By Tawanda Musarurwa

HARARE -Consumer elec-tronic and business solutions firm, Eskill Trading Corpora-tion says it plans to venture into the mobile medical imag-ing business that will benefit Zimbabwe’s rural communi-ties.

Eskill Trading is a division of the country’s leading Apple authorised re-seller and war-ranty centre – Solution Centre – and is itself an authorised reseller in Zimbabwe for Can-on’s high-end digital imaging solutions.

Eskill Trading CEO Mr Brett Hensberg said the compa-ny’s entrance strategy into the medical imaging business

would be through optometry. Optometry is a healthcare profession concerned with the

eyes and related structures.

News Update as @ 1530 hours, Wednesday 17 February 2016Feedback: bh24admin@zimpapers.co.zwEmail: bh24feedback@zimpapers.co.zw

Solution Centre eyes mobile medical imaging niche

Solution Centre managing director Mr Paul Georgeou

“Our five-year plan is to go into medical imaging...to have affordable medical labs that we can take into the rural areas and do particular test-ing with radiographic equip-ment, we can do retina testing to see if your eye is going to have catarax in the next few years. We have technologies that can do that. I see that niche in our market.

“We are looking at optome-try as a first start because it’s easy enough to work with. Optometry equipment is basi-cally a modification of the dig-ital single-lens reflex (DSLR),” he said.

DSLR is basically a digital camera combining the optics and the mechanisms of a sin-gle-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor.

“We could do chest x-rays for examining people for tubercu-losis, and all sorts of things so it will be something that we progress into stage by stage, and that’s in the next

two to three years. By 2020 we would like to see that busi-ness model really working.”

Mr Hensberg said there were still a number of modalities to carry out, including engag-ing the relevant Government departments.

“So there are a few things that we still need to do, look at the equipment itself, look at the cost, partner with Govern-ment, Ministry of Health and also with the ministries that have to do with rural develop-ment because there needs to be a sense of ownership from

the community for that pro-ject.”

Apple store for Arundel

Meanwhile, the group is set to open Zimbabwe’s first AAR+ rated Apple Store in Arundel next month.

Solution Centre managing director Mr Paul Georgeou said although Apple resellers in the country were yet to get approval for setting up Apple Premium Reseller stores, the new Arundel store will be modelled on premium stores comparable to those in South Africa.

“It will be the first in the country with an AAR+ rating...the next stage above that is APR, which is Apple Premium Reseller.

“Apple said they won’t appoint an APR in the country for the time being, so the highest status we can achieve is the AAR+, which will be the first in Zimbabwe,” said Mr Geor-geou.●

2 NEWS

BH243

BH24 Reporter

HARARE - Zimbabwe has so far earned $27,3 million from exporting 190,4 million kilogrammes of flue-cured tobacco at an average price of $6,99 per kg, latest fig-ures from the Tobacco Indus-try Marketing Board (TIMB) show.

This is more than the $27,1 million realised from exports of 195 million kg at $7,21 per kg during the parallel period last year.

The country’s golden leaf was purchased by 34 countries across the world.

The TIMB statistics show that China is stil l the leading buyer of Zimbabwean tobacco after importing 20 million kg worth $162,8 million at $8,14 per kg.

During the same period last year, China had imported 19 million kg of tobacco valued at $166 million.

Belgium has overtaken South Africa as the second biggest buyer importing 1,3 million kg worth $6 630 034 at $4,84 per kg.

Indonesia was in third posi-tion having taken up a total

1,1million kg of tobacco worth $6 311 257 at $5,29 per kg.

South Africa is in fourth posi-tion having imported 1 051 560 kg of tobacco worth $2 400 682 at an average price of $2,28 per kg.●

4 NEWS

Tobacco exports earn $27m since January

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HARARE - Zimbabwe-focused multi-commodity resources firm, Premier African Minerals has received a notice of exercise by Darwin Capital Ltd to convert in aggregate £210 000 loan notes into equity.

The loan notes have been used to partly fund the re-opening of underground operations at RHA Tungsten (Pvt) Limited, Premier African Mineral's tungsten project and for general working capital purposes.

Premier is the operator of RHA and holds a 49 percent interest.

Premier, at its election, has the right to redeem one or all of the outstanding loan notes in cash at 105 percent of the Par Value

(equivalent to £26 250 per loan note).

Yesterday, the group said a Zim-

babwean bank had offered to pro-vide direct finance to its 49 per-cent-owned RHA tungsten mine to the tune of $200 000.

“The facility bears interest at the bank’s costs of funds plus a mar-gin of 8,75 percent and is guar-anteed by Premier,” said Premier.

The RHA tungsten mine, which is located approximately 20 kilo-metres south-east of Hwange and 270km north of Bulawayo is Premier’s flagship operation, although the AIM-listed group has several operations in Southern and Western Africa.

