<div class="source"><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/leah-ginsberg/" rel="author">Leah Ginsberg</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/lginzy">@lginzy</a></div>
Would you rather have a house or a handbag? If you have to choose, you can&#8217;t afford the Hermès white Himalaya crocodile diamond Birkin bag that Christie&#8217;s just unloaded for $379,261, making it the most expensive handbag ever sold at auction.
The exclusive white Himalaya Birkin, handmade from Niloticus crocodile with more than 240 diamonds on its 18-karat-gold hardware, is routinely in the top spot for most expensive bag — this year&#8217;s titleholder (sold in Hong Kong) knocked the crown off another white Himalaya Birkin that <a class="inline_asset" title="https://news.artnet.com/market/most-expensive-bag-ever-sold-2016-507656" href="https://news.artnet.com/market/most-expensive-bag-ever-sold-2016-507656" target="_self">sold for a little over $300,000 in 2016</a>.
<div id="attachment_126745" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-126745" class="wp-image-126745 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Expensive_Handbag_in_the_World_sold_at_Christies_Hong_Kong_on_31_May_2017.600x400.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="400" />Hermès matte white Himalaya Niloticus crocodile diamond Birkin sold for more than $379,000 at Christie&#8217;s in Hong Kong</div>
Celebrities, of course, love the bag. David Beckham, who is worth $350 million, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/17/david-beckham-gave-wife-victoria-an-expensive-hermes-birkin-bag.html" target="_self">bought his clothing designer wife, Victoria, an albino Nilo crocodile Himalayan Birkin</a> in 2008 for a reported £80,000 (or about $100,000). Kim Kardashian has also been spotted with the Himalayan.
<div id="attachment_126746" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-126746" class="wp-image-126746 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/David-Victoria.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="335" />Photo: Flickr.</div>
The Himalayan is so-named because the coloring resembles the famous mountain range, and it&#8217;s &#8220;possibly the rarest and most desirable handbag in the world,&#8221; according to Hermès expert <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.vogue.com/article/most-expensive-hermes-birkin" href="http://www.vogue.com/article/most-expensive-hermes-birkin" target="_self">Jane Finds</a>.
<div id="dart_wrapper_responsiverectangle" class="dart_wrapper dart_ads_noniframe_responsiverectangle badge-ad"></div>
&#8220;Hermès only very rarely—and very thoughtfully—creates unique pieces of this caliber,&#8221; says Finds. <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.christies.com/features/Deconstructed-The-Himalaya-Birkin-7219-1.aspx" href="http://www.christies.com/features/Deconstructed-The-Himalaya-Birkin-7219-1.aspx" target="_self">Christie&#8217;s</a> estimates only one or two of the bags are handmade per year.
The bag is so rare and expensive in part because white or albino crocodiles are hard to come by and the dying process for the bag is painstaking.
Even the simplest of Birkin bags <a class="inline_asset" title="http://fortune.com/2015/06/23/hermes-birkin-investment/" href="http://fortune.com/2015/06/23/hermes-birkin-investment/" target="_self">start at about $10,000</a> and are famous for their often months- or years-long waiting lists to purchase.
But Birkins aren&#8217;t just fashion statements or folly — these bags only <a class="inline_asset" title="http://time.com/4182246/hermes-birkin-bag-investment-gold/" href="http://time.com/4182246/hermes-birkin-bag-investment-gold/" target="_self">appreciate in value</a> with time.
Just ask Victoria Beckham. She reportedly has 100 Birkins in a collection that&#8217;s estimated to be worth <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.vogue.com/article/birkin-celebrity-style-kim-kardashian-west-victoria-beckham" href="http://www.vogue.com/article/birkin-celebrity-style-kim-kardashian-west-victoria-beckham" target="_self">$2 million</a>.

You know you’re rich when you buy this — a $379,261 handbag is the most expensive ever sold at auction

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/robert-ferris/" rel="author">Robert Ferris</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/RobertoFerris">@RobertoFerris</a>
<ul>
<li>Elon Musk said Thursday he will leave his positions on three presidential councils after Trump said the U.S. will leave the Paris Agreement.</li>
<li>Leaving the agreement is &#8220;not good for America or for the world,&#8221; the Tesla and Space X CEO said in a tweet</li>
</ul>
<div class="group">
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<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/elon-musk/" target="_self">Elon Musk</a> said Thursday he will leave his positions on three presidential councils.
Musk&#8217;s decision follows an announcement from <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" target="_self">President Donald Trump</a> that <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/01/trump-announces-paris-climate-agreement-decision.html" target="_self">the U.S. will back out of the Paris climate accord.</a>
Leaving the agreement is &#8220;not good for America or for the world,&#8221; the <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA" target="_self" data-gdsid="74213" data-inline-quote-symbol="TSLA">Tesla</a> and Space X CEO said in a tweet.
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</div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/870369915894546432">June 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Musk had served on councils advising Trump on business, manufacturing jobs and infrastructure. He had defended his decision to serve the president, despite criticism. However, on Wednesday Musk warned <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/31/elon-musk-threatens-to-leave-white-house-councils-if-trump-drops-paris-accord.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/31/elon-musk-threatens-to-leave-white-house-councils-if-trump-drops-paris-accord.html" target="_self">he might quit</a> if Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement.
The landmark climate deal calls for the U.S. to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by between 26 and 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, among other things.
Trump has said the Paris accord was negotiated to have terms that are unrealistic and unfair to the U.S.
The president is looking to withdraw from the accord and immediately restart talks to set targets that would be more fair. However, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/01/france-italy-germany-firmly-believe-paris-climate-deal-cant-be-renegotiated-reuters-citing-statement.html" target="_self">French, German and Italian officials said they do not believe the agreement can be renegotiated</a>.
The accord was the result of more than 20 years of negotiations, and the only countries in 
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that have not signed on to the deal are Syria and Nicaragua.
Proponents of the deal expect it will help bolster businesses like those that Musk runs. Both electric cars and solar energy can be used to help reach the targets proposed in the deal.
Musk isn&#8217;t the only CEO who has pushed Trump to uphold the deal. Others include <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_self" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple</a> and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/MSFT" target="_self" data-gdsid="25619" data-inline-quote-symbol="MSFT">Microsoft</a>.
Silicon Valley investor Doug Derwin, who <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/17/this-is-man-spending-millions-to-tell-elon-musk-to-dump-trump.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/17/this-is-man-spending-millions-to-tell-elon-musk-to-dump-trump.html" target="_self">had pledged</a> to spend up to $2 million of his own money on a campaign to pressure Musk to quit the councils, welcomed the news.
&#8220;Thanks, Elon, for doing the right thing,&#8221; said Derwin, in a statement sent to CNBC on Thursday. &#8220;Welcome to the resistance.&#8221;
<a href="http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000623723">Watch: Macron says Paris climate deal &#8216;irreversible&#8217;</a>

