* At least 7 VLCCs carrying clean products from Asia &#8211; ship tracking data * EFS trades around minus $11 a tonne, typically unworkable for arb shipments By Koustav Samanta SINGAPORE, April 21 (Reuters) &#8211; Major oil trading companies are stowing diesel and jet fuel on newly built supertankers in Asia and Africa in anticipation of COVID-19 vaccinations driving prices higher in the months ahead despite the activity being less lucrative now than last year. Trafigura, Glencore and Vitol are holding about 1.5 million tonnes of the industrial and aviation fuel on at least seven Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) off Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Africa, according to shipping sources and data from analytics firms Vortexa, Kpler and Refinitiv. These storages are helping Asia hold back excess supplies and prevent added pressure on prices as China ramps up diesel exports from refining overcapacity while renewed lockdowns in India to curb the spread of COVID-19 threatens to cool fuel demand at the world&#8217;s third largest oil consumer. &#8220;Given how narrow the current East-West arbitrage window is, I would expect traders to opportunistically load gasoil on newbuild VLCCs to head to the West, taking advantage of lower freight costs on a per barrel basis,&#8221; said Serena Huang, Asia lead analyst at Vortexa. The exchange of futures for swaps (EFS), which determines the gasoil price spread between Singapore and Northwest Europe , has traded around minus $11 a tonne over the last month – a level that typically makes it unworkable for arbitrage shipments. Gasoil arbitrage to the west is usually profitable when the EFS trades at about minus $15 a tonne or below, although it also depends on factors such as freight rates and voyage length, according to trade sources. &#8220;We have seen a number of vessels being fixed to arb to the west (recently), but they have generally been VLCCs,&#8221; said Kevin Wright, Kpler&#8217;s lead analyst for Asia Pacific. Unlike last year where traders profited from storing oil because of a wide contango structure, the prompt monthly price spread for the benchmark gasoil grade in Singapore has narrowed its contango structure by 55% in the last six months, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. In a contango market, prompt prices are lower than those for future delivery, which tends to encourage holders of physical barrels to store them and sell later to secure higher prices. But, a narrowing contango indicates the market may flip back into backwardation – the opposite of contango that is usually seen as a sign that there is demand for the product currently. Among the companies, Trafigura is the most active, chartering five of the seven VLCCs to load diesel from China and South Korea between March and April for UK, West Africa and Sri Lanka, the data showed. VLCC Name Charterer Product Carrying Location Details / Destination Hunter Trafigura 195,000 tonnes Heading for Cape diesel of Good Hope Doris Trafigura 251,000 tonnes Heading to Lome, diesel West Africa Dickens Trafigura 66,000 tonnes Galle, Sri Lanka gasoil Erbil Trafigura 274,000 tonnes Lome, West Africa diesel Dhalkut Glencore 281,000 tonnes Lome, West Africa ultra low sulphur diesel Bahla Vitol 170,000 tonnes jet Malaysia fuel Sur Trafigura 98,000 tonnes Singapore gasoil + 129,000 tonnes jet fuel Sources: Vortexa, Kpler, Refinitiv (Reporting by Koustav Samanta; Editing by Florence Tan and Muralikumar Anantharaman) 
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Major oil trading firms stow diesel, jet fuel on supertankers as demand rebound eyed

BRUSSELS, April 21 (Reuters) &#8211; Heineken NV, the world&#8217;s second-largest brewer, sold as much beer in the first quarter of 2021 year as it did a year ago, far better than expected, as increases in Africa and Asia offset a sharp decline in Europe.
The maker of Europe&#8217;s top-selling lager Heineken, as well as Tiger and Sol, retained its forecast that said its markets would gradually improve in the second half of the year, depending on the roll-out of vaccines. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, editing by Louise Heavens)
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Heineken exceeds expectations with flat beer sales

(A TIMELINE is a sidebar that lists in chronological order events related to a major news story.)
* Factbox on COVAX vaccine sharing scheme
* Click here for Reuters&#8217; vaccine tracker: https://tmsnrt.rs/3ssN7Qk
April 21 (Reuters) &#8211; The World Health Organization (WHO) and global vaccine charities launched the COVAX programme last April to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to some of the world&#8217;s poorest people.
The scheme, relied on by dozens of poorer countries, has faced setbacks: production glitches, a lack of support from wealthy nations and a recent move by India, the biggest vaccine manufacturer, to curb its exports.
Besides the WHO, it is run by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and U.N. Children&#8217;s Fund (UNICEF).
Here&#8217;s a look at progress since its inception:

APRIL 24, 2020:
The WHO, European Commission and the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation launch an initiative known as the ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools) Accelerator. COVAX is the part that focuses on vaccines.

JUNE 4, 2020:
COVAX raises $567 million towards an initial goal of $2 billion from international donors.

JULY 15, 2020:
More than 75 countries show interest in joining the scheme.

JULY 31, 2020:
The WHO urges countries to support COVAX, says countries that back it have a better chance of getting a successful COVID-19 vaccine.

