BancABC Zimbabwe's predecessor companies, FMB Holdings Limited, African Banking Corporation Securities Limited and African Banking Corporation Asset Finance Limited, have been removed from Zimbabwe's company register after failing to submit annual returns for more than two years. These companies were non-operational subsidiaries of BancABC Zimbabwe that have now been officially deregistered. BancABC Zimbabwe was originally formed through a series of share swaps in 2000 between various companies including FMB Holdings Limited, and later rebranding FMB Limited as African Banking Corporation of Zimbabwe Limited in 2001.

1. By Tawanda Musarurwa
HARARE – African Banking
Corporation of Zimbabwe
Limited (BancABC Zimba-
bwe)’s predecessor and
redundant units have been
struck off the register.
Typically, any company that
fails to submit annual returns
for more than two years may
be removed from the register
in terms of Section 320(4) of
the Companies Act (Chapter
24:03).
ABC Zimbabwe’s forerun-
ner FMB Holdings Limited,
and two of its now non-op-
erational entities, African
Banking Corporation Secu-
rities Limited and African
Banking Corporation Asset
Finance Limited have now
been officially deregis-
tered, announced registrar
of companies Ms Martha
Chakanyuka in General
Notice 63 of 2016.
At the time of deregistration,
the three entities had nomi-
nal capital of $2 000, $4 000
News Update as @ 1530 hours, Tuesday 12 April 2016
Feedback: bh24admin@zimpapers.co.zwEmail: bh24feedback@zimpapers.co.zw
BancABC Zimbabwe’s old units deregistered

2. and $4 000, respectively.
First Merchant Bank of Zim-
babwe was established by
Anglo American Corporation
Zimbabwe Limited in 1956,
later to be registered as FMB
Holding Limited in 1971.
The ABC Zimbabwe group,
which was formed in 1999,
then entered into a series of
share swap offers in 2000,
made to the shareholders of
FMB Holdings Limited, UDC
Holdings Limited, EDFUND,
the Bard Group of Companies
and ULC Botswana.
The share swaps culminated
in a primary listing of ABCH
on the Botswana Stock
Exchange and a secondary
listing on the Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange on Septem-
ber 19, 2000.
FMB Limited, which had been
operating as an Accepting
House in the country since
1956, under the ownership of
FMB Holdings was re-branded
African Banking Corporation
of Zimbabwe Limited in 2001.
On the other hand, due to
the group’s need to meet the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s
minimum regulatory capital
requirement for merchant
banks, African Banking Cor-
poration Securities Limited
and African Banking Corpo-
ration Asset Finance Limited
were merged into the mer-
chant bank.
In 2009, the bank was
rebranded to BancABC, and
was purchased for $265 mil-
lion by Atlas Mara Co-Nvest
Limited in November 2014.●
2 news
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3

4. BH244

5. BH24 Reporter
HARARE - Tobacco farmers
have so far earned $13,2 mil-
lion from the sale of 5,7 million
kilogrammes of Virginia tobacco
since the tobacco selling season
began on March 30, latest
Tobacco Industry and Marketing
Board (TIMB) statistics show.
The 5,7 million kg of tobacco
were sold both on the auc-
tion and contract floors. The
statistics show that a total of
3,3 million kg of tobacco worth
$9,1 million was sold at the
auction floors while 2,4 million
kg worth $4,1 million was sold
at the contract floors.
The tobacco sold is 61 percent
more than what was sold during
the comparable period last year.
A total of 3,5 million kg worth
$8 million had been sold during
the same period last year.
The average price of tobacco
at auction floors is currently
$1,71 per kg while the con-
tracted crop is being bought at
an average price of $2,75 per
kg reflecting an increase of 2,7
percent from the prior compa-
rable period.
TIMB said the top price for the
contract floors was $5,60 per
kg while at the auction floors it
was $4, 99 per kg. The lowest
price that has been recorded
so far is $0, 10 per kg. A total
of 76 bales have so far been
rejected due to poor quality and
poor packaging this season,
compared to 79 bales rejected
the same period last year.
This season tobacco volumes
are expected to decline by
20 percent due to the El Nino
induced drought which affected
the crop. Meanwhile tobacco
farmers have raised concern
over the new payment system
saying they are being paid late
and the money is taking time to
reflect in their bank accounts.
Commenting on the issue TIMB
public relations officer Mr Ishe-
unesu Moyo said farmers should
get proper information from the
banks that they use because
money typically takes between
one and two days to reflect in
bank accounts. “We are going
to educate farmers on how the
new payment system works and
banks must tell farmers how an
account number works to avoid
confusion,” he said. ●
Tobacco farmers earn $13,2m
5 news