Elon Musk is leaving presidential councils over withdrawal from Paris accord

GABORONE (Reuters) &#8211; Australia&#8217;s Kimberley Diamond Ltd (KDL) has shut its Lerala Diamond Mine in Botswana citing weak market conditions, leaving 130 workers unemployed, a local newspaper reported Thursday.
Botswana Mine Workers Union national organising coordinator, Abel Buka told Mmegi Newspaper that Kimberley had briefed workers in a letter that it was closing operations after failing to agree a funding deal with a Chinese financier.
&#8220;The general manager engaged Kimberly on May 29, four days after workers were supposed to receive their salaries and he was told that the company had no money, so just close the mine and send the workers home,&#8221; he was quoted as saying.
Lerala Mine was opened in 2008 and has shut twice owing to weak sales. Kimberley had targeted an annual output of 360,000 carats over seven years.
No-one at Kimberley was available to comment and its website, where it usually provides updates, has been suspended.
(Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo, editing by David Evans)
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Botswana Lerala Diamond Mine shuts down – newspaper

Fitch Ratings-Hong Kong-01 June 2017: Fitch Ratings has affirmed South Africa&#8217;s Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at &#8216;BB+&#8217; with a Stable Outlook. The issue ratings on South Africa&#8217;s senior unsecured foreign- and local-currency bonds and on the sukuk trust certificates issued by RSA Sukuk No. 1 Trust have also been affirmed at &#8216;BB+&#8217;. The Short-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency IDRs and the rating on the short-term local-currency securities have been affirmed at &#8216;B&#8217;. The Country Ceiling has been affirmed at &#8216;BBB-&#8216;.
KEY RATING DRIVERS 
South Africa&#8217;s ratings are weighed down by low trend GDP growth, sizeable contingent liabilities and deteriorating governance. Positively, they are supported by deep local capital markets, a favourable government debt structure and a track record of fairly prudent fiscal and monetary policy.
A cabinet reshuffle at the end of March, which triggered an earlier downgrade of South Africa&#8217;s ratings, is likely to undermine governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), weaken fiscal consolidation and reduce private sector investment as a result of weaker business confidence. While efforts to improve the SOE governance framework will continue, implementation decisions, for example on appointments of senior SOE management, will hamper these efforts and could lead to weaker financial positions of SOEs and higher contingent liabilities for the government.
As the new Finance Minister has emphasised, the government&#8217;s commitment to existing fiscal targets still stands. As a result, it is unlikely that the government will raise its expenditure ceilings which have served as a key anchor for fiscal policy. The government is also likely to implement some tightening if, as is expected, revenue underperforms but the adjustment will be insufficient to keep deficit targets on track.
Senior ANC and government leaders have emphasised that the government&#8217;s recent rhetoric of &#8220;radical socioeconomic transformation&#8221; signals no fundamental change and that the government remains focused on the long-standing goal of inclusive growth. Documents released ahead of the ANC policy conference in June also indicate policy continuity, including on the sensitive issue of land expropriation. Severe tensions within the ANC also limit the ability to make radical policy changes but they also undermine policy predictability as it is unclear which factions will prevail on individual policy issues.
In-fighting within the ANC will remain particularly strong ahead of the electoral conference in December 2017, when the ANC will select a new party president. The new party leader will likely become the country&#8217;s president after national elections in 2019 or earlier. Even after the electoral conference, policy will still be influenced by competing factions in the ANC and the government will juggle multiple complex policy objectives, in particular improving business confidence and addressing the high degree of inequality.
South African GDP growth remains a key rating weakness, with a five-year average of just 1.6% compared with a &#8216;BB&#8217; category median of 3.5%. Growth fell to just 0.3% in 2016 and is expected to rise only moderately to just 1% in 2017 and 1.8% in 2018, as political uncertainty will continue to weigh on private investment. The recovery reflects lower inflation combined with stable wage growth, which will boost real consumer income. In addition, a record harvest in 2017 will boost growth after a severe drought had weighed on GDP growth in 2016.
The government&#8217;s February budget projected the consolidated national government deficit to narrow to 3.1% of GDP in FY17/18 (year end March) and 2.8% in FY18/19 from 3.4% in FY16/17. However, this relied on optimistic GDP growth forecasts of 1.3% for 2017 and 2% for 2018 and benign assumptions for tax multipliers. Particularly the gains from tax measures of 0.6% of GDP are uncertain. We expect the government to announce some expenditure cuts in its medium-term budget policy statement in October, but this will not fully offset the tax shortfall. As a result, we foresee a consolidated national government deficit of 3.3% in FY17/18 and 3.1% FY18/19.
