Company News in Brief

Moroccan exchange to launch derivatives within weeks, CEO saysMorocco's Casablanca Stock Exchange expects to launch a new derivatives market within weeks as part of an effort to boost liquidity in one of Africa's largest exchanges, its chief executive told Reuters.CSE chief executive Tarik Senhaji said derivatives would expand the investor base by allowing participants to take long and short positions and enable them to trade a basket, particularly tracking the MASI 20, which includes the 20 largest and most liquid stocks."It's the flexibility that the derivatives market allows you, which is going to add to the main market, bring more liquidity, and essentially bring more flows," Senhaji said.The derivative offerings are aimed at being the first part of a broader expansion, with contracts for interest rate futures, single-stock futures and equity options set to follow.In 2024, the exchange's average daily trading volume rose by nearly 70% to $37.5 million, and total market capitalisation rose some 20% from December 2023 to the end of 2024, to $77.6 billion.-REUTERS JPMorgan's $200 million Angola margin call reveals Africa's new debt painsA $200 million margin call by JPMorgan on Angola's $1 billion loan at the height of the global selloff of risky assets has exposed the high costs of unorthodox financing heavily indebted African issuers have been turning to, analysts say.Africa's debt has soared to more than $1.8 trillion, the African Development Bank said, leading to three sovereign debt defaults in the past four years and unconventional financing deals as governments wrestle with high repayments.Senegal, Gabon and Cameroon are among those who have resorted to so-called "off-screen" deals like private bond placements in recent months, as heavy debt burdens and political uncertainty in some cases limit their access to regular markets."We are going to see more of these transactions in the foreseeable future, especially if regular and conventional Eurobond market access remains constrained for single B and low-rated countries," said Samir Gadio, head of Africa strategy at Standard Chartered in London.The yield on bonds Senegal privately placed last year is nearly 100 basis points higher than on its 2031 Eurobond, meaning it is paying more for the new debt, illustrating the costs to countries that are already struggling to fund essential sectors like health and education. Loans often come at a 150-200 bps premium over existing bonds, analysts said.-REUTERS Barrick CEO says he does not know where Mali is keeping miner's confiscated goldBarrick Mining is spending $15 million a month to keep its Mali mine running and doesn't know where Mali's government is keeping the gold it from the Canadian company, CEO Mark Bristow said on Wednesday.In an interview about the long-running conflict with authorities in the West African nation, Bristow said the government there had walked back on an agreement to settle a tax dispute three times, and called the jailing of Barrick employees in the country a human rights violation."You have four executives from a Western world company incarcerated, which can be only described as human rights abuse," Bristow said.He said that the jailed executives have worked harder for Mali than the people who are currently leading negotiations for its government. "We don't know where the gold is; it is allegedly in secure custody, but we don't know that," he said.Barrick and Mali's government have been locked in a dispute for more than six months over the Loulo-Gounkoto complex, Barrick's largest mine in Mali.In addition to arresting the four Barrick employees, authorities confiscated around 3 metric tonnes of gold in January following accusations that Barrick was not in compliance with its tax obligations, prompting the miner to shut down the mine. Based on the current gold price, the value of the confiscated gold is around $318 million.-REUTERS Apple could ditch GoogleApple is “actively looking at” revamping the Safari web browser on its devices to focus on AI-powered search engines, a seismic shift for the industry hastened by the potential end of a longtime partnership with Google.Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, made the disclosure Wednesday during his testimony in the US Justice Department’s lawsuit against Alphabet.The heart of the dispute is the two companies’ estimated $20 billion-a-year deal (R365 billion) that makes Google the default offering for queries in Apple’s browser.The case could force the tech giants to unwind the pact, upending how the iPhone and other devices have long operated.Beyond that upheaval, AI is already making gains with consumers. Cue noted that searches on Safari dipped for the first time last month, which he attributed to people using AI.Alphabet shares tumbled 7.3% on Wednesday, their biggest decline since February. Apple shares also slumped on Cue’s comments, and were down 1.1% at market close. Google responded by saying in a blogpost it’s seen an increase in search queries from Apple devices. Apple currently offers OpenAI’s ChatGPT as an option in the Siri digital.-BLOOMBERG

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