.●

6 NEWS

Premier African Minerals confirms loan note conversion

BH247

By Bianca Leboho

HARARE – The Postal and Tel-ecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has drafted guidelines for child online protection, which will be implemented after stakeholder consultations.

The guidelines are in line with the child online safety requirements of the International Telecommuni-cation Union (ITU).

Government typically has a responsibility to protect citizens from harm, especially the young and most vulnerable.

In an interview, POTRAZ spokes-person Mrs Sbonginkosi Muteyiwa said that POTRAZ had developed the guidelines within the con-text of the Child Online Protec-tion (COP) initiative to establish foundations for a safe and secure cyber-world for children.

“The COP initiative is an effort led by United Nations (UN) and includes multi stakeholders. The goal is to promote awareness on

the importance of child safety in the online world and to develop practical tools to assist govern-ments, industry and educators in this domain”, she said.

Mrs Muteyiwa said that the guide-lines drafted by POTRAZ comprise of ideal methods of using the internet which are age specific.

“The guidelines control and will possibly lower security breaches that occur online. They acknowl-edge that children are ignorant to dangers brought by the internet

and should thus always be super-vised by parents although this is dependent on their age groups”, said Mrs Muteyiwa.

In their proposed guidelines POTRAZ emphasized the impor-tance of filtering software for machines that are used by chil-dren especially those in the five to seven years age group whose approach to the internet is uncrit-ical.

POTRAZ identified some dangers that the internet posed on chil-

dren especially if there were no guidelines to control their online activities. The dangers included exposure to bullying, offensive visual material such as sexually explicit content and human traf-ficking as a result of online friend-ships.

“Children are the most vulner-able users of the internet. They are prone to giving away of per-sonal information of themselves and their families which is a habit that endangers their lives. The rate of cyber-crimes has rapidly increased over the years.

“The internet is easily accessi-ble and cheaper. People manip-ulate it. Children are part of the unfortunate population that uti-lize the internet. Hence POTRAZ has drafted these guidelines to ensure that we protect our chil-dren and prevent exposing them to cyber-criminals,” said Mrs Muteyiwa.

Stakeholders consultation on the proposed guidelines is expected to be concluded by month-end.●

8 NEWS

POTRAZ opens consultations on child online safety

BH249

HARARE - The mainstream industrial index closed at 99.39 after losing 0.41 in trading dominated with losers.

Heavyweight BAT lost $0,2500 to close at $11,5000, while CAFCA Retreated by $0,0795

to $0,3205 AND AFDIS dipped $0,0300 to settle at $0,4500.

Giant insurer Old Mutual declined by $0,0022 to trade at $1,8002 while Proplastics and Simbisa both eased $0,0010 to close at $0,0210 and $0,1440

respectively.

There was no counter in the positive.

Beverages giant Delta, Lafarge, and OK Zimbabwe were unchanged at $0,5200,

$0,2700 and $0,0350 in that order.

The mining index was steady at 18.74 points as all the min-ing counters maintained pre-vious price levels.. - BH24 Reporter ●

ZSE10

Industrials lose further ground

BH2411

MOvERS CHANGE TOdAy PRICE USC SHAKERS CHANGE TOdAy PRICE USC

CAFCA -19.87 32.05

AFDIS -6.25 45.00

PROPLASTICS -4.54 2.10

BAT -2.12 1,150.00

ZIMRE -0.78 1.27

SIMBISA -0.68 14.40

PADENGA -0.66 5.96

NICOZDIAMOND -0.61 1.61

INNSCOR -0.26 18.95

OLD MUTUAL -0.12 180.02

INdEx PREvIOUS TOdAy MOvE CHANGE

INDUSTRIAL 99.80 99.39 -0.41 points -0.41%

MINING 18.74 18.74 +0.00 POINTS +0.00%

12 ZSE TABLES

ZSE

INdICES

Stock Exchange

Previous

02 03

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13 dIARy OF EvENTS

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

POWER GENERATION STATS

Gen Station

16 February 2016

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 476 MW

Kariba 285 MW

Harare 30 MW

Munyati 26 MW

Bulawayo 23 MW

Imports 0 - 350 MW

Total 1250 MW

—18 February 2016 - 70th Annual General Meeting of the members of CAFCA ; Place: Boardroom at the company’s registered office at 54 Lytton Road, Workington, Harare; Time: 12:00 hours

—23 February 2015 - 38th Annual General Meeting of the members of Powerspeed Electrical Limited; Place: Powerspeed Board-room, Gate 1, Powerspeed Complex, Corner Cripps Road and Kelvin Road North, Graniteside, Harare; Time: 1100 hours

25 February 2016 - Extraordinary General Meeting (“EGM”) of the Shareholders of Radar Holdings Limited; Place: Tanganyika House, 6th Floor Boardroom, Harare; Time: 0900 hours...