South Africa&#8217;s general government debt, at 52.6% of GDP (including local government debt) in March 2017, is above the &#8216;BB&#8217; and &#8216;BBB&#8217; category medians of 51% and 41%, respectively. We expect debt to continue rising over the next two years, to 55.1% of GDP in FYE19. However, the low share of foreign currency debt in total debt, at 11.5% compared with a &#8216;BB&#8217; median of 51%, and the long average maturity of its bonds of 14.7 years reduce the risk of financing difficulties.
The government has guarantees for SOEs, independent power producer contracts and public-private partnerships of ZAR445 billion (10.1% of GDP). In addition, at FYE16 SOEs&#8217; debt without an explicit government guarantee totalled ZAR463 billion (10.5% of GDP). Given the weak state of SOE finances, the problems in SOE governance and the importance of SOEs for the country&#8217;s economy and politics, the risk that some of this debt will land on the sovereign balance sheet is substantial.
The risks are illustrated by the problems of South African Airways, which the Ministry of Finance deems technically insolvent, although its liabilities are small. Eskom, as the biggest recipient of government guarantees, received significant capital injections from the government in 2015 but is not expected to require further support in the near term. South Africa&#8217;s plan to build 9.6GW of nuclear electricity capacity, to be implemented by Eskom, could raise government exposures significantly. However, a court decision in April has significantly delayed progress towards signing procurement contracts, as the government will need to relaunch consultations.
South Africa&#8217;s current-account deficit has narrowed to 3.2% of GDP in 2016 from a peak of 5.9% in 2013 and is likely to remain around 3% in 2017 and 2018. Weak growth of domestic demand, particularly import-intensive private investment, has led to import compression. A weak rand has also improved the competitiveness of domestic goods and services. Recent strengthening of prices for some of South Africa&#8217;s key export commodities will also support export receipts and the strong harvest will reduce the need for food imports. Reserves are low relative to financing requirements and the high commodity share in exports adds to volatility in export receipts, but the fully flexible exchange rate will act as a buffer for external financing shocks.
Most indicators of economic development are in line with &#8216;BB&#8217; category medians. GDP per capita at market prices is estimated at USD5,246 for 2016, compared with a median of USD5,058. The World Bank&#8217;s governance indicator, at the 59th percentile, is well above the &#8216;BB&#8217; median but this may not adequately reflect governance issues that were highlighted in the recent state of capture report by the public prosecutor and governance may deteriorate as a result of the government reshuffle. The rating is supported by a sound banking sector, which has a Fitch Bank Systemic Risk Indicator of &#8216;bbb&#8217;.
SOVEREIGN RATING MODEL (SRM) and QUALITATIVE OVERLAY (QO) 
Fitch&#8217;s proprietary SRM assigns South Africa a score equivalent to a rating of &#8216;BBB&#8217; on the Long-Term Foreign-Currency IDR scale.
Fitch&#8217;s sovereign rating committee adjusted the output from the SRM to arrive at the final Long-Term Foreign-Currency IDR by applying its QO, relative to rated peers, as follows:
Macroeconomic Performance, Policies and Prospect: -1 notch, to reflect South Africa&#8217;s weak growth prospects relative to the &#8216;BB&#8217; and &#8216;BBB&#8217; category medians, with important repercussions for public finances.
Structural Features: -1 notch, to reflect the expected deterioration in governance standards, particularly related to SOEs.
Fitch&#8217;s SRM is the agency&#8217;s proprietary multiple regression rating model that employs 18 variables based on three year-centred averages, including one year of forecasts, to produce a score equivalent to a Long-Term Foreign-Currency IDR. Fitch&#8217;s QO is a forward-looking qualitative framework designed to allow for adjustment to the SRM output to assign the final rating, reflecting factors within our criteria that are not fully quantifiable and/or not fully reflected in the SRM.
RATING SENSITIVITIES 
The following risk factors could, individually or collectively, result in negative rating action:
&#8211; A marked increase in the government debt/GDP ratio or in contingent liabilities;
&#8211; A further deterioration in South Africa&#8217;s trend GDP growth, for example, due to sustained uncertainty about economic policy;
&#8211; Rising net external debt to levels that raise the potential for serious financing strains.
The following risk factors could, individually or collectively, result in positive rating action:
&#8211; A substantial strengthening in trend GDP growth;
&#8211; An improvement in governance that is supportive of public finances and the business climate;
&#8211; A marked narrowing in the budget deficit and a reduction in the government debt/GDP ratio.
KEY ASSUMPTIONS 
Fitch expects global economic trends and commodity prices to develop as outlined in Fitch&#8217;s Global Economic Outlook.