6. BH246

7. By Funny Hudzerema
HARARE -The expedient
growth of the informal econ-
omy has inhibited Govern-
ment’s capacity to control the
wage structure of the economy,
which has resulted in low com-
petitiveness in the economy, a
senior economist has said.
Labour and Economic Devel-
opment Research Institute of
Zimbabwe (LEDRIZ) economist
Mr Prosper Chitambara said
the country’s economy is being
dominated by the informal
sector.
“The shrinking of the formal
economy through de-industrial-
isation has resulted in a boom
in the non-formal economy
through informalisation with
the share of informal employ-
ment to total employment
rising from 84, percent in 2011
to 94, 5 percent in 2014.
“The Zimbabwean labour mar-
ket has a very large informal
sector, larger than the formal,
which affects the efficiency of
the labour market institutions,”
he said.
Currently the informal sector is
employing thousands of work-
ers with an approximate $7
billion circulating in the sector.
“It also implies that the infor-
mal sector is locked out of
markets for finance, technol-
ogy, and other resources that
would enable them to close the
gap. It has also been shown in
literature that informal firms
do not always “grow up” and
join the formal sector.
“In many cases especially in
developing countries they can
remain stuck in an informality
trap, excluded from markets
for finance and forced to evade
taxes and other regulations
to compete with their more
productive formal competitors,”
he said.
Mr Chitambara added that in
order to sustainably address
the issue of informality
requires a combination of
strong incentives for compli-
ance and stiffer penalties for
non-compliance.
“Informality discourages
investment and weakens the
overall competitiveness of the
economy, because a number of
informal enterprises are stuck
in a low productivity trap.
“It is argued that being outside
the regulatory framework
implies informal enterprises
can afford to be less productive
than their competitors in the
formal sector,” he said.
He added that Government
should put in place policies
that encourage the informal
sector to become formalised.●
7 news
‘Govt limited in determining wages in informal economy’
Mr Prosper Chitambara

8. HARARE - Challenges in
moving money to overseas
accounts is delaying final-
isation of Government's
acquition of mobile tele-
communications firm Telecel
Zimbabwe, a cabinet Minister
said on Monday.
The Government is now the
major shareholder in Telecel
Zimbabwe after paying $40
million for the 60 percent
stake in the firm previously
owned by Russian telecom-
munications group, Vimpel-
com.
Vimpelcom signed an agree-
ment for the sale with the
Government late last year.
Zarnet, a telecommunications
company which is owned by
the Government, acquired
the stake.
Information, Communication
Technology, Postal and Cou-
rier Services Minister Supa
Mandiwanzira told the Parlia-
mentary Portfolio Committee
on ICTs that although the full
amount had been paid for
Telecel shares, the deal was
stuck because the money was
still to be moved overseas.
“The transaction has been
done and is on the verge
of being completed to the
extent of having all the
money paid. However some
of the funds are still in
Zimbabwe because of issues
relating to liquidity funding
of offshore accounts. The
entire sum has not been
remitted outside of our coun-
try.’”
“But in terms of Zarnet hav-
ing completed its obligations,
I can confirm it has con-
cluded its obligations. How-
ever it has paid the money to
a local account,” he said.
Minister Mandiwanzira said
Vimpelcom would only trans-
fer ownership after the Gov-
ernment, through its proxy,
has fully met the conditions
of the sale.
“What is now remaining
is the finalisation of the
remittances. In terms of
all agreement, the deal will
be concluded when all that
money has left this country,”
he said.
Minister Mandiwanzira said
the Government expected
Telecel to make a profit.
“Telecel is in a space that
has lucrative business and
this is not the space for it
not to make a profit,” he
said.
Vimpelcom decided to divest
from Telecel after struggling
to dilute its majority share-
holding as required in terms
of the country’s indigenisa-
tion laws, which require that
indigenous Zimbabweans own
at least 51 percent in multi-
national firms.
Locals already owned the
other 40 percent in Telecel.
- New Ziana●
8 news
Govt close to completing Telecel takeover