25 February 2016 - The 49th Annual General Meeting of Mashonaland Holdings Limited; Place: The Boardroom, 19th Floor, ZB Life Towers, 77 Jason Moyo Avenue, Harare; Time: 1200 hours...

26 February 2016 - The Sixty-ninth Annual General Meeting of Ariston Holdings Limited; Place: Ariston Holdings Limited Main Boardroom, 306 Hillside Road, Msasa Woodlands, Harare: Time: 14.30 hours:

THE BH24 dIARy

DELTA Africa, the largest pan-African listed property fund, has announced that it will acquire a warehouse complex in Pemba, Mozam-bique.

"Delta has identified this well-positioned warehouse complex opposite the port in Pemba, Mozambique, as an opportunity to expand its footprint in Mozambique," the

company said on Tuesday.

"With the discovery of gas in the Rovuma river basin in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Pemba is forecast to receive significant invest-ment from both the oil and gas sector and the govern-ment of Mozambique."

The total purchase consider-ation due under the acquisi-

tion agreement amounts to $8,5m. Delta is acquiring the asset from various compa-nies.

Delta is currently in a merger process with Mara Diversified Property Holdings, which is creating a fund with about R7bn worth of assets.

Stanlib’s head of listed prop-erty funds, Keillen Ndlovu,

has said the Delta Africa and Mara partnership appeared to be a strong move by both parties.

"It’s a good deal. It has more critical mass as compared to funds doing something on their own and having small portfolios," he said.

- Bdlive ●

REGIONAL NEWS 14

delta Africa buys warehouse in Mozambique

Keillen Ndlovu

Asian shares slipped on Wednesday after two sessions of solid gains, while oil prices swung higher as the market reconsidered the chances of a meaningful deal to restrict sup-ply later in the year.

The mood was still skittish - when China set a slightly lower guidance rate for its yuan, the yen and safe-haven bonds got an instant boost. As investors realised this was not some message from Beijing on devaluation, the moves quickly reversed.

European shares are expected to extend their rally, however, with spread betters calling for a rise of 0,6 percent in Britain's FTSE. and gains of 0,5 percent each in Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS lost 0,6 percent, reversing early gains of 0,4 percent, as its bear mar-ket rally petering out after a 3 percent rise over the previous two sessions.

The Shanghai Composite Index slid 0,3 percent and South Korea 0,1 percent. Japan's Nik-

kei fell 1,7 percent, but is still up more than 5 percent on the week.

"The rally itself has been extraordinary but very thin and the failure of the yen to con-tinue on the fairly steady path of weakening we've seen in the past couple of days has been reflected as nervousness in the Nikkei," said Stefan Worrall, director of Japan equity sales at Credit Suisse.

"It's been a very volatile two weeks and nerves are still frayed despite the fact that we're off the bottom of those extreme sessions we saw last week."

E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 also slipped 0,1 percent in Asia after Wall Street appeared to have broken its negative feed-back loop with oil.

The Dow ended Tuesday with gains of 1,39 percent, while the S&P 500 added 1,65 percent and the Nasdaq 2,27 percent. A survey of global fund managers found they had become so cau-tious they were holding more cash than at any time since late 2001, an "unambiguous buy" signal according to Bank of

America Merrill Lynch.

Mood Swings

In commodity markets, oil was whipsawed after top exporters, Russia and Saudi Arabia, agreed to freeze output levels but said the deal was contingent on other producers joining in.

After falling sharply at first, prices recouped some ground early on Wednesday. Brent added 37 cents to $32,55, while US crude was up 20 cents at $29,24 a barrel.

"Albeit mostly symbolic, it is one of the first clear acknowl-edgements by the oil heavy-weights that all is not entirely well in the current price envi-ronment," wrote Helima Croft, global head of commodity strat-egy at RBC Capital Markets.

"Additionally it signals a poten-tial willingness to be more pro-active later in the year. It puts the ball back in the court of those who would not or could not comply."

Markets now await minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting to judge the balance of opinion among policymakers

on the prospect of further rate hikes.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren certainly sounded in no hurry to tighten. Speaking late on Tuesday, Rosengren said the Fed would need to ratchet down economic forecasts it made in December because of the uncertain global outlook.

Doubts about the pace of any further hikes kept the US dollar restrained at 96,720 against a basket of currencies. It slipped against the yen to 113,73 yen, though it has support around 113,60. The euro also gained 0,2 percent to $1,1165. The big loser was sterling, which has struggled so far in 2016 because of worries the UK might leave the euro zone.