Fitch Affirms South Africa at junk; Outlook Stable

Turkish mobile operator Turkcell (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TCELL.IS">TCELL.IS</a>) said on Thursday a $4.2 billion lawsuit against South Africa&#8217;s MTN (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MTNJ.J">MTNJ.J</a>) over a disputed Iran license would be heard in a South African court after years of delays.
Turkcell first sued Johannesburg-based MTN in a U.S. court in 2012, alleging the South African mobile company used bribery and wrongful influence to win a lucrative Iran license that was originally awarded to Turkcell.
The case was later withdrawn from U.S. courts and filed in South Africa 2013, where it has been caught up in legal wrangling. MTN has rejected the allegations. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
<blockquote>&#8220;We are delighted that the case is finally coming to trial in South Africa,&#8221; Serhat Demir, a Turkcell vice president, said in a statement.</blockquote>
&#8220;Turkcell will be seeking the earliest possible trial date, and looks forward to vindicating its claims before the South African courts.&#8221;
Turkcell&#8217;s claim was delayed by objections from MTN and Turkcell&#8217;s responses to the objections, Turkcell said. On May 5, a South African high court rejected another 30 objections from MTN, clearing the way for the case to go to trial, it said.
In papers filed in November 2013 with the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, Turkcell claimed that MTN &#8220;acted wrongfully&#8221; and interfered with Turkcell&#8217;s relationships with the Iranian government.
<blockquote>MTN previously appointed a retired British judge to lead an external investigation into Turkcell&#8217;s allegations. That probe dismissed the accusations as &#8220;a fabric of lies, distortions and inventions&#8221;.</blockquote>
Shares in MTN fell 2 percent to 115 rand as of 1034 GMT, lagging behind a 0.9 percent decline in its closet rival Vodacom Group (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VODJ.J">VODJ.J</a>).
(Reporting by David Dolan and Can Sezer; Additional reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng in Johannesburg; Editing by Ece Toksabay/Keith Weir)

Turkey’s Turkcell says $4.2 billion suit against South Africa’s MTN to go to trial

Tanisha Heiberg | JOHANNESBURG
South African petrochemicals group Sasol will apply to postpone a 2020 deadline for meeting stricter air pollution laws, the company said on Wednesday.
South Africa, the continent&#8217;s worst polluter and most advanced economy, emits millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, much of it from coal-fired power plants that still provide most of its energy.
Sasol said it would apply for a postponement for some of its plants to 2025 when it would be able to meet most of the new plant standards.
<blockquote>&#8220;The reason for postponements is in order to help us or give us time or provide the opportunity to implement the projects over a period of time,&#8221; said Sasol executive vice president for operations, Bernard Klingenberg.</blockquote>
The company said challenges in reducing sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide emissions could further delay compliance past 2025 and may require further reprieves.
<blockquote>&#8220;There will be postponement applications again, particularly in SO2 (sulphur dioxide) and H2S (hydrogen sulphide), where today we don&#8217;t have credible viable solutions and we need to work on those,&#8221; said Klingenberg.</blockquote>
The Department of Environmental Affairs had granted postponements in 2015 to applicants including Sasol, Eskom and Anglo American Platinum until 2020 to comply with the new minimum emissions standards for air quality laws.
<blockquote>&#8220;The large majority of the minimum emissions status for 2015 we were able to comply with but in some areas we need time to implement projects,&#8221; said Klingenberg.</blockquote>
South Africa&#8217;s government wants to reduce harmful emissions by 34 percent by 2020, with the minimum emissions standards for air quality laws covering particulate, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.
(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Mark Potter)
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S.Africa’s Sasol to apply for delay to 2020 air pollution deadline

KINSHASA (Reuters) &#8211; A delegation from the International Monetary Fund is in Democratic Republic of Congo to discuss possible financial aid to counter high inflation and rapid currency depreciation, the prime minister said on Wednesday.
The IMF suspended its last financial assistance to Congo &#8211; a $560 million loan programme &#8211; in 2012 after the government failed to provide sufficient details on the sale of state mining assets to an offshore company.
In an address to parliament, Prime Minister Bruno Tshibala said the IMF might provide balance of payments and budgetary support as Congo grapples with inflation expected to near 30 percent this year and a currency that has lost half its value since last year.
IMF assistance could help Africa&#8217;s top copper producer to attract donors who have been put off in recent years by a tense political climate and reports of human rights violations. The IMF representative in Congo declined to comment.
Earlier this year, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde took the rare step of writing directly to Congo President Joseph Kabila to propose the visit, underscoring concerns about an economy hit over the last two years by low commodity prices.
An IMF delegation last visited Congo in June 2016 as the government petitioned bilateral and multilateral donors for assistance, but those overtures failed amid criticisms of the government&#8217;s human rights record.
(Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Edward McAllister and Andrew Bolton)