AUG. 18, 2020:
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns that countries putting their own interests ahead of others to ensure supplies of a possible vaccine are making the pandemic worse.

AUG. 24, 2020:
Some 172 countries join COVAX. WHO says more funding is urgently needed and countries should make binding commitments.

AUG. 28, 2020:
Wealthier countries are offered a new option under COVAX to pick and choose which shots they get, in a move aimed at convincing governments that have bilateral deals to sign up to the facility.
SEPT. 4, 2020:
WHO says 78 high-income countries confirm participation ahead of Sept. 18 deadline for signing up.

SEPT. 17, 2020:
WHO says more than 170 countries have joined COVAX. EU nations offer funds but decline to buy vaccines through COVAX for themselves.
United States and Russia don&#8217;t join.
OCT. 8, 2020:
China says it will purchase COVAX vaccines for 1% of its population.
OCT. 19, 2020:
WHO says 184 countries have signed up for COVAX.

NOV. 12, 2020:
EU increases contribution to COVAX to 500 million euros. ($601 million).

NOV. 13, 2020:
GAVI raises $2 billion to buy COVID-19 shots for COVAX.

NOV. 22, 2020:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel urges COVAX to start talks immediately with vaccine makers.

DEC. 4, 2020:
WHO hopes to have half a billion vaccine doses available for distribution by COVAX in Q1 2021.

DEC. 15, 2020:
The European Union considers plan to donate 5% of the COVID-19 vaccines it has secured to poorer nations.

DEC. 18, 2020:
COVAX doubles global vaccine supply deals to 2 billion doses and aims to deliver 1.3 billion doses in 2021 to 92 eligible low- and middle-income economies.
JAN. 7, 2021:
WHO says poorer nations could start receiving vaccines from COVAX as soon as January, after the programme raises $6 billion of the $7 billion that it has sought in 2021 to help finance deliveries.

JAN. 8, 2021:
WHO&#8217;s Tedros urges countries to stop striking bilateral deals with manufacturers and release extra doses to COVAX immediately, as the EU agrees a supply deal for hundreds of millions of doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The United States, Britain and Canada have also reserved large volumes of vaccines.

JAN. 18, 2021:
WHO chief Tedros says vaccine nationalism puts world on brink of &#8220;catastrophic moral failure&#8221; and could delay COVAX deliveries.
WHO says it is in talks with Pfizer about including its vaccine in COVAX.

JAN. 19, 2021:
European Union eyes its own scheme to share surplus vaccines with poorer neighbouring states and Africa before COVAX is fully operational.

JAN. 20, 2021:
Chinese vaccine makers &#8211; Sinovac Biotech, China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and CanSino Biologics &#8211; apply to join COVAX.

JAN. 21, 2021:
U.S. infectious disease official Anthony Fauci says United States intends to join COVAX.
Pfizer and BioNTech agree to supply 40 million doses of their vaccine to COVAX.

JAN. 29, 2021:
WHO says COVAX will ship enough shots for 3% of poor countries&#8217; populations in first half of 2021.

FEB. 3, 2021:
China says it will provide 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to COVAX.
India&#8217;s Serum Institute signs new long-term deal to supply 1.1 billion doses of vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Novavax to COVAX.

FEB. 5, 2021:
WHO says COVAX initiative aims to start shipping nearly 90 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Africa in February.

FEB. 15, 2021:
WHO approves AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. South Korea scales back initial vaccination targets due to delayed COVAX shipments.

FEB. 18, 2021:
The United States announces $4 billion funding for COVAX, of which $2.5 billion is for this year.

FEB. 19, 2021:
EU doubles contribution to COVAX with additional 500 million euros.
Johnson &amp; Johnson applies to WHO for emergency use listing of COVID-19 vaccine, a prerequisite for supplying vaccines to COVAX.

FEB. 22, 2021:
WHO agrees a no-fault compensation plan for claims of serious side effects in people in 92 poorer countries getting vaccines via COVAX.

FEB. 24 and 26, 2021:
First COVID-19 vaccine doses via COVAX arrive in Ghana and Ivory Coast.

FEB. 26, 2021:
WHO says countries seeking their own vaccine doses threaten COVAX supplies.

MARCH 2, 2021:
Nigeria and Cambodia receive first COVID-19 vaccines under COVAX.
WHO says COVAX is expected to deliver 237 million doses of AstraZeneca&#8217;s vaccine to 142 countries by end of May.

MARCH 5, 2021:
Moldova is first European country to receive COVID-19 vaccines under COVAX.
WHO&#8217;s Tedros says COVAX has supplied more than 20 mln doses to 20 countries.
MARCH. 12, 2021:
WHO approves J&amp;J&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency listing.
MARCH 24, 2021:
India puts a temporary hold on exports of AstraZeneca shot made by the Serum Institue of India to meet domestic demand.
Serum had been due to deliver 90 million doses of vaccine to COVAX in March and April.