Traders said UK markets face a pivotal week ahead of a two-day summit starting on Thurs-day at which Prime Minister David Cameron will try to per-suade other leaders to support a deal to keep Britain in the European Union. Sterling was stuck at $1,4290, having shed 1 percent against the dollar on Tuesday.-Reuters●

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 15

Asian shares run out of steam, oil swings higher

By Mike dolan

Financial markets that pre-dicted eight of the last six recessions may yet be wrong again, but market stress itself is now part of the calcu-lus and leaves the world more open to left-field shocks.

Given the violence of this year's slump in equities, where more than $8 tril l ion has been wiped off global stock market values, it is remarkable how few econo-mists stil l see recession as the most likely outcome.

Yet more and more believe it will be a close-run thing; pro-tracted market volatil ity itself could well tip the balance and investors are in no mood to hang about for a confirma-tion.

Anxiety is high, with few extraordinary policy measures now likely or even available, and more negative interest rates in Europe or Japan seen by many as part of the prob-lem rather than the solution for a bruised banking system.

It may take a nervy few months for clarity on whether the worrying slide in global industry, trade and invest-ment late last year has deep-ened, or to see if indebted consumers and a stil l-grow-ing service sector will save

the day.

While they wait, investors are scrutinising the many geo-political risks and systemic concerns that would typically be ignored in periods of more robust growth, but which may

now be magnified as addi-tional threats to businesses' and households' investment or spending plans.

In cutting its world growth forecast for this year to 2,7 percent from 3,1 percent - stil l above the 2-2,5 percent level many see as a baseline to avoid an effective per-cap-ita global recession - Axa Investment Managers flagged concern about systemic as well as cyclical risks for mar-kets in this climate.

"When global growth is so sluggish, when corporate profits are so miserable, when pay rises are so small - you don't need a very big shock to disturb global mar-kets significantly," said Eric Chaney, Chief Economist at French insurer Axa.

A sudden change of financial and economic policy thinking within China's ruling commu-nist party was one possible shock it outlined. The political and central banking dilemma surrounding the euro zone's

16 analysis16 ANALySIS

With recession lights amber, brittle markets vulnerable to all shocks

17 analysis17 ANALySIS

incomplete banking union was another soft spot.

But on a knife edge in terms of probabilities is a referen-dum on Britain's possible exit from the European Union, likely to be held by the end of June.

For AxaIM, this contains huge uncertainties for world financial markets, for Britain as a top five world economy and the wider EU as a durable construction.

"London is the number one financial centre, for example. If there was any destabilisa-tion of the financial industry in the UK, it would transmit quickly around world mar-kets," said Chaney, adding that this went beyond loca-tion and into questions about the extent to which English law, which dominates global financial contracts, is influ-enced by EU law.

"London is systemic."

Flirting with recession

But is the world in a better place than markets let on?

Some banks, such Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale, put the chances of a global recession this year at about one-in-five. Others, such as Citi, say the risk is rising all the time.

Bank of America Merril l Lynch sees a 20 percent chance of a U.S. slump.

Whoever you believe, reces-sion is no longer off the radar. The energy shock saw world industrial activity barely grow at all in 2015 and it tailed off alarmingly in the back end of the year.

World trade growth too has stalled as China splutters, and huge annual drops of between 11 and 18 percent in Chinese exports and imports in January should ring more alarm bells. Global shipping freight prices have collapsed to record lows.

Yet, JPMorgan points out that

since 1970, global factory output has slowed to a near-halt year 12 times but only six were associated with sub-sequent recessions. And ser-vices, while weakening, are stil l expanding at least.

Stock markets, on the other hand, appear to have priced in a recession already. "Equity markets are correct-ing lower only a little more aggressively than in the past if we assume that a global recession starts this year and finishes mid-2017," according to Citi strategist Jeremy Hale.

So, is this prescient or just cautionary?

More often than not US equity market drops of 15-20 per-cent over a year do pre-empt recessions. But they're not infallible. Alliance Bernstein points out that similar drops over six month periods were recorded in 1988 and 2002 without a subsequent down-turn.

Forecast corporate profit

declines this year anywhere between 7 and 10 percent might justify equity market fears. But, here again, JPMor-gan research shows there have been periods in the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s where prof-its and markets peaked and then both rebounded quickly without recessions.

The worrying difference back then was each episode was met with sizeable policy eas-ing that is harder to execute now.

And it's not just equity fright. Corporate bond spreads have moved more squarely into recession territory, according to JPMorgan, and currency and commodity price move-ments have by now completed their average trajectory of the last six recessions.

"If financial stress continues to build, a much more pro-nounced downturn will be the result," said Standard Life Investments Chief Economist Jeremy Lawson.-Reuters●