Congo in discussions with IMF over possible support: PM

Barclays (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BARC.L">BARC.L</a>) cut its stake in Barclays Africa Group (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BGAJ.J">BGAJ.J</a>) to 15 percent sooner than expected on Thursday, ending more than 90 years as a major presence in the continent.
The British bank, which under Chief Executive Jes Staley is firmly focused on Britain and the United States, said it was selling 2.2 billion pounds ($2.83 billion) worth of shares in Barclays Africa Group due to strong investor demand.
Barclays had said on Wednesday it would sell shares worth 1.5 billion pounds in its second such sale since announcing plans to offload most of its African business.
The bigger share sale initially lifted shares in Barclays, which is partly relying on the funds raised to meet capital requirements identified as a concern by the Bank of England in November. By 0835 GMT, the shares were down 0.1 percent.
The sale is expected to mean an increase of approximately 27 basis points to Barclays&#8217; core capital ratio, a key measure of financial strength, which was 12.5 percent at 31 March 2017 .
&#8220;We still see this deal as utterly transformational for Barclays’ capital position, which in turn offers specific opportunities for earnings enhancement,&#8221; analyst Ian Gordon at Investec wrote in a note following the announcement.
Barclays, whose shares were trading up 0.5 percent at 0740 GMT, said on Wednesday that South African pension fund Public Investment Corporation would buy 7 percent of the shares, raising its holding to 14 pct according to Thomson Reuters data.
The Barclays Africa Group shares, which were up nearly 3 percent at 143 rand at 0835 GMT, will be priced at 132 rand a share, the bank said.
That represents a 5 pct discount to Wednesday&#8217;s closing price of 139 rand and will raise an aggregate 2.2 billion pounds, the bank said, adding it will then place an additional 12.7 million shares in a black economic empowerment scheme.
Barclays said in March 2016 it would sell most of its 62.3 pct stake in Barclays Africa Group, giving itself two to three years to complete the sale. Its first sell down of 12.2 percent was completed in May 2016, but the bank had since been hindered by regulatory delays and political upheaval in South Africa.
Since taking over 18 months ago, Staley has scaled back the bank&#8217;s geographic footprint and emphasized investment banking, although his attempts to revitalize this business have been clouded by investigations in the U.S. and Britain.
Staley has also faced criticism from investors following his attempts to unmask a whistleblower, which Barclays insiders fear could unseat him if the findings of inquiries are damning.
Barclays also faces regulatory obstacles, with an ongoing probe by Britain&#8217;s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into its 2008 cash call at the height of the financial crisis and allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over mortgage mis-selling.
Analysts at KBW said the completion of the sale earlier than expected was positive for the bank&#8217;s capital ratio.
&#8220;However this still remains far from market leading (still below Credit Suisse or Deutsche Bank), whilst a number of headwinds remain outstanding,&#8221; they added in a note.
(Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Alexander Smith)

Barclays makes early African exit with $2.8 billion share sale

NAIROBI
Fuel shortages have paralysed the small central African nation of Burundi, threatening further damage to an economy already moribund after years of political violence and raising questions about the role of the country&#8217;s only oil importer.
The problem has damaged two big foreign investors, Kenya&#8217;s KenolKobil and South Africa&#8217;s Engen, a subsidiary of Malaysian parastatal Petronas.
The shortages, which forced the government to introduce rationing on May 16, have paralysed commerce and caused food prices to jump by around a third, raising the prospect of a wave of economic migration. More than 400,000 people have already fled Burundi into the volatile central African region.
Anti-corruption campaigners said the fuel shortages became severe after Burundian company Interpetrol Trading Ltd. received the lions&#8217; share of dollars that are allocated by the central bank to import fuel.
&#8220;The oil sector is undermined by favouritism and lack of transparency, because the rare hard currency available in the central bank reserves is given to one oil importer,&#8221; said Gabriel Rufyiri, head of anti-graft organisation OLUCOME.
The central bank declined to answer Reuters&#8217; questions.
Interpetrol&#8217;s lawyer, Sylvestre Banzubaze, said: &#8220;I am not associated with the day-to-day operations and only intervene on legal questions. You should address your questions directly to Interpetrol sources.&#8221;
He did not respond when asked for further contacts and the company does not have a website.
Rufyiri said that government sources told him that the bulk of dollars for fuel purchasing had been allocated to Interpetrol since March this year.
Reuters confirmed with two other sources that Interpetrol received the bulk of dollar allocations. Other companies only received a small fraction of the dollars they needed, the sources said, severely damaging their businesses.
Earlier this month, South African petrol company Engen confirmed it had sold its assets in Burundi to Interpetrol.
Engen declined to comment further. KenolKobil also declined to comment, but Burundian citizens say most of their petrol stations have been closed for three months.
SOLE IMPORTER
Interpetrol is now the sole oil importer and runs all the fuel storage tanks in the country, said an industry source.
Banzubaze said there was &#8220;no link&#8221; between Interpetrol&#8217;s shareholders and any member of the government.
But a 2011 U.S. State Department report described attempts by senior government officials to pressurise judges into dropping a corruption case against the company, owned by brothers Munir and Tariq Bashir. Neither the government nor Interpetrol&#8217;s lawyer responded when asked about the status of the case.
Government officials blame dollar shortages on aid cuts that donors imposed after President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a third term in 2015, triggering a wave of political violence.
&#8220;These days, fuel importers don&#8217;t get enough dollars to bring petroleum products,&#8221; said Daniel Mpitabakana, the government&#8217;s director of fuel management.
Burundi&#8217;s economy shrank by 0.5 percent last year, and the International Monetary Fund expects no growth at all this year and 0.1 percent next year.
Black market prices for fuel range between 5,000 to 6,000 Burundi francs per litre, vendors said, double the official price of 2,200 francs.
The street exchange rate is 2,600 francs to the dollar, although it is just over 1,700 to the dollar at the central bank. Only the central bank can receive dollar deposits and allocate dollars to businesses.
In the capital, queues at empty petrol stations snaked around the block. One civil servant said he had taken the last three days off work to search for gas.
&#8220;I have no fuel for days and I don’t know if by chance will get it today,&#8221; he said, asking not to be named.
Burundi has also been battered by drought and almost two years of political instability. Hundreds of people were killed and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee abroad during the political violence, which still sometimes erupts in low-level clashes.
Almost 3 million of Burundi&#8217;s 11 million citizens are dependent on food aid, the U.N. says.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)