9. HARARE - The local equi-
ties market continued on
a positive run, after the
mainstream industrial index
added 0.07 to close higher
at 98.47.
Trading dominated with six
movers compared to two
that traded in the red.
Cigarette manufacturer BAT
Zim added $0,0500 to trade
at $10,8000, while con-
glomerate Innscor gained
$0,0025 to $0,1900 and FBC
Holdings bumped $0,0008 to
settle at $0,0660.
Also on the up was tele-
coms giant Econet, which
shifted upwards by $0,0006
to $0,2600 while Fidelity
Life went up by a marginal
$0,0004 to close at $0,1030.
Trading in the red was
Seed-Co, which slid $0,0016
to close at $0,6499 while
beverages producer Delta
lost $0,0010 to $0,5700.
The mining index was flat
at 20.16 as Bindura, Fal-
gold, Hwange and RioZim all
maintained previous price
levels at $0,0102, $0,0050,
$0,0300 and $0,1100 respec-
tively - BH24 Reporter ●
ZSE9
Industrials extend gains

10. Movers CHANGE Today Price USc SHAKERS Change TODAY Price USc
Masimba 2.81 0.73 SeedCo -0.24 64.99
Innscor 1.33 19.00 Delta -0.17 57.00
FBCH 1.22 6.60
BAT 0.46 1,080.00
Fidelity Life 0.38 10.30
Econet 0.23 26.00
Index Previous Today Move Change
Industrial 98.40 98.47 +0.07 points +0.07%
Mining 20.16 20.16 +0.00 points +0.00%
10 zse tables
ZSE
Indices
Stock Exchange
Previous
today

11. 11 DIARY OF EVENTS
The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.
POWER GENERATION STATS
Gen Station
11 April 2016
Energy
(Megawatts)
Hwange 356 MW
Kariba 453 MW
Harare 30 MW
Munyati 16 MW
Bulawayo 22 MW
Imports 0 - 400 MW
Total 1123 MW
• Upcoming AGM - Falgold, KPMG Building, Corner 14th Avenue/Josiah Tongogara Street, Bulawayo,13 April, 1000hrs
• 26th April 2016 - The Fifty-Sixth Annual General Meeting of the shareholders of British American Tobacco Zimbabwe (Hold-
ings) Limited; Place: British American Tobacco Zimbabwe Offices, 1 Manchester Road, Southerton, Harare; Time: 10.00 hours...
• 05 May 2016 - Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe AGM; Place: Meikles Mirabelle Room; Time: 1500hrs
THE BH24 DIARY

12. JOHANNESBURG - A top
shareholder in Darty Plc will
back Steinhoff's $975 million
takeover bid for the French
electronic goods retailer, the
South African furniture group
said Monday.
Steinhoff said its offer had
the support of Schroder
Investment Management,
a British hedge fund firm.
Schroder owns about 14 per-
cent of Europe's third-largest
electronics retailer, making it
the biggest shareholder.
Investors have until May 2
to accept the offer, which
trumped a competing bid
from French retailer Fnac
last month and has the back-
ing of Darty's board.
The transaction would bulk
up Steinhoff's presence in
Europe, where it already
makes more than two-
thirds of its 9,8 billion euros
($11,18 billion) of annual
sales.
Darty earns 70 percent of its
revenue in France but has
400 stores across Europe and
competes with Media-Saturn,
owned by Germany's Metro,
and with Britain's Dixons.
Steinhoff's Conforama, like
Darty and Fnac, has a strong
presence in French high
streets and retail parks. -
Reuters●
regioNAL News12
Top shareholder in France's Darty backs
Steinhoff's $975m bid
Rand firms to third day in a row, stocks
flat
JOHANNESBURG -South
African's rand firmed for a
third consecutive session
against the dollar today as
the greenback slipped while
emerging markets lapped
up a return of appetite for
riskier assets.
At 0715 GMT, the rand
traded at 14,6615 ver-
sus the dollar, 0,5 percent
firmer from Monday's New
York close and near a one-
week high.
Government bonds were
weaker, with the benchmark
instrument due in 2026
adding 1 basis points to
9,145 percent.
The rand continued to test
the 14,60 resistance level
which it last reached on
April 1, shortly after the
highest court in the land
ruled that President Jacob
Zuma had violated the con-
stitution by not honouring
an order to pay back state
money spent on his home.
"Rand gains mostly just
represent, and are certainly
ultimately dependent on,
the dollar," said currency
strategist John Cairns at
Rand Merchant Bank in a
note.
The rand strengthened
in the previous session,
rallying to its firmest in
one week as sentiment
toward emerging markets
improved in the wake of
growing expectations that
the United States central
bank would hold off raising
interest rates for longer. On
the stock market, the Top-
40 index was flat in early
trade. - Reuters●