APRIL 1, 2021:
WHO&#8217;s Tedros says the facility faces a &#8220;serious challenge&#8221; to meet demand, requesting manufacturers help ensure that the countries that step up can rapidly donate those doses.

APRIL 8, 2021:
WHO says COVAX has delivered nearly 38.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 102 countries and economies across six continents. The facility aims to supply at least 2 billion doses this year.

APRIL 15, 2021:
United Nations officials appeal for another $2 billion by June for COVAX. ($1 = 0.8317 euros)
(Reporting by Dania Nadeem and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; Editing by Josephine Mason)
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TIMELINE-A year in the COVID-19 vaccine scheme COVAX

* African countries struggle with mass rollouts
* Many lack vaccine storage, training and equipment
* Ghana alone faces almost $44 million funding gap
* Conflict-weary Mali, South Sudan have a hard road
By Edward McAllister
DAKAR, April 21 (Reuters) &#8211; When Ghana received 50,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from India last month, it hit a frustrating roadblock: it had not trained enough staff to distribute them.
The country was still rolling out shots received in late February from the global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX, and didn&#8217;t have the capacity to expand that operation, according to the head of Ghana&#8217;s immunisation programme.
Rather than going straight into the arms of health workers, the additional doses were put in cold storage in the capital Accra, Kwame Amponsa-Achiano told Reuters, adding that his team had received two days&#8217; notice about the shipment.
&#8220;We were in the middle of the first campaign,&#8221; Amponsa-Achiano said. &#8220;How do you plan for 50,000 when you already are doing another campaign?&#8221;
The problems faced by Ghana, one of sub-Saharan Africa&#8217;s more economically developed nations, illustrate how a continent with experience in battling deadly infectious diseases has found itself ill-prepared to inoculate people against this pandemic.
Many African countries, already facing a shortage of affordable vaccines, are being stunned by the unprecedented scale of the distribution challenge when doses do arrive.
Authorities do not have enough equipment like masks and cotton wool because of funding shortfalls that could total billions of dollars, according to more than a dozen health experts and some internal government documents seen by Reuters.
They also lack sufficient personnel and training to distribute vaccines at short notice.
While Africa has thus far been relatively unscathed by COVID-19, some experts fear stuttering rollouts could draw out the outbreak in the region, potentially leading to more deaths and economically damaging restrictions in a continent that is already the poorest in the world.
Benjamin Schreiber, COVAX coordinator at the U.N. children&#8217;s agency UNICEF, said logistical problems could mount in the coming weeks and months as countries tried to get vaccines to their general populations.
&#8220;As we start rolling out bigger quantities, we are going to start seeing more issues,&#8221; Schreiber said.
&#8220;The gaps in the healthcare systems will be the gaps that hinder the rollouts,&#8221; he added. &#8220;My worry is that we miss complete communities.&#8221;

NEEDED: MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
Ghana, where the novel coronavirus has infected more than 91,000 and killed over 750, is considered one of the better-prepared countries in Africa to carry out a mass vaccination drive because of its political stability and economic development.
The government aims to initially inoculate 17.6 million people &#8211; about half of its population &#8211; at a cost of $51.7 million, according to a national plan seen by Reuters.
It hopes to cover $7.9 million of that money with a World Bank loan but is short of $43.8 million, described as a &#8220;funding gap&#8221; in the internal government document.
Immunisation chief Amponsa-Achiano said he was not aware that the situation had changed since the plan was formulated in February.
The Ghanaian finance and health ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
Ghana was the first country in the world to receive a shipment from COVAX, taking delivery of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine, manufactured in India, on Feb. 24.
It started its vaccine drive on March 1, and had vaccinated 599,000 people by April 7.
While that vaccination rate is better than many of its African peers &#8211; Ivory Coast vaccinated just over 53,000 people between March 1 and April 6 &#8211; it is far behind the fastest countries globally. Britain, for example, administered doses to about 2 million people in roughly the first month of its drive.
NEEDED: FRIDGES, COTTON WOOL
The Ghanaian national plan shows how even relatively prosperous African nations lack vital equipment.
Money is needed across the board, including $1.5 million for 11 walk-in cold rooms and over 650 fridges to keep vaccines at between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
About $25 million is needed for supplies and waste management, including 33,600 boxes of face masks, 240,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, and nearly 55,000 rolls of cotton wool, the plan says. About $21 million is needed to train over 171,000 health workers and volunteers.
To add to Ghana&#8217;s challenge, its next COVAX shipments, expected in April and May, have been delayed until June, because India suspended major exports of vaccines manufactured there.
In its 2021 budget, outlined in mid-March, the Ghanaian government allotted 929,296,610 cedis ($160 million) for vaccine acquisition and deployment.
Amponsa-Achiano said, though, it was not clear how much would go towards distribution, or when the funds would materialise.
It is a common problem in Africa, UNICEF&#8217;s Schreiber said.
&#8220;The question is at what point will this funding hit the ground? Will it be in time?&#8221;