Burundi paralysed by fuel shortages as leaders blame lack of dollars

Nqobile Dludla | JOHANNESBURG
South African retailer and wholesaler Spar Group on Wednesday reported a small fall in half-year earnings per share after issuing shares to fund foreign acquisitions and to settle its share schemes aimed at black investors.
Headline earnings per share fell to 475.5 cents for the six months ended March 31 from 480 cents a year earlier.
Headline earnings per share is the main profit measure in South Africa and strips out certain one-off items.
&#8220;HEPS declined marginally, fundamentally due to the higher weighted average number of shares as a result of the issue of shares in April 2016 to part fund the foreign acquisitions, as well as settling the BBBEE share schemes in August 2016,&#8221; the group said in a statement.
The firm, which is expanding into Europe to diversify earnings away from South Africa&#8217;s volatile rand currency, bought Spar Switzerland in 2016.
Sales rose 12.6 percent to 47.4 billion rand ($3.62 billion), slowing from 16.7 percent growth a year earlier.
Spar faced tough trading conditions which are being aggravated by the uncertain economic and political landscape in South Africa as well as the appreciation of the rand against the euro.
S&amp;P Global Ratings and Fitch cut South Africa, whose economy is expected to grow by 1 percent in 2017, to &#8220;junk&#8221; status in April and Moody&#8217;s put it on review for a downgrade after a cabinet reshuffle in which Pravin Gordhan was fired as finance minister.
The board declared an interim dividend of 240 cents, down from 255 cents a year earlier.
&#8220;In South Africa, the tough trading environment is likely to persist for the balance of this year, particularly with the political uncertainty undermining consumer and business confidence,&#8221; Spar said.
The outlook in BWG Group, the Irish retailer Spar bought in 2014, is &#8220;cautious&#8221; due to Brexit uncertainties, it said.
($1 = 13.1100 rand)
(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Jason Neely)

South Africa’s Spar Group reports slip in H1 profit

Marcel von Aulock has resigned as executive director of Tsogo Sun effective 1 June 2017 and from his employment with the hospitality group with effect from 30 June 2017.
Von Aulock has served in various capacities in the management of Tsogo Sun for some 18 years and Chief Executive Officer for the last six years.
[bc_video video_id=&#8221;5446568789001&#8243; account_id=&#8221;1571595826001&#8243; player_id=&#8221;default&#8221;]
Jacques Booysen will replace von Aulock as Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 July 2017. Booysen has been with the group for ten years. For the past six years he attended directors’ meetings as an invitee as head of the group&#8217;s gaming division and in that capacity has long been von Aulock&#8217;s natural successor.

Marcel von Aulock quits Tsogo Sun

Lin Taylor | Thomson Reuters Foundation
A &#8216;period emoji&#8217; on mobile devices could help break the taboo of menstruation, according to an international child rights group, which is pushing for an icon to help highlight the stigma that girls experience when they menstruate.
Menstruation is still taboo in many countries around the world, where it&#8217;s often considered embarrassing or shameful. Women refer to periods using some 5,000 euphemisms, such as &#8220;on the rag&#8221; and &#8220;Bloody Mary&#8221;, a 2016 survey of 90,000 people in 190 countries found.
<blockquote>&#8220;Girls and women have told us about the embarrassment and shame they suffer when it&#8217;s their period. We need to make it easier to talk about something that is part of everyday life,&#8221; said Danny Vannucchi, Plan International&#8217;s campaigns manager.</blockquote>
While there are symbols for avocado, a telescope, and even a unicorn, menstruation is not represented as an &#8217;emoji&#8217;, a small icon on smartphones and tablets commonly used to express emotions or physical things.
But that is something Plan International wants to change. The charity last week launched five &#8216;period emojis&#8217; and invited the public to vote for their preferred icon. As of Monday, more than 15,000 people had voted, it said.
The winning design will be submitted to coding consortium Unicode for consideration, which distributes emojis across mobile devices.
&#8220;We&#8217;re not saying that an emoji would solve all of these problems, but it will start a conversation, and raise awareness of the challenges women and girls face worldwide – and that can only be a good thing,&#8221; Vannucchi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
He said issues related to reproduction and the sexual health of girls are often considered &#8220;dirty&#8221;, so girls are forced to keep quiet about menstruation which adds to the taboo.
&#8220;It&#8217;s completely normal, but in many settings there is still a false belief that menstruation is dirty and shameful,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;These taboos can have a damaging impact on the lives of girls and adolescents, from missing school because they face bullying or unfair treatment, to causing infections due to a lack of menstrual hygiene education and products.&#8221;
On any given day more than 800 million women between 15 and 49 have their period. However, globally 1.25 billion women do not have access to a toilet during menstruation, according to the charity WaterAid.
The United Nations estimates that due to a lack of facilities, one in 10 girls in Africa will miss school during their period and will eventually drop out of school as a result.
(Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women&#8217;s rights, climate change and resilience. Visit <a href="http://news.trust.org/">news.trust.org</a> to see more stories)

