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title: Infomineo - Finance Newsletter
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Newsworthy articles with a focus on Europe, Middle East & Africa

| View in browser   FINANCE NEWSLETTER   Newsworthy articles with a focus on Europe, Middle East & Africa MAY 2020 see the full archive   Businesses Dubizzle, Bayut to merge, forms Middle East’s only unicorn startup, $1 bln valuation   EMPG currently operates in the GCC with its Bayut platform, in Pakistan with Zameen, Bangladesh with Bproperty, Morocco and Tunisia with Mubawab, and Thailand with Kaidee. After the merger the company will operate OLX’s platforms in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman, and the dubizzle platform in the UAE, along with an expansion into Egypt and Lebanon. South Africa opposed to liquidation of national airline SAA – minister   South Africa does not want a fire sale of the assets of troubled national airline SAA nor for the carrier to be liquidated, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Wednesday. Gordhan told a parliamentary committee that the government was in talks with rescue specialists in charge of state-owned South African Airways (SAA) on how best to save the airline, which entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December. Uber’s Middle East business Careem cuts 31 pct of workforce   Uber Technologies’ Careem subsidiary said on Monday it was cutting 536 jobs this week, representing 31 percent of the Dubai-headquartered company’s workforce amid the coronavirus crisis.The announcement came hours after Uber said it was shuttering its Eats delivery business in several markets, including the Middle East, and laying off dozens of staff.   Resilient insurance business boosts Finland's Sampo   Finland’s Sampo SAMP.HE reported a record first-quarter performance for its property and casualty insurance business, based on a key gauge of profitability, boosting its shares despite a drop in pretax profit and a cut in the dividend. The crisis has had a much bigger impact on Sampo’s investment portfolio, the market value of which has dropped more than a billion euros, the group said, as it reported a 66% drop in first-quarter pretax profit.   Funds Apicorp to support member countries with USD 500 mn ‘covid-19 recovery’ funding   The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp) has announced a USD 500 mn funding package to help its clients in the energy sector cover shortfalls caused by the covid-19 pandemic and the collapse in oil prices, the multilateral development bank said in a statement. EU executive considers 2 trillion euro coronavirus recovery plan: Internal note   The European Commission is considering a plan that would produce two trillion euros to finance a European economic recovery after the deep recession that the coronavirus pandemic is expected to cause this year, an internal note of the EU’s executive showed. The note said both the EU’s next long-term budget for 2021-2027 and a new fund, called the Recovery Instrument, would be used to kick start growth. Coronavirus: IMF, World Bank call for action to cover $44 bln gap in Africa's needs   IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told ministers, UN officials and others that the African continent lacked the resources and healthcare capacity to address the crisis, and needed at least $114 billion to cover urgent fiscal needs.   Coronavirus: IMF urges Mideast sovereign funds to boost local economies     Sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East should be used to boost growth, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said on Monday, as regional economies struggle with the coronavirus pandemic and the crippling impact of lower oil prices. Oil exporters in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are expected to see a yearly decline in oil export receipts this year of $226 billion, according to the IMF. Banks CIB acquires 51% of Kenya’s Mayfair bank     CIB acquires majority stake in Kenyan bank as it continues its expansion outside Egypt: CIB has purchased a 51% stake in Mayfair Bank, the Central Bank of Kenya said on Friday. The bank, which is the country’s fourth-smallest lender, focuses on high net worth individuals and the corporate market, and controls 0.17% of the market with only five branches. Egypt: Latest draft of the Banking Act is set to go to the House today; includes 1% industry development tax, appears to scrap proposed term limits on bank MDs   A controversial 1% annual tithe on bank profits to endow an industry development fund remains in place, as we noted last month. Still, that’s substantially less than the 5% levy initially proposed in a 2017 draft of the bill. Coronavirus: EU banks to get capital relief to help impacted businesses   Banks in the European Union are to receive more capital relief so they can help companies struggling in the coronavirus pandemic without having to make crippling provisions for loans during a looming deep recession, sources said on Monday. Coronavirus crisis threatens Deutsche Bank's 'bad bank' wind-down   Deutsche Bank’s (DBKGn.DE) biggest headache from the coronavirus downturn is likely to come from difficulties offloading problem assets from the last financial crisis rather than bad loans piling up in the latest one. ADCB's profit slumps after $292 million impairments for NMC, Finablr    Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) (ADCB.AD), UAE’s third-biggest lender, reported an 84% fall in first-quarter net profit on Thursday as it took $292 million in impairments on debt exposure to troubled hospital operator NMC Health and payments group Finablr (FINF.L). BNP warns of 2020 profit fall as crisis wipes out equity trading   BNP Paribas set aside more than half a billion euros in loan provisions on Tuesday as the coronavirus crisis wiped out the French bank’s revenue from equity derivatives trading and knocked a third off its first quarter profit. Banks Copper smelter Aurubis gets EU approval for Metallo takeover   Europe’s biggest copper smelter Aurubis (NAFG.DE) won European Union antitrust approval on Monday for its planned 380 million euro ($412 million) acquisition of Belgian-Spanish metal recycling group Metallo, the European Commission said. Anima Holding could spend up to 400 mln euros to buy smaller European rival: CEO   Italian asset manager Anima Holding (ANIM.MI) could spend up to 400 million euros ($433 million) to buy a smaller rival abroad and expand in Europe, newly-appointed Chief Executive Alessandro Melzi D’Eril said on Thursday. Liberty and Telefonica agree $38 billion UK tie-up to take on BT   The tie-up mirrors a succession of European deals struck by Liberty’s billionaire founder John Malone to create one-stop shops for mobile and broadband. The Telefonica deal will allow the debt-laden Spanish company to extract cash while remaining in Britain, having tried and failed to sell O2 in 2016. Sweden's Sinch to acquire SAP Digital Interconnect for 225 million euros   Swedish cloud computing services provider Sinch AB (SINCH.ST) said on Tuesday it would acquire SAP Digital Interconnect, a unit of SAP SE (SAPG.DE), for 225 million euros ($245 million) in a deal that will boost its presence in the United States. INFOMINEO RESOURCES COVID- 19 Repository   When dealing with the COVID-19 crisis many people struggle to find the best sources of information. As a contribution to the business community, Infomineo has put together a repository of the best sources of information which we will keep updating during the COVID-19 crisis.  Manufacturing and export are at the core of the German economy, and are among the dimensions most affected by the Covid-19 related crisis.   Understand the impact of the crisis on the German economy through epidemiological Info, impact on expected GDP Growth, HC system capacity, main macro Indicators, and more …     INFOMINEO Infomineo is a data and research service provider, that specializes in Africa and the Middle East, dedicated to supporting global companies in getting access to information that powers their investment decisions in the region. Through a direct presence in key markets such as the UAE, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco, Infomineo provides a quick access to market data on key questions such as: market and product prioritization, partner identification, commercial due diligence, route to market, supply chain mapping and competitive analysis among others. Along with conducting Custom Research for clients, Infomineo also delivers an Expert Network service and a Business Translation service.  INFOMINEO, Value added business research, Casablanca - Barcelona - Cairo -, Dubai, UAE Unsubscribe |
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