Company News in Brief

Zambia’s planned refinery to rely on oil delivery by road, rail

Zambia will supply a refinery it’s planning to build and complete before 2028 with crude delivered initially by road, according to the energy ministry.

Over the longer term, the oil — sourced from the Middle East and Angola — will be supplied by rail, it said in an emailed response to questions. Fujian Xiangxin Corp started construction of the $1.1-billion refinery with the capacity to produce 60 000 barrels of oil a day, the ministry said in an earlier statement.

Zambia’s project comes at a time when African governments are reviewing their energy security because of constraints on supplies as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

-Moneyweb/Bloomberg

IMF chief says global prices will take time to recede after war

Global prices will take time to come down to levels seen before the US-Israeli war with Iran, even if a ceasefire holds, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.

“It will take some time, yes, and it will take more time for locations that are experiencing a higher degree of disruption,” Georgieva said in comments aired Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation ahead of this week’s spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. “That’s why we need to remember the asymmetry of this shock.”

Georgieva reiterated that the IMF will lower its global growth forecast as a result of the war in Iran.

“We are going to have a downgrade, and the size of this downgrade will depend on these two things, duration and speed with which everything can come back to the same level of production that we had before,” she said.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the US will begin a full naval blockade of the strategic Strait of Hormuz and threatened to retaliate in the event of Iranian resistance. Trump’s announcement came hours after the US and Iran failed to reach a deal during direct talks in Pakistan, raising doubt about prospects for the ceasefire announced last week to hold as well as a permanent end to the war.

-Moneyweb/Bloomberg

SA confirms it won’t attend G20 meeting in Washington

South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has not been accredited to attend the upcoming meeting of the Group of 20 finance chiefs in Washington, deepening a rift with the US.

Speaking to Bloomberg on Sunday at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, as he travelled to the US to take part in Spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, he said that neither himself nor South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago will be attending the G20 meeting.

“We are members of the G20,” he said.

“However, the US has not accredited us, which means that South Africa will not be part of the G20 for the whole of this year.”

US President Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed that South Africa is committing genocide against white Afrikaans people and seizing land without compensation, said in November that the country would not be invited to the G20 summit he will host later this year in Miami.

-Moneyweb/Bloomberg

Founder of China's Evergrande pleads guilty to fraud

Hui Ka Yan, the founder of embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande, has pleaded guilty to a number of charges including embezzlement of assets and corporate bribery, according to a statement issued by the court.

Hui expressed remorse during the public hearing on 13 and 14 April, in the city of Shenzhen, according to Chinese state media.

The court said it will announce its verdict on the case at a later date.

His guilty plea marks a pivotal moment in the fallout from Evergrande's collapse, which has shaken China's property sector and left investors and domestic banks reeling.

Evergrande was once China's biggest real estate firm, with a stock market valuation of more than $50bn (£37bn), but collapsed into a debt-driven crisis in 2021 that has unravelled its business.

The court heard that the company had taken millions of dollars in pre-sale funding from potential house buyers that were not used for construction. Instead the funds were diverted to new projects which resulted in hundreds of unfinished properties across China.

Hui, also known as Xu Jiayin, rose from humble beginnings in rural China, where he was raised by his grandmother before venturing into property development and setting up Evergrande in 1996.

Evergrande's downfall has often been cited as a trigger for China's persistent property market slump, which spiralled downwards in 2021 and has weighed heavily on the country's economic development.

-BBC News