CONGO EBOLA OUTBREAKS
Some African authorities are familiar with deadly contagions. Since 2018, Congo has contained four Ebola outbreaks with a vaccine which must be stored at between -60 and -80 degrees Celsius.
But the scale of the COVID-19 vaccination drive is new.
COVAX &#8211; the donor scheme co-led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) &#8211; has delivered over 18 million doses to 41 African countries, according to Reuters data.
That&#8217;s the first wave in a drive expected to deliver 600 million doses to Africa this year, enough to vaccinate 20% of their populations. Russia, China and India have also donated some of their vaccines.
Funding is only one issue delaying vaccine rollouts.
Another is patchy record-keeping in many public health systems, which experts say make it difficult to identify people who should be prioritised because of age or co-morbidities.
Demand for shots is also weak in some countries due to mistrust of health authorities, lack of education about the vaccines and worries about potential side effects.
Spotty electricity and poor transport links in some places add to the challenge, while medical teams will have to negotiate safe passage across parts of Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Somalia and other places where insurgencies rage.

VACCINATING UNTIL END-2022?
John Nkengasong, who heads the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, says it could take until the end of 2022 to vaccinate 60% of the continent&#8217;s 1.3 billion people.
Take the task facing Mali, an impoverished country fighting an Islamist insurgency. It needs $14.7 million to deploy vaccines, including for gasoline, vaccine storage and training, according to an internal government vaccination plan seen by Reuters.
The government will need funding support from the WHO, UNICEF, the GAVI vaccine alliance and the World Bank, the plan says. Those organisations are all looking to provide funding to African nations facing shortfalls.
South Sudan, still racked by violence after a civil war ended in 2018, has seen COVID-19 infect at least 10,300 people and kill more than 100.
It began distributing 132,000 vaccine doses from COVAX on April 7. However, authorities won&#8217;t start administering shots outside the capital Juba and its surrounding county until May at the earliest, said Kawa Tong, a member of a COVID-19 steering committee that advises the government.
&#8220;The key reason is the lack of funds for a rollout outside Juba. The transport of vaccines, training of health workers, community outreach &#8211; all these are tied to funding,&#8221; Tong told Reuters.
Adding to the difficulties, by May the rainy season will be well underway, cutting off transport links to large parts of the country, she said. The vast majority of the 11 million-strong population live outside Juba county.
Atem Riek Anyom, director general for primary healthcare at South Sudan&#8217;s health ministry, said the government had requested World Bank funding, adding that vaccines would soon be deployed across the country.
&#8220;There&#8217;s no challenge in regards to the vaccine rollout,&#8221; he added.
The World Bank, which has a $12 billion fund to help developing countries around the world buy and distribute vaccines, said it was reviewing requests from Mali and South Sudan.
The bank said it has approved $2 billion to 17 countries, including seven in Africa: Ethiopia, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Eswatini, Tunisia, Rwanda and Gambia. (Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani in New Delhi, Felix Onuah in Abuja, Libby George in Lagos, Denis Dumo in Juba, Fadimata Kontao in Bamako and Christian Akorlie in Accra Writing by Edward McAllister Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Pravin Char)
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INSIGHT-Cash-strapped Africa overwhelmed by COVID vaccine challenge

