By Munesu Nyakudya

HARARE -The Government is going to support the horticul-ture sector through provision of fiscal incentives for incremental exports of horticultural products, a cabinet Minister has said.

Minister of Finance and Eco-nomic Development Mr Patrick Chinamasa in his 2016 National Budget Statement said revival of the once vibrant horticulture sector will benefit from initia-tives by private players to estab-lish a Horticulture Development Board.

The Minister said that the hor-ticulture development board would coordinate implementa-tion of the country’s horticulture development strategy.

“The strategy aims to localise the global gap quality standard, a voluntary certification for var-ious agricultural products, which should unlock access to lucrative regional and international export

markets,” said Mr Chinamasa.

He said that at its peak hor-ticulture was a major foreign currency earner, contributing 2.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2005. At the peak of the industry’s vibrancy major exports were flowers, fresh veg-etables and fruits, exported to various African and European markets.

However, by 2014, the sector’s exports had gone down to $10.2 million, amid challenges related to capacity and access to mar-kets, among others.

Mr Chinamasa said the Reserve Bank is coordinating financial sector support for the revival of horticulture, to underpin private players’ initiatives, modelled

around the smallholder farmer under contract farming arrange-ments.

He said such an the initiative has been successful in other coun-tries.

“This has been very successful in Kenya, with farmers benefit-ing from dissemination of market intelligence through Information and Communications Technol-ogy ICT, as well as use of such alternative energy sources as solar and wind at farm level,” the Finance Minister said.

He said that the Government applauds the initiative being taken by horticulture players and will be working closely with the respective farmers in reviving this important sector. ●

News Update as @ 1530 hours, Friday 27 November 2015

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GVT to provide incentives to revive horticulture

Minister Patrick Chinamasa

2 NEws

Pelhams seeks ZsE suspensionBH24 Reporter

HARARE -Pelhams yesterday applied for voluntary suspension from trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange following its place-ment under provisional liquidation early this month.

The company was placed under provisional liquidation on Novem-ber 8, 2015 after failure to pay its debts to TN Harlequin Luxaire lim-ited among other creditors.

“Following an application by TN Harlequin Luxaire limited and another creditor, the company was placed under provisional liquida-tion with effect from 18 November 2015.

“The company had failed to pay its debts to TN Harlequin Luxaire Limited and other creditors due to the fall in consumer demand and failure by the company’s debtors, who are predominantly civil serv-ants, to pay their debts,” the Zim-babwe Stock Exchange said in a statement.

“The ZSE was notified of this

development on 24 November 2015. Pelhams Limited however wishes to advise all shareholders that the company has applied for voluntary suspension in the trad-ing of its shares with immediate effect in accordance with Section 1.7(a) of the Listing Rules.”

The application by TN Harlequin Luxaire Limited to place Pelhams under liquidation followed the refusal by other shareholders to support TN Harlequin Luxaire Lim-ited’s request to recapitalize the company.

Mr Christopher Maswi of Fair-value Chartered Accountants was

appointed as the Provisional Liq-uidator.

According to the statement by ZSE, Pelhams remains open until the final determination by the High Court on April 6, 2016.

The company has been incurring losses with its current liabilities exceeding its current assets.

The losses incurred were mainly as a result of the challenges that the company faced in raising funds for its debtors book.

Pelhams was de-merged from Delta Corporation Limited in March 2002 through a dividend in-specie distribution and simultaneously converted into a public company listed on ZSE by way of introduc-tion in April 2002.

In November 2008 the company acquired Tradewinds Private Lim-ited, a case goods manufacturing company. In 2012, TN Holdings Limited acquired 56,57 percent shareholding in Pelhams.●

BH243

BH24 Reporter

HARARE -Government will pro-vide farmers with free cotton seed for three years to revive the cotton industry and increase production of the crop, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said.

Zimbabwe’s cotton production has been faced with a number of challenges, which include lack of competitiveness on the inter-national market due to lack of inputs which pushed farmers to grow cotton from stalks.

Presenting the 2016 National Budget Minister Chinamasa said the seed will help to boost the

cotton industry, production and promote the cotton to the cloth-ing industry policy which Gov-ernment has introduced.