Charity calls for ‘period emoji’ to address taboo of menstruation

Oludare Mayowa | LAGOS
Nigeria&#8217;s central bank said on Tuesday it will sell $100 million at a special wholesale spot and forwards auction to improve dollar liquidity in the foreign exchange market and curb pressure on the local currency.
The bank, in a notice to commercial lenders, said the dollar auction would be both for spot and forward settlements and would be settled within the next 60 days.
Africa&#8217;s biggest economy shrank by 1.5 percent in 2016 in its first annual recession in 25 years, hit by a shortage of hard currency and lower revenue from its dominant oil sector as world crude prices remained under pressure.
The central bank has been intervening on the official market to try to narrow the spread between the official interbank and black markets. It has sold around $4 billion since February, but analysts doubt that this pace can be sustained.
Nigeria&#8217;s foreign exchange reserves had dropped 0.87 percent to $30.49 billion by May 25 from a month ago.
The local currency was quoted at 380.33 per dollar at the investor window on Tuesday, according to the market regulator FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange.
It was quoted at 382 a dollar on the black market, while commercial lenders quoted the local currency at 305.85 per dollar on the interbank market.
(Reporting by Oludare Mayowa, editing by David Evans)
&nbsp;

Nigeria’s central bank to sell $100 mln at forward, spot forex auction

Tiisetso Motsoeneng | JOHANNESBURG
Botswana&#8217;s state-owned power utility has invited bids to build a 100 megawatt (MW) solar power plant to boost energy security in the diamond-rich southern African country.
In a document published on its website, Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) said it expects energy demand to more than double to 1,359 MW by 2035 from around 600 MW.
&#8220;BPC would therefore like to engage companies into a joint venture for the development, implementation and operation of a 100 MW solar power plant with suitable storage capacity,&#8221; it said.
The development is expected to start two years from the appointment of a preferred partner.
Botswana is facing power supply deficit and relies on electricity imports from South Africa and Mozambique, though the 300 MW expansion of its coal-fired Morupule B power plant could pave the way to self-sufficiency in electricity generation.
However, the expansion of Morupule B, which currently generates about 260 MW, has been stalled by a dispute over an $800 million guarantee between the contractors and government.
(Writing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by David Goodman)
http://cnbc.africa/news/special-report/2017/02/20/solar-powered-africa-never-more-possible-and-less-expensive/

Botswana power utility invites bids to build 100 MW solar plant

Saheli Roy Choudhury | @sahelirc
HYDERABAD, India — Voice-powered virtual assistants, underpinned by artificial intelligence, like <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_self" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple&#8217;s</a> Siri, <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AMZN" target="_self" data-gdsid="9399" data-inline-quote-symbol="AMZN">Amazon&#8217;s</a> Alexa, <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL" target="_self" data-gdsid="19004" data-inline-quote-symbol="GOOGL">Google</a> Assistant and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/MSFT" target="_self" data-gdsid="25619" data-inline-quote-symbol="MSFT">Microsoft&#8217;s</a> Cortana are becoming regular fixtures in people&#8217;s lives. They&#8217;re present at homes, on devices and watches and in cars, sending driving directions, weather updates, meeting reminders and the occasional joke or two when prompted.
http://cnbc.africa/news/technology/2017/01/04/amazon-is-selling-tvs-that-you-can-talk-to/
Beyond that, they remain limited in their ability to hold conversations with users, the same way real people might. Efforts are on, however, to use machine learning and real-time big data analytics to make virtual assistants understand multiple languages, accents, contexts and nuances to hold more human-like conversations.
International Data Corporation <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS42439617" href="http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS42439617" target="_self">predicts global spending on cognitive and AI solutions will see significant investments</a> over the next several years, and could achieve a compound annual growth rate of 54.4 percent through 2020.
Microsoft, for example, is turning to an unlikely group to bridge the gap between human-machine interactions: bilinguals. Of specific interest is the practice of code-mixing, which is when speakers switch back and forth between multiple languages in a single sentence or conversation. It&#8217;s commonly found in multilingual societies.
A handful of Microsoft researchers in <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/india/" target="_self">India</a> started Project Mélange, where they are studying the use of code-mixing among Indians online. They are trying to figure out how virtual assistants might be taught to respond to a user switching between, for example, English and Hindi in a conversation.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-41936 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/microsoft.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="490" />
&#8220;Compartmentalization of mixed languages (by multilinguals) have gone away with each coming generation,&#8221; Kalika Bali, a researcher at Microsoft, told CNBC in an interview. &#8220;So younger people use mixed languages in more and more phases of their lives.&#8221;
&#8220;To have a digital assistant, something like Cortana, you have to be able to understand (the user base),&#8221; she said, adding current systems weren&#8217;t trained to pick up multiple languages in a single conversation.
Microsoft&#8217;s philosophy is that virtual assistants should not be too intrusive on a user&#8217;s space and time, and only show up when they need to, Sundar Srinivasan, general manager of the AI division in India at Microsoft, said in a recent interview. Srinivasan&#8217;s team works on Cortana and Microsoft&#8217;s search engine Bing at the company&#8217;s development center in Hyderabad.
&#8220;A personal assistant is only as effective as you want her to be,&#8221; he said.
Cortana is available on Windows 10 and in selected smartphones running on the Windows operating software. It has about 140 million monthly active users versus about <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/10/microsoft-windows-10-on-500-million-devices.html" target="_self">500 million devices currently running Windows 10</a>. The program is not available in many regions, but Srinivasan said Microsoft plans to expand it into other markets and onto more devices in the future.
By comparison, Google Assistant is available on both Android and iOS platforms, which <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3725117" href="http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3725117" target="_self">support about 99.8 percent of all smartphones in the world</a>.
http://cnbc.africa/news/technology/2017/02/27/smartphones-dead-in-five-years/
Srinivasan explained that Cortana was not like other Microsoft products such as Office, where the company could add features as and when needed. Instead, Cortana &#8220;needs to really understand human beings, and the bar for that is very high because that means we have to train the assistant with lots of human speech data,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;It&#8217;s going to take us time.&#8221;
Bali said the researchers&#8217; code-mixing study was inspired by observations from an anthropologist who was looking at the use of technology among Urdu-speaking youth in Hyderabadi slums. They were found using the internet to befriend and interact with girls from Brazil, who primarily spoke Portuguese. English, however, was the primary language for that communication, which piqued Bali&#8217;s interest and she had asked to see the data collected by the anthropologist.
&#8220;When I started seeing this data, I saw that not only were they using this very pidgin English kind of thing, but (they were) effectively communicating with each other,&#8221; Bali said, referring to the type of code-mixing that was happening in these conversations.
The team looks at every aspect of code-mixing, including text, speech, understanding and recognition. Bali said they also look at generational variations and why people switch between languages in a single conversation — for example, sometimes it&#8217;s for humor and at other times it&#8217;s to change topics.
But it may take years before a voice-powered virtual assistant can eloquently switch back and forth in multiple languages to respond to users. The biggest challenge now for Bali and the researchers is getting access to adequate data sets for study.
&#8220;Trying to solve just mono-lingual natural language processing and understanding has taken years. Now we&#8217;re talking about mixed stuff and where are we going to get data from?&#8221; Bali said. &#8220;Because everything is data-driven. And what are we going to do? It just seemed like a very difficult problem to solve but we were all so excited about this that we just went on.&#8221;
Currently, the team uses data collected from Twitter to study how users would switch between languages. Studies, Bali said, already showed Indian men who spoke English and Hindi tended to switch to the latter when they had to express negative sentiments or abuse. Women who are having a conversation in English, however, tended to stick with that language even when the content took a negative turn.
Teaching machines to interpret code-mixing could also potentially lead to developments in areas of opinion mining, customization and a better interpretation of nuances and context, Bali said.
&#8220;I think this would definitely help to bridge the gap in the human-computer interaction. The fact that you can actually talk to a machine the way you would normally talk to your friend is something we still need to wrap our heads around.&#8221;
http://cnbc.africa/news/technology/2017/04/28/artificial-intelligence-will-replace-half-jobs-next-decade-says-widely-followed-technologist/