13. The dollar slumped to its
lowest in more than nine
months on Monday as spec-
ulation that the Federal
Reserve won’t raise interest
rates anytime soon spurred a
search for yield outside the
US.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot
Index, which tracks the
currency versus 10 peers,
tumbled in New York to its
lowest since June as traders
pushed back expectations for
a rate increase by year-end.
Currencies of commodity
exporters, including South
Africa’s rand, the Brazilian
real and the New Zealand
dollar, had advanced as
investors reallocated money
to higher-yielding assets.
Eisuke Sakakibara, the for-
mer Finance Ministry official
in charge of currency inter-
vention in Japan, said the
dollar may drop to 100 yen
by year-end.
The Fed is weighing signs
of strength in the domes-
tic economy versus slowing
growth overseas as policy
makers look to raise rates
twice this year. Concern that
an international slump, par-
ticularly in China, will spill
over into the US has kept
a lid on the central bank’s
plans and boosted the appeal
of assets overseas.
“The market has generally
been trying to trade the
weakness in the dollar, and
to some extent, the recovery
in risky assets,” said Sebas-
tien Galy, director of for-
eign exchange at Deutsche
Bank AG in New York. “What
we’re entering is a period of
consolidation in the currency
market related to the dollar.
Even if we get better data,
it will not convince anybody
that the Fed is going to shift
significantly its policy.”
Bloomberg’s gauge of the US
currency was little changed
at 1,174.25 as of 7:59 a.m.
in Tokyo on Tuesday, after
sliding 0,4 percent in New
York. The greenback was
at $1,1410 per euro from
$1,1408. It was at 107,93
yen from 107,94.
Scaling Back
Traders see a 48 percent
likelihood of a rate increase
in the US before the end
of the year, down from 58
percent a week ago, futures
contracts show. Investors
have cut bets on the dollar in
tandem, reducing net wagers
on U.S. currency strength
versus eight counterparts to
36,304, the least since July
2014, according to data from
the CFTC.
A measure of the green-
back’s momentum, known as
the 14-day relative strength
indicator, has fallen to 30,
the level that some traders
view as a signal the currency
has reached extreme levels
and may reverse.
“For the time being, we
remain broadly neutral on
the greenback’s near-term
prospects and we see the
current period of consoli-
dative price action as likely
to continue this week,” Eric
Viloria, a strategist at Wells
Fargo & Co. in New York
wrote in a note.
Sakakibara, who was dubbed
Mr. Yen for his ability to
influence the exchange rate
in the 1990s, said the dollar
may trade at 105 yen in the
next few months. The level
is “no problem” for Japan’s
economy, the 75-year-old
Sakakibara, who is cur-
rently a professor at Aoyama
Gakuin University, said in a
Bloomberg Television inter-
view. - Bloomberg●
internatioNAL News13
Dollar falls to 9-month low as traders look for yield overseas