“Government recognises the importance of reviving cot-ton farming, given significant agro-linkages with the textile industry, and involvement of over 300 000 smallholder farm-ers.

“Government will supply cot-ton seeds to farmers for three years to bring back cotton grow-ers who have left the growing of cotton due to shortage of inputs,” he said.

Cotton growers have been declining some few years,

resulting decline in production due to low prices, offered by cotton buyers. This year crop was being sold at a flat fee of $0, 30 per kg, which farmers said was too low.

“The numerous challenges fac-ing the sector resulted in cotton output declining from peak lev-els of 353 000 metric tonnes in 2000/2001 to 136 000 tonnes during the last season.

“In the year 2015 cotton mar-keting season, the crop size further declined to 102 000 tonnes,” he said.

The cotton output has been on decline notwithstanding the installed ginnery capacity of 427

000 tonnes of seed cotton.

Minister Chinamasa said Gov-ernment will take over $52.7 million Cottco debt and con-version into equity in order to revive the cotton industry.

“Cotton production is critical for the growth of the economy because there are a number of activities associated with cotton production through value add-ing,” he said.

Zimbabwe was well kwon of pro-ducing quality cotton in Africa, but the quality of the crop has deteriorated due to shortage of inputs and introduction of genetically modified organisms by other countries.●

4 NEws

Gvt to provide free cotton seeds

BH24

TAA:DI251386-Y22

Laz DI324241-D15

5

HARARE - THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange main indus-trial index lost 0,48 percent in today’s session to close weaker at 117,64 after gaining only once this week.

Pulling the main index down were losses in SeedCo,

which lost 1,96 percent to 87,99c, as Old Mutual slid 1,35 percent to 211,09c, Delta retreated 1,20 per-cent to 73,8c, while ZimRe shed 0,81 percent to 1,22c.

Gains in Econet and BAT, which lost 1,04 percent and

1,06 percent to close the last trading session of the week at 18c and 1 217,54c, respectively. The mining index, flat the entire week was unchanged at 22,33.

- BH24 Reporter ●

ZsE6

industrial index lose

BH247

MoVERs CHANGE TodAy PRiCE UsC sHAKERs CHANGE TodAy PRiCE UsC

Econet 1,06 18,00 SEED CO -1,96 87,09

BAT 1,04 1,217,54 OLD MuTuAL PLC -1,35 211,09

DELTA -1,20 73,87

ZIMRE HOLDINGS -0,81 1,22

iNdEx PREVioUs TodAy MoVE CHANGE

INDuSTRIAL 118,12 117,64 -0,48 points -0,40%

MINING 22.33 22.33 0.00 0.00%

8 ZsE TABlEs

ZsE

iNdiCEs

stock Exchange

Previous

9 diARy oF EVENTs

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

PowER GENERATioN sTATs

Gen Station

27 November 15

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 593 MW

Kariba 468 MW

Harare 30 MW

Munyati 17 MW

Bulawayo 17 MW

Imports 0 MW

Total 1074 Mw

•1 December 2015 - The 33rd Annual General Meeting of the Members of Radar Holdings limited; Place; The Board Room, 6TH FlooR, Tanganyika House, 23 Third street, Harare; Time: 15:00

THE BH24 diARy

Johannesburg - Alstom has agreed to buy a 51 PERCENT share in South African rail company Commuter Trans-port & Locomotive Engineering (CTLE).

CTLE specialises in the mod-ernisation of trains. Alstom is buying the shares from CTE and IDC, which will remain shareholders.

Once the agreement is final-ised, and upon approval by anti-trust authorities, Alstom will launch an integration pro-ject. This will enable CTLE to offer a complete rail portfolio including infrastructure, sig-nalling, trains and components

CTLE is based in the region of Ekurhuleni in Nigel, east of Johannesburg, and employs 450 people. It has a 80,000m2 manufacturing facility and generated a turnover of more than €15 million in 2014.

This acquisition is designed to strengthen Alstom’s presence in the region and allow the creation of a stronger indus-trial and commercial base. It also allows Alstom to offer a broader range of rail products and solutions.