Microsoft researchers are trying to humanize virtual assistants

Nqobile Dludla | JOHANNESBURG
South Africa&#8217;s Sun International will boost its stake in Latin America-focused Sun Dreams, the casino and hotel operator said on Tuesday.
Its subsidiary Sun Latam and fellow stakeholder Nueva Inversiones Pacifico Sur Limitada (Pacifico) will buy out a 19.3 percent stake in Sun Dreams held by Chile&#8217;s Entretenimientos Del Sur Limitada (EDS).
Sun Latam will pay $63 million for its half of the stake, Sun International said, raising its holding in Sun Dreams to almost 65 percent. Pacifico&#8217;s stake will rise to 35 percent.
Sun Dreams was created last year when Sun International merged its Latin American business with Chile&#8217;s Dreams S.A.
EDS notified Sun International in March that it wished to proceed with a listing of Sun Dreams on the Santiago or New York stock market or sell its shares.
In addition to its African casinos and resorts, Sun International owns and operates casinos and hotels in a number of Latin American countries, including Chile, Panama and Colombia.
(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; editing by Jason Neely)
&nbsp;

S.Africa’s Sun International raises stake in Sun Dreams

ABIDJAN (Reuters) &#8211; Abundant rainfall fell last week in most of Ivory Coast&#8217;s main cocoa growing regions, sparking fears that flooding could hinder harvesting of what is otherwise expected to be a strong mid-crop, farmers said on Monday.
The mid-crop marketing season opened on April 1. The world&#8217;s top cocoa grower is now in its rainy season and heavy downpours are expected over the coming weeks.
&#8220;The soil is very wet. If that continues there will be flooding and we will lose a lot of cocoa,&#8221; said Etienne Yao, who farms on the outskirts of Aboisso in the southeast.
It rained most of the week in the southern region of Divo.
&#8220;We hope there will still be some sunshine, otherwise there will be damage in the plantations,&#8221; said farmer Amadou Diallo.
Regular heavy rain was also reported in the southern regions of Agboville and Tiassale.
In the western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa belt, farmers reported a good mix of two rain showers interspersed with periods of sunshine.
&#8220;Conditions are good and more and more beans are coming out of the bush,&#8221; said Lazare Ake, who farms near Soubre. &#8220;There will be a break in harvesting around a month from now because a lot of pods are ripening at the same time.&#8221;
In the centre-western region of Daloa, which account for about a quarter of national output, farmers reported patchy rainfall and sunny spells.
(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Joe Bavier and David Evans)

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International News

You know you’re rich when you buy this — a $379,261 handbag is the most expensive ever sold at auction

Elon Musk is leaving presidential councils over withdrawal from Paris accord

Botswana Lerala Diamond Mine shuts down – newspaper

Fitch Affirms South Africa at junk; Outlook Stable

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Barclays makes early African exit with $2.8 billion share sale

Burundi paralysed by fuel shortages as leaders blame lack of dollars

South Africa’s Spar Group reports slip in H1 profit

Marcel von Aulock quits Tsogo Sun

Charity calls for ‘period emoji’ to address taboo of menstruation

Nigeria’s central bank to sell $100 mln at forward, spot forex auction

Botswana power utility invites bids to build 100 MW solar plant

Microsoft researchers are trying to humanize virtual assistants

S.Africa’s Sun International raises stake in Sun Dreams

Heavy rain in Ivory Coast raises flooding fears in cocoa areas

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