* EU keen to counter vaccine diplomacy of Russia, China
* Gave COVAX cash, but scooped up large share of vaccine output
* Most EU states gave global scheme less funds than requested
* EU set up parallel programme to share doses with poorer nations
By Francesco Guarascio and John Chalmers
BRUSSELS, April 21 (Reuters) &#8211; Last April, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added Europe to a global effort to ensure equitable access to a vaccine, which she said would be deployed &#8220;to every single corner of the world.&#8221;
But despite pledging billions of dollars for the scheme set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and publicly endorsing it, European Union officials and member states repeatedly made choices that undermined the campaign, internal documents seen by Reuters and interviews with EU officials and diplomats show.
A year after its launch, Europe and the rest of the world have yet to donate a single dose through the vaccine scheme, which is part of an unprecedented effort to distribute vaccines, tests and drugs to fight the pandemic. Diplomats say Europe&#8217;s ambivalence stemmed partly from short supplies and a slack start to the global campaign, but also from concerns that the EU&#8217;s efforts would go unnoticed in a vaccine diplomacy war where highly publicised promises from China and Russia were winning ground, even in its own backyard.
The programme, co-led by international agencies and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), is a bulk-buying platform to share doses worldwide. But with the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump having turned its back on the WHO, the plan, called COVAX, was slow to win support and focused on using funds from rich countries to buy doses for less-developed ones.
Von der Leyen presented Europe&#8217;s support for the COVAX campaign as a gesture of international unity. EU officials privately cast the bloc&#8217;s vaccine aims in a less altruistic light.
&#8220;It&#8217;s also about visibility,&#8221; that is, public relations, Ilze Juhansone, Secretary-General of the EU Commission and the Commission&#8217;s top civil servant, told ambassadors at a meeting in Brussels in February, according to a diplomatic note seen by Reuters. Juhansone declined to comment.
A senior diplomat said many of those at that meeting felt Europe, which is by far the largest exporter of vaccines in the West, had goals that would be better served by plastering &#8220;more blue flags with yellow stars&#8221; on vaccine parcels and sending them out itself, rather than through COVAX.
Brussels, which is coordinating vaccine deals with its members, has reserved a huge surplus &#8211; 2.6 billion doses for a population of 450 million so far. It has promised nearly 2.5 billion euros ($3 billion) in support to COVAX. That made the EU the biggest funder until the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden pledged $4 billion this year to the plan, which aims to distribute 2 billion doses by the end of the year.
But supplies for Europe&#8217;s own population are behind schedule, and despite giving funds, the EU and its 27 governments have also hampered COVAX in several ways. Like other rich countries, EU nations decided not to buy their own vaccines through COVAX, and competed with it to buy shots when supplies were tight. All except Germany offered the overall programme less cash than requested.
More than this, Europe promoted a parallel vaccine donation system that it would run itself, to raise the EU&#8217;s profile.
&#8220;There is huge frustration because there is a feeling that right now the race is on but we&#8217;re not really out of the starting blocks,&#8221; a senior diplomat told Reuters.
&#8220;We&#8217;re spending money on COVAX and the return in terms of political visibility is nil.&#8221;
Russia says it wants to supply vaccines to countries directly. China has pledged support to COVAX. But both Moscow and Beijing have separate deals to deliver more than 1 billion doses to Africa, Latin America, and to EU partners such as Turkey, Egypt, Morocco and Balkan states that are candidates to join the bloc.
Most doses will take time to be delivered, but Russia and China have already exported about twice COVAX&#8217;s deliveries of around 40 million doses.
COVAX was also hit in March by export restrictions on vaccines from India, which slowed supplies from its main provider of shots.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has repeatedly urged rich countries to set aside nationalistic impulses and share vaccines, calling the current situation &#8220;a shocking imbalance.&#8221; Non-EU member Britain, for instance, has already injected about as many shots as COVAX has delivered to more than 100 countries.
COVAX officials told Reuters they received sufficient funds by the end of last year, but these came later than expected.
A spokeswoman for GAVI, the vaccine alliance that runs the scheme and speaks for COVAX on such issues, said EU support had been &#8220;unequivocal&#8221; and it expects doses to be donated soon. The WHO added that von der Leyen&#8217;s personal support had been &#8220;invaluable.&#8221;
An EU Commission spokesman told Reuters COVAX had been very successful in structuring global collaboration and securing millions of doses. He called the programme &#8220;our best vehicle to deliver on international vaccines solidarity&#8221; and the EU&#8217;s &#8220;key channel for sharing vaccines.&#8221;

WAITING FOR COVAX
Part of COVAX&#8217;s difficulty is structural. Soon after it was set up, the wealthiest countries were sealing advance orders with drug companies to secure doses as they became available. The vaccination scheme has always relied on rich states for cash, which they have been slow to give.
COVAX aimed to be a platform for countries to buy vaccines, which would give it bargaining power and allow it to dispense doses among those most in need worldwide. Recognising supplies would be tight, its initial aim was to distribute doses for at least 20% of each country&#8217;s populations to cover the people most at risk.
At an internal meeting last July, an EU Commission official told ambassadors that member states should not buy their shots through COVAX as they would come too slowly, diplomatic notes show. The Commission later set the target to vaccinate 70% of adults in the EU by the end of September.
COVAX changed some of its terms the next month to try to convince wealthy nations to join in, but no EU nations signed up to use the platform for their vaccination drives. The EU gave COVAX financial guarantees to pay for vaccines, but also made it harder for COVAX to do this, by arranging to buy far more doses than the bloc needed.
In November, the EU pledged more money to COVAX, but only after it had signed contracts with vaccine makers for nearly 1.5 billion doses &#8211; more than half Brussels&#8217; estimate then of global production capacity for this year, internal documents show.
Even though Europe had reserved such a large share, the Commission told diplomats in a meeting that month that COVAX was too slow in procuring doses.
That was when the Commission raised the possibility of setting up a mechanism of its own to send shots to poor countries outside the EU.