"We are delighted to sign this agreement with our South Afri-can partners,” said Gian-Luca

Erbacci, senior vice president of Alstom Middle-East and Africa. “This is a win-win part-

nership that will strengthen the rail sector in South Africa, boost its economy and, in the long term, address the needs of other countries in the Southern African region.”

Alstom is already present in South Africa through its local joint venture Gibela and is involved in one of the coun-try’s biggest ever transport projects through the supply of 600 X’Trapolis Mega commuter trains to the national rail com-pany, Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA).- the-constructionindex

- Reuters●

REGioNAl NEws 10

Alstom buys into south African rail business

loNdoN - Consumer goods maker unilever said it would switch to using only renewable energy by 2030 and would stop using energy from coal by 2020, as businesses jostle to high-light their green credentials ahead of a global climate summit.

World leaders were set to meet in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 to agree on a plan to curb global warming.

unilever was among 81 companies, along with rivals Nestle and Procter & Gamble, that have signed up to set emissions targets for their businesses with the aim of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

unilever Chief Executive Paul Polman is a leading advocate for the idea that there is a business case for sustain-ability even as his company's sales

have slowed under the weight of a weak margarine business and slowing emerging market economies.

"If we don’t tackle climate change we won’t achieve economic growth. This is an issue for all businesses, not just unilever. We all have to act," Polman, who will attend the talks in Paris, said

in a statement.

Polman is part of a group of business leaders who want governments to commit to zero net emissions by 2050.

Nestle marked the u.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday by noting that volatile weather had hit the pumpkin harvest this year as it highlighted its aim of using more renewable energy, although it has yet to set detailed tar-gets.

under targets set in 2010, unilever said it aimed to be eventually wholly pow-ered by renewable energy, setting an interim target for renewables to meet 40 percent of its energy needs by 2020. It is now raising the 2020 tar-get to 50 percent and aiming for 100 percent by 2030, up from 28 percent in 2014.

unilever said it wants all the electric-ity it buys from the grid to come from renewable sources by 2020 and will seek to support renewable energy generation, so by 2030 it can make a surplus available to markets and com-munities where it operates.

Earlier this year, IKEA [IKEA.uL], the world's biggest furniture retailer, said it plans to invest heavily in renewable energy as it seeks to generate all the energy used in its shops and factories from clean sources by 2020.

unilever says it has saved over 400 million euros ($424 million) through eco-friendly measures taken at its fac-tories since 2008 and says its brands that most fully embrace sustainability - such as Dove, Lifebuoy, Ben & Jerry’s and Comfort - perform the best-Reu-ters●

iNTERNATioNAl NEws 11

Unilever is switching to only renewable energy by 2030

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To say that Samsung is experienc-ing "bad times" would not exactly be fair, not only on Samsung itself, but on a big chunk of the mobile industy stacked up behind it. You see, Samsung is not in a bad way at all, it's more-or-less just behind Apple in terms of being one of the biggest and best-selling mobile brands on the planet; it's not struggling to get its flagship devices noticed like Sony or HTC, it's not in a last-ditch attempt to regain a foothold like BlackBerry, and it hasn't sold off its mobile division to Microsoft like Nokia. On balance, times are pretty good for Samsung. But, not good enough, it seems, by it's own standards that is. Samsung has made no bones about the fact that it's not a happy bunny, it's not happy with flagship sales performance.

Despite arugably being the sec-ond best performing smartphone maker in the world, just behind market leader Apple, the firm has not achieved the kind of successes inside 2014 and 2015 that it had previously been used to. Back in 2012/2013 Samsung sales were off the chain and profits were abundant, then the Galaxy S5

happened, and while it wouldn't be fair to brand it a commercial flop it was fairly well panned crit-ically, and didn't get anywhere near Samsung's expected sales figures. In 2015 Samsung went back to the drawing board and,

to its credit, came up with a com-plete ground-up rebuild and a new approach with the Galaxy S6, one that was very warmly recieved as one of the best devices it has ever produced. And yet, Samsung has still reportedly not sold hand-

sets in sufficient numbers, market share and profits have dipped as a result. Apple, meanwhile, contin-ues to dominate the market with every iPhone launch.