14. SINGAPORE — It would be
easy to dismiss the assertion
by BHP Billiton CEO Andrew
Mackenzie that commodity
prices have bottomed as the
wishful thinking of a min-
ing executive keen to see
some improvement in profit
margins.
While it is likely that the
boss of the world’s biggest
mining company is hoping
for an end to five years of
a declining price trend for
many of the commodities his
company produces, there
is enough price evidence to
suggest he may be right.
It is probably a little too
early to call for a rebound
in commodity prices, and
Mr Mackenzie was suitably
cautious in his comments
published last weekend in
The Australian newspaper.
But the fact that it is now
possible to construct a nar-
rative, with supporting price
data, for even a mild recov-
ery in commodities is some-
thing of a sea change.
For at least the past two
years it has been virtually
unrelenting doom and gloom
in the sector, with any price
rallies proving to be false
dawns as the industry battled
oversupply as well as slowing
demand growth in top con-
sumer China.
The oversupply was a prob-
lem the industry created for
itself, having believed the
hype that commodity demand
and prices would rise for
decades on Chinese demand,
with supporting roles from
India and other developing
Asian nations.
The slowing demand growth
in China was always inevi-
table, but it arrived sooner
than virtually anybody
expected, and given Bei-
jing’s efforts to move to a
more consumer-led economy,
it is not likely that China’s
appetite for commodities will
re-accelerate any time soon.
So why is the boss of BHP
expressing some optimism
that the outlook for commod-
14 analysis14 analysis
Evidence suggests five-year commodity rout may be coming to an end

15. 15 analysis15 analysis
ities is improving? "If you
look at the basket of com-
modities that we deal with,
the numbers are self-evi-
dent: the fall has stopped,"
Mr Mackenzie was quoted as
saying in the interview pub-
lished on April 9.
Spot iron ore in Asia is up
30 percent to $55,90 a tonne
so far in 2016, Brent has
gained almost 15 percent,
London copper is almost flat
as is Newcastle coal, while
coking coal has risen about
14 percent.
These four commodities
represent the bulk of BHP’s
portfolio and while prices
look weak compared with
where they were five years
ago, Mr Mackenzie is right
insofar as they have stopped
declining so far in 2016.
This certainly gives cause for
some optimism that prices
have arrested their declining
trend, and while a sustained
rally may be a little hopeful,
a period of bouncing along
the bottom with little rallies
and pullbacks is a reasonable
expectation.
But what will it take for
confidence to come back that
commodity prices have actu-
ally bottomed? It will take
supply discipline and demand
growth, or at least one of
them. Looking at BHP’s major
commodity products, it is not
evident that supply discipline
and demand growth are pres-
ent in any meaningful way.
Iron ore is BHP’s top earner,
and here the major produc-
ers, including the top two
Vale and Rio Tinto still have
plans to increase output.
Supply discipline is only
coming from higher cost
mines being forced to close,
but it is still questionable
whether enough of these
operations are being idled to
offset likely additions.
Seaborne iron ore volumes
may actually rise, but only
if more domestic Chinese
output is shut down, meaning
that the demand side of the
equation is extremely price
sensitive. The major miners
can have rising volumes, but
only at the expense of low
prices.
In copper, again supply dis-
cipline is lacking, with new
operations expected to add
to global ore volumes this
year. Demand is also some-
what cloudy, with uncer-
tainty over whether China’s
appetite for imports can be
maintained and market par-
ticipants raising the possibil-
ity that China may actually
export refined copper given
weak industrial demand at
home and substantial inven-
tories.
Coal is probably further down
the road of supply discipline
than other commodities, with
formally major exporters
like the US having virtually
exited the seaborne market,
and lower volumes coming
out of Indonesia and Aus-
tralia.
But this supply reduction is
being matched by demand
concerns, with the world’s
top-two importers, China and
India, buying less of the fuel
in what may prove to be a
structural shift lower. Crude
oil is also battling its supply
issues, with top producers
meeting this weekend in
Qatar in an effort to agree
some kind of output freeze.
Similar to other commodities,
it is far from certain that
these efforts will actually
work, meaning that crude is
unlikely to experience much
of a supply-led rally. Oil
demand is somewhat more
constructive, but even here
it is likely to take months,
if not years, for demand
growth to catch up to availa-
ble supply.
Overall, it seems that there
are some reasons to be a
little confident that commod-
ity prices are set to stabi-
lise, but the conditions for
rising prices are still not fully
apparent.-Reuters●