&#8220;TEAM EUROPE&#8221;
Within a month, France started to flesh out that plan. Shots would be sent directly from manufacturers &#8211; possibly before deliveries started through COVAX &#8211; and labelled as &#8220;Team Europe&#8221; donations, a draft plan said.
The move, revealed at the time by Reuters, caused an outcry among officials at COVAX.
One told Reuters in April the plan was driven by France&#8217;s desire to get shots to Africa, where France formerly had colonies, and smacked of colonialism. French diplomats said they never showed a preference for any country, and Africa was most in need.
EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in mid-January the EU&#8217;s own plan would go ahead &#8211; because COVAX was not yet fully operational. Countries to focus on would include the Western Balkans, the EU&#8217;s southern and eastern neighbours and Africa.
The next month, having reserved more than 2 billion doses but with actual deliveries hit by production problems, the EU doubled COVAX funding to 1 billion euros. Russia and China had already delivered millions of doses across the world. COVAX had yet to deliver any. And France&#8217;s President Emmanuel Macron was publicly losing patience.
Europe and the United States should quickly send enough vaccines to Africa to inoculate the continent&#8217;s healthcare workers or risk losing influence to Russia and China, Macron said in a speech at a security conference, without specifying how these donations should be made.
Unless rich countries speeded up deliveries, &#8220;our friends in Africa will, under justified pressure from their people, buy doses from the Chinese and the Russians,&#8221; Macron told the conference. &#8220;And the strength of the West will be a concept, and not a reality.&#8221;
Despite Macron&#8217;s urgency, France&#8217;s cash support for the overall WHO programme &#8211; to cover tests and treatments as well as vaccines &#8211; was limited.
The WHO asked countries for contributions in proportion to their economic power. France has committed $190 million &#8212; about 13% of the $1.2 billion requested, a WHO document dated March 26 shows.
Other EU countries are also far below expected contributions; some have given zero. But Germany has helped offset this by publicly pledging $2.6 billion, well above the $2 billion requested.
French diplomats said the country&#8217;s contributions are expected to increase soon.

&#8220;OUT OF THIS GAME&#8221;
On Feb. 24, COVAX shipped its first vaccines. The EU softened its criticisms.
At a meeting on March 9, at the height of the European Union&#8217;s own problems in procuring shots for its own citizens, a Commission official told diplomats COVAX was the main tool for donating vaccines to other countries.
But the official said Europe still needed its own mechanism, because COVAX had money, but only a tiny portion of the shots it needed. And the EU scheme would have &#8220;the advantage of giving us visibility,&#8221; the official said.
At that same meeting, EU ambassadors were shown data compiled by the EU&#8217;s foreign affairs service which those present said revealed how far the bloc&#8217;s vaccine diplomacy was lagging behind its competitors.
They learned that Russia had orders for 645 million doses of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine with dozens of countries, and that China was shipping millions of doses to EU neighbours, the data showed.
&#8220;We are completely out of this game,&#8221; one of the diplomats who was there told Reuters.
Reuters could not confirm the data exactly. But figures assembled by the United Nations agency UNICEF, which works with COVAX on vaccine deliveries, show Russia has deals to deliver nearly 600 million doses, including to EU states. China has deals to sell about 800 million doses, including agreements with European countries such as Serbia, Ukraine and Albania.
Later that month the EU&#8217;s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, made the point candidly: &#8220;The EU is the major driver behind COVAX,&#8221; he wrote in a blog on March 26. &#8220;But we do not get the recognition that the countries using bilateral vaccine diplomacy do.&#8221;
On Tuesday, the EU Commission said the EU would share over half a million doses with Balkan countries from May through the EU scheme. That was two weeks after COVAX had delivered its first shots to the region. ($1 = 0.8282 euros)
(Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova in Moscow; Edited by Sara Ledwith and Josephine Mason)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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INSIGHT-How a WHO push for global vaccines needled Europe

By Megan Rowling
BARCELONA, April 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; The U.S. government swung its support back behind the multi-billion-dollar Green Climate Fund (GCF) on Tuesday, with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry promising Washington would put more money in to help developing countries tackle global warming.
Kerry told an event hosted by the GCF that U.S. President Joe Biden&#8217;s request of about $1.2 billion for the fund in the coming fiscal year&#8217;s budget &#8220;is just the beginning of what we intend to do&#8221;.
Kerry noted in a video message that the money, if approved, would go a &#8220;good way&#8221; to paying down what Washington still owes to the GCF from an initial $3 billion pledge the United States made in 2014, of which only $1 billion was delivered.
Former President Donald Trump, a climate change sceptic, refused to pay the rest.
For more than four years the United States has made no contribution to the flagship fund set up under U.N. climate talks to help poorer countries pursue clean growth and adapt to a warming planet, Kerry noted.
Green groups and aid agencies have called on the Biden administration to put in an additional $6 billion, doubling its initial pledge as other major donor countries did in 2019.
Kerry told the GCF event, ahead of this week&#8217;s Earth Day leaders&#8217; climate summit hosted by Biden, that the United States wanted to send &#8220;a clear signal that we value the fund&#8217;s work&#8221; and are &#8220;looking forward to investing&#8221; in that work in the years ahead.
&#8220;President Biden knows we need to contribute going forward, and even now we have started to consider exactly how to provide scaled-up resources to the GCF,&#8221; he added.
Climate finance campaigners, some of whom had criticised the $1.2 billion fiscal year 2022 budget request made this month as inadequate, took Kerry&#8217;s words as an encouraging sign.
The GCF said in a tweet it very much welcomed &#8220;the renewed strong commitment&#8221; of the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change and to the Green Climate Fund.
&#8220;Our climate action partnership with the (United States) is crucial to delivering urgent climate finance in developing countries,&#8221; it said.
In an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation last month, GCF head Yannick Glemarec said the U.S. decision on restarting contributions to the GCF would be decisive in whether the fund would use up its existing roughly $10 billion in new pledges by the end of 2023, or be able to scale up its action.
The fund has so far committed $8.3 billion to 173 projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, and is set to help nearly 500 million people become more resilient to more extreme weather and rising seas, while cutting carbon emissions.
Kerry stressed the importance of the GCF in channelling funds to the world&#8217;s poorest and most vulnerable people in innovative ways, including by encouraging private investment.
The world needed to make &#8220;significant investments&#8221; in adapting to the climate change already happening, he noted.
The GCF still had more work to do in streamlining its governance, fostering inclusion, and improving access and efficiency, he said.
But the United States wanted to be an &#8220;ally and a partner&#8221; of the fund in those endeavours, he added.
A shadow was cast over expectations of a revitalised relationship with the United States when the Climate Home News website last month reported allegations of mistreatment of staff and poorly handled complaints at the GCF&#8217;s secretariat.
Glemarec told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the fund had taken steps to improve its handling of staff grievances internally, and the results were starting to show.
Kerry on Tuesday said the GCF was an &#8220;indispensable player&#8221; in getting climate finance to poorer nations and communities in transformational ways.
&#8220;We need the GCF functioning at its absolute peak capacity in the years ahead,&#8221; he said. (Reporting by Megan Rowling @meganrowling; editing by Laurie Goering. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate)
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John Kerry puts U.S. weight behind Green Climate Fund

* Morgan Stanley, BlackRock bullish on EM * Latam stocks come off two-month high * Mexican peso breaks six-day winning streak (Updates prices) By Ambar Warrick and Susan Mathew April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Most Latin American currencies fell on Tuesday as the dollar strengthened off lows, with falling oil prices knocking currencies of Colombia and Mexico. Chile&#8217;s peso, meanwhile, rose 0.5% to a more than three-month high. Copper prices retreated, but stayed near 10-year highs on optimism over recovering global demand. World no. 2 copper exporter Peru&#8217;s sol, however, gave up session gains to trade 0.6% lower as concerns about the presidential election remained. It extended losses after posting its worst session in more than five months on Monday when the first opinion poll ahead of a presidential run-off election in June indicated a win for socialist candidate Pedro Castillo. Stocks in Peru sank 5% to touch their lowest since November. As oil prices fell on demand worries, Colombia&#8217;s peso lost 0.5%. Mexico&#8217;s peso dropped 0.7% after six straight days of gains which took it to three-month highs. Analysts say the currency has prime conditions for carry trades, along with EM peer South Africa&#8217;s rand. Sentiment towards emerging market assets, however has been improving, with major investment bank Morgan Stanley going bullish on currencies and bonds, citing stability in U.S. yields. BlackRock, the world&#8217;s largest asset manager, espoused a similar stance on Monday. But, Latam markets have lagged their peers due to a damaging COVID-19 resurgence in the region. Brazil&#8217;s real erased the day&#8217;s gains, falling 0.1%. Amid fiscal worries, the 2021 budget was sent to President Jair Bolsonaro for approval after an initial delay. The rapid spread of COVID-19 in the country has dulled its economic outlook, with the government ramping up spending to what has been perceived as unsustainable levels to offset the pandemic&#8217;s economic impact. &#8220;The gradual economic recovery continued in February, but the resurgence of the pandemic in March has reversed that trend,&#8221; analysts at TS Lombard wrote in a note. &#8220;Activity data for retail sales and the services sector showed some resiliency in February, but there is little doubt that this trend was reversed by the virus resurgence in March.&#8221; They also expect the Brazilian central bank to hike interest rates steeply in the first half of the year &#8211; a move which could support the real. In line with global stocks, Latin American equities retreated, with the MSCI&#8217;s index of regional stocks coming off a two-month high. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 1344.90 -0.27 MSCI LatAm 2392.59 -0.75 Brazil Bovespa 119999.62 -0.77 Mexico IPC 48517.68 0.93 Chile IPSA 4925.06 -0.91 Argentina MerVal 46800.75 -2.552 Colombia COLCAP 1305.93 -0.51 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.5581 -0.09 Mexico peso 19.9540 -0.71 Chile peso 696.8 0.52 Colombia peso 3641.5 -0.44 Peru sol 3.6897 -0.49 Argentina peso 92.9700 -0.04 (interbank) (Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman) 
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EMERGING MARKETS-Most Latam currencies weaken; Chilean peso at over 3-mth high

PARIS, April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Euronext wheat rose sharply on Tuesday, with new-crop positions setting fresh contract highs, on the back of a rally in Chicago fuelled by cold weather threatening U.S. wheat crops.
September milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext settled up 3.25 euros, or 1.6%, at 210.25 euros ($252.93) a tonne.
It earlier reached 212.25 euros, a new life-of-contract peak.
Chicago wheat rallied as traders assessed the risk that frosts could damage crops in part of the U.S. Plains, although Chicago prices later pared gains.
&#8220;There are low temperatures that could sting wheat crops, it all depends how widespread it is,&#8221; a futures dealer said.
The cold spell was contributing to weather concerns for wheat and adding to support from a rally in corn, which hit a near eight-year high in Chicago.
Euronext&#8217;s last old crop contract, May, settled up 6.50 euros at 223.00 euros a tonne, with traders citing positioning in the run-up to the contract&#8217;s expiry.
In rapeseed, May futures jumped again in more volatile trading in the run-up to their expiry next week and amid continuing tensions in global oilseed markets.
The contract rose as much as 5.2% to a 558.50 euros, a new record for a front-month price, before settling at 547.50 euros.
New-crop August rapeseed set a contract high at 500.50 euros, supported by expectations of another weather-hit harvest in Europe.
On the physical market, a lack of new export demand curbed German wheat premiums.
&#8220;The tender market is very quiet this week with the Ramadan period keeping business in the big importing countries quiet,&#8221; one German trader said.
&#8220;With Egypt looking at the new crop in its last tender, Saudi Arabia on the sidelines and South Africa looking to Russia, only Algeria remains as the main visible potential buyer of German wheat and there is no sign of a new purchase from Algeria tender this week.&#8221;
Standard 12% protein wheat for April delivery in Hamburg was offered for sale at 0.5 euros over Paris May, following trade at level of Paris May futures on Monday.
($1 = 0.8313 euros) (Reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Michael Hogan in Hamburg; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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Paris wheat at new high as cold sparks U.S. rally

MOSCOW, April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Urals crude oil differentials inched down to dated Brent in Baltic after an offer at lower price level didn&#8217;t find a buyer on Tuesday as sellers tried to place their cargoes.
* Urals oil loading plan for dates after May 5 was yet to emerge on Tuesday. Traders expected it to be released soon.

PLATTS WINDOW
* Trading firm Vitol offered 100,000 tonnes of Urals oil loading on May 4-8 at dated Brent minus $2.30 per barrel but failed to find a buyer.
* Gunvor offered 100,000 tonnes of Urals loading from Baltic ports on May 2-6 at dated Brent minus $2.35 per barrel but failed to find a buyer.
* There were no bids or offers for Urals loading from Novorossiisk, CPC Blend or Azeri BTC in the Platts window on Tuesday. NEWS
* Italy&#8217;s Eni is considering spinning off oil and gas operations in West Africa and the Middle East into new joint ventures to help reduce debt and fund its shift to low-carbon energy, according to company and industry sources.
* Libya&#8217;s National Oil Corp (NOC) declared force majeure on Monday on exports from the port of Hariga and said it could extend the measure to other facilities due to a budget dispute with the country&#8217;s central bank. (Reporting by Olga Yagova; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
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Med crude-Urals diffs ease slightly in Baltic on offer

* Violations of religious freedom are rising, report says
* Report is particularly scathing about China and Myanmar
* China and Myanmar have denied allegations of genocide
By Philip Pullella
ROME, April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Violations of religious freedom are increasing and persecution takes place in more than 25 countries, with China and Myanmar among those that have the worst records, according to a report by a Vatican-backed charity.
The Religious Freedom in the World Report, covering 2019-2020 and issued on Tuesday, said that in some countries, such as Niger, Turkey and Pakistan, prejudices against religious minorities led local residents to blame them for the COVID-19 pandemic and denial of access to medical aid.
The 800-page report was prepared by Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN), a worldwide Catholic charity that studies violations of freedoms of all religions.
The latest report put 26 countries in a &#8220;red&#8221; category denoting the existence of persecution, compared to 21 countries at the time of the last report two years ago.
It put 36 countries in the &#8220;orange&#8221; category denoting discrimination, compared to 17 two years ago.
The report describes discrimination as when laws or rules apply to a particular group and not to all, and persecution as when there is an active programme to subjugate people based on religion.
&#8220;There has been a significant increase in the severity of religiously-motivated persecution and oppression,&#8221; the report said.
It was particularly scathing about China and Myanmar.
&#8220;The apparatus of repression constructed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in recent years is &#8230; fine-tuned, pervasive, and technologically sophisticated,&#8221; the report said.
The most egregious violations were against Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang &#8220;where the atrocities have reached such a scale that a growing number of experts describe them as genocide&#8221;, it said.

HARASSMENT AND ARREST&#8221;
In February, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden endorsed a last-minute determination by the Trump administration that China has committed genocide in Xinjiang and has said the United States must be prepared to impose costs on China.
China says the complexes it set up in Xinjiang provide vocational training to help stamp out Islamist extremism and separatism. The Chinese foreign ministry has called