbulent start to 2016, shedding 7 per-cent after losing about a quar-ter of its value last year as investors fretted about South Africa's economic prospects and those of China, a major importer of local commodities.

"We maintain that the trend for the rand is to move weaker, and we’d expect pull-backs to be shortlived," Standard Bank said in a market note.

The sharply weaker rand is expected to drive inflation higher, forcing the South Afri-can Reserve Bank to raise interest rates next week despite sluggish economic growth of around 1,5 per-cent, according to economists polled by Reuters.

On the debt market, govern-ment bonds edged higher, and the yield for the instrument maturing in 2026 dipped 2 basis points to 9,615 percent

.-Reuters●

REGIoNAl NEwS 12

Rand to track global markets as market awaits rate call

US oil major Chevron looks to dispose of 75 pc of SA business

CAPE TowN - US oi l major Chevron said on Thursday i t p lans to sel l 75 percent of i ts South Afr ican business unit which inc ludes a 110 000 barrel a day ref inery in Cape Town.

Chevron is a leading ref iner and marketer of petroleum products in South Afr ica, the most industr ia l ised economy in Afr ica, where i t has had a presence for more than a century.

Chevron said i ts cal l for expression of interest was in l ine with a three-year asset sales programme it announced in 2014.

“This demonstrates Chev-ron's cont inuing focus on balancing our g lobal port-fo l io with our long-term business pr ior i t ies, and i t is a l igned with our previ-ously announced $15 bi l l ion divestment program,” said Mark Nelson, the company's president for internat ional products, in a statement.

Besides the Cape Town ref inery, Chevron also has

interests in a lubr icants p lant in Durban on the east coast. I ts network of Cal-tex service stat ions makes i t one of South Afr ica 's top f ive petroleum brands, according to i ts website.

Chevron has a lready dis-posed of several assets in Afr ica 's top crude exporter Niger ia, as o i l majors g lob-al ly looked to cut costs and streaml ine business models in an over-suppl ied oi l mar-ket and plunging pr ices. - Reuters●

Oil rallied in its biggest two-day advance since August after a slump to a 12-year low prompted some investors to buy back record bearish bets.

Front-month futures have jumped more than 15 per-cent after sliding to the low-est since 2003 on Wednesday. Earlier this month specula-tors’ amassed the biggest ever short position in US crude amid concern that turmoil in China’s markets will curb fuel demand while an increase in exports from Iran will exacer-bate a global glut. Oil may be the “trade of the year,” if it can weather the surge in the Mid-dle East producer’s shipments, according to Citigroup Inc.

“After large directional move-ments like those we’ve seen over recent weeks there tends to be a corrective move in the opposite direction,” Ric Spooner, a chief analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone. “It does look like the next couple of months could be some sort of a crunch time for oil, particularly with Iran com-ing back into the market and disappointing demand growth.”

Oil is still down about 17 per-cent this year as turbulence in global markets adds to concern over brimming US stockpiles and the prospect of additional Iranian barrels. Markets could "drown in oversupply,” send-ing prices even lower, accord-ing to the International Energy Agency. The energy industry is facing “very sharp shocks” as it struggles to deal with a “flood of oil,” BP Plc Chief Exec-utive Officer Bob Dudley said at

the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Energy shares rallied with oil prices on Friday, leading gains on the MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index. Australian oil and gas producer Santos Ltd. jumped as much as 12,7 percent while PetroChina Co. added 7,9 per-cent in Hong Kong.

Oil Supplies

West Texas Intermediate for

March delivery gained as much as $1,51, or 5,1 percent, to $31,04 a barrel on the New york Mercantile Exchange and was at $30,63 at 4:05 p.m. in Singapore. Front-month futures have surged 15 percent since the February contract expired on Wednesday, the most since August. The volume of all futures traded was more than double the 100-day aver-age.

Brent for March settlement climbed as much as $1,85, or 6,3 percent, to $31,10 a bar-rel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices are up almost 10 per-cent since Wednesday, also the most since August.

“There will be an initial wave of supply from Iran, but once that’s done, it will be flat and I think that’s when you start seeing opportunities for oil to turn,” Ivan Szpakowski, an analyst at Citigroup in Hong Kong, said Friday. “Part of the reason oil is the trade of the year is because it’s going to have such a broad affect, it’s going to take a lot of asset classes up with it.” - Bloomb-erg●

INTERNATIoNAl NEwS 13

oil rises in biggest rally since August amid volatility surge

An eventful year awaits Southern Africa in 2016 as the region intensi-fies the implementation of key mile-stones on industrialisation, trade and infrastructure development, as well as the migration to digital broadcasting.

On the economic front, the South-ern African Development Commu-nity (SADC) Member States are expected to start the process of rat-ifying the agreement on the Tripar-tite Free Trade Area (TFTA) signed in June 2015 to create an enlarged market extending from Cape to Cairo.

So far, 16 countries have signed the Tripartite FTA that covers 27 coun-tries in three regional communities — the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), and SADC.

Half of these 16 countries are from SADC. These are Angola, Demo-cratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

The remaining SADC countries

of Botswana, Lesotho, Madagas-car, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia are expected to sign the agreement by June 2016.

Following the signing, governments will initiate a ratification process through their national procedures. The agreement will enter into force after approval is attained by two-thirds of members of the COMESA-EAC-SADC tripartite, advancing the regional law from a stated intention to actual application.

Creation of an enlarged market with a combined population of some 600 million people and a Gross Domes-tic Product (GDP) of about $1 trillion is expected to boost intra-regional trade in Africa and deepen integra-tion through improved infrastruc-ture development, investment flows and enhanced competition.

In addition to the TFTA, the year will witness intensified negotiations for the establishment of the proposed Continental FTA (CFTA) aimed at promoting the smooth movement of goods, services and people across the continent.

Negotiations for the CFTA began in

June 2015 and the enlarged conti-nental market is expected to evolve from the existing FTAs in sub-re-gional economic blocs, eventually creating a continental bloc with more than one billion people and a combined GDP of more than $3,4 trillion.

The ratification and implementation of the TFTA is therefore critical for the success of the CFTA, targeted for 2017.

Both FTAs depend heavily on the industrialisation agenda.

Thus, the year 2016 will see SADC implement two historic regional programmes approved last year – the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063 and the Revised Regional Indicative Stra-tegic Development Plan (RISDP) 2015-2020.

A detailed costing plan for the strat-egy and the alignment of all other regional activities to the two new strategic documents is expected to be finalized this year.

The industrialisation strategy and roadmap aim to ensure that mem-

ber states harness the full potential of their vast and diverse natural resources, as most SADC Mem-ber States are getting very little in return for their resources since these are usually exported in raw form, with most of the value addi-tion and beneficiation taking place outside the region, thus benefiting other countries.

The RISDP is a blueprint for regional integration and development, and the revised document realigns the region’s development agenda with new realities and emerging global dynamics, and takes into account the issues of industrialisation.

With regard to international trade, SADC will be looking at ways to ben-efit from the new US$60 billion fund pledged by China to support devel-opment on the African continent.

China made the commitment at the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in December 2015. The support covers a wide range of sectors including agriculture, energy and information technology.

China is rapidly expanding its port-

14 analysis14 ANAlySIS

Eventful year beckons for Southern Africa

15 analysis15 ANAlySIS

folio from bilateral support to indi-vidual countries to regional eco-nomic communities including SADC.

The year is also expected to see a group of SADC Member States begin the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) signed in July 2014.

The agreement is undergoing legal vetting, leading to eventual signa-ture, ratification and implementa-tion in 2016.

The group of SADC countries that signed the agreement comprise Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Swazi-land. In future, Angola may join this SADC group.

The other mainland SADC countries are negotiating an EPA with the EU under the Eastern and South-ern Africa banner, while the island nations are negotiating under the Pacific group.

EPAs are trade and development agreements that the EU is negoti-ating to open up its markets with the Caribbean region; Central

Africa; Eastern and Southern Africa; Pacific, Southern Africa (the SADC group) and West Africa.

On energy development, the recently approved SADC Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SACREEE) is set to start operations, which are expected to change the “landscape of energy development in SADC,” by allowing the region to fully harness its vast renewable energy potential.

To be hosted by Namibia, SACREEE should, among other things, spear-head the promotion of renewable energy development in the region.

SADC has an abundance of renew-ables ranging from wind, solar and hydro, yet only a small fraction is being exploited.

The commissioning of new power will be accelerated to allow the region to fully recover from the energy crisis. This year alone, SADC plans to add a total of 3,680 mega-watts (MW) of new electricity to the regional grid. By 2019, the region aims to have commissioned a mas-sive 23,580 MW.

On infrastructure development, the region will continue the imple-mentation of projects contained in the SADC Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan.

The 15-year Master Plan is intended to guide the implementation of cross-border infrastructure projects between 2013 and 2027 over three five-year intervals, with the first phase covering the period 2012-2017 and costing around $64 billion in investment.Agriculture and food security remains a top priority for SADC in 2016 following low rainfall and drought conditions.

Countries in the region have already started importing food.

With regard to the management of the environment and natural resources, SADC will host the 17th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in October in Johannesburg, South Africa.

One of the topical issues SADC countries want addressed is the need to lift an international ban on trade in ivory. The international community imposed a ban on ivory

trading a few years ago to protect elephants and rhinoceros, which were facing extinction.

However, the ban has seriously eroded the revenue for animal con-servation, and some countries have accumulated a lot of elephant tusks which they cannot dispose of, while the ban has led to an increase in poaching as communities are no longer benefiting from proceeds from the ivory trade.

Gender will occupy its rightful place this year as the region and the Afri-can continent take stock of progress towards gender equality and equity.The African Union (AU) has set the theme for 2016 as the “African year of Human Rights with a particular focus on the Rights of Women”.

SADC has generally done well in promoting gender development with an increasing number of women occupying decision-making positions.

Presidential candidates will have to run on a joint ticket with their vice-presidential candidate. In the past, a Vice President was appointed by the president. —Sardc.net●