The Korea Times reported that Samsung is looking to further reduce its workforce before the end of the year in order to cut costs.

“Samsung’s top priority is to save costs. Average workers with mediocre performance are being advised to leave the company with a sizable compensation,” one official told the outlet.

"This isn’t the first major round of layoffs Samsung has had to suffer through in 2015 either. In fact, just last month on the day before Apple unveiled its iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Samsung announced that nearly 10,000 employees would have to be let go from the company’s headquar-ters in South Korea," notes BGR. "But it appears that the situa-tion has not improved apprecia-bly, because in the latest report, industry watchers claim that Sam-sung is now looking to cut its staff

12 analysis12 ANAlysis

Samsung is preparing another duo of Samsung Galaxy S7 flagships

13 analysis13 ANAlysis

by a whopping 30%, singling out employees in the finance, human resources and marketing divisions of the company."

Despite coming to the market-place with two very compelling handsets in the form of the Gal-axy S6 and the Galaxy S6 EDGE, Samsung failed once again to give Apple any real trouble. Handset sales were worse than expected, leading to yet another drop in profits for the once-great Korean handset maker.

“Samsung flagged a second-quar-ter drop in operating profit on Tuesday that missed analyst estimates after sales of its new-est flagship smartphonefailed to meet expectations,” report The Telegraph. “The earnings forecast came as a South Korean court ruled in Samsung's favour against a uS hedge fund's efforts to block the proposed merger of two major affiliates. The giant smartphone and memory-chip maker predicted operating profit of around 6.9 tril-lion won (£4 billion) for the April-June period, down more than 4 per cent from a year earlier.”

Samsung blamed the lacklustre sales on not being able to produce enough Galaxy S6 EDGE units. Analysts, however, had other ideas and pointed towards a more sinister problem: long standing Android users defecting to iPhone. Throw in China for good meas-ure, a market Apple smashed in 2015, and you have a recipe for bad earnings calls. With all this in mind, it’s no wonder Samsung has fast-tracked development of the Galaxy S7, the handset that will do battle with the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

“Double-digit shipment growth is a thing of the past for vendors as the global market has begun to plateau in 2015 after years of growth” said TrendForce smart-phone analyst Avril Wu. “While Samsung has kept its shipment title through the year, it is strug-gling against Apple in the high-end market and being pushed out of the mid-range and low-end segments by Chinese competitors. Facing challenges on two fronts, Samsung’s smartphone business will operate in an increasingly dif-ficult situation in the near future.

Closely trailing Samsung in global shipments is Apple, which remains as the dominant and most profit-able vendor in the high-end mar-ket. As for Chinese brands, they are expanding overseas to gain market share. Huawei’s shipments surpassed 100 million units this year and became the third leading vendor on account of its export efforts. Xiaomi and Lenovo are also branching into the emerging markets.”

The Galaxy S7 has a lot riding on it. Samsung needs to make it a HuGE success after the worse than expected performance of this year's Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 EDGE. In order to do this Sam-sung will most likley return to the drawing board and vastly recali-brate the overall design, look and finish of the handsets -- because there will almost certainly be two, and both will have curved EDGE displays as standard.

"unlike the Galaxy S6 which launched in both regular and curved screen Edge variants, the Galaxy S7 will reportedly launch with the curved screen as stand-

ard, ditching the regular display altogether," reports Stuff. "The report, courtesy of Vietnamese site Samsung Viet, also claims that the S7 will land in both 5.2in and 5.7in models. If true, then these handsets are likely to be called the Galaxy S7 Edge and S7 Edge Plus respectively."

A LOT of people are wondering about Samsung’s Android Marsh-mallow plans and while the com-pany has confirmed it will be updating its Gal

xy S6, Galaxy S6 EDGE and Gal-axy Note 5 with Android M very soon there are plenty of other handsets in the Android Kingdom that people are interested in.

Thus far Samsung hasn’t com-mented officially on its plans to bring Android M to any older handsets and the company’s track record with updates is patchy at best. Still, Phone Arena has got-ten hold of some leaked informa-tion that shines a partial light on what we MIGHT see happen re: Marshmallow inside the next sev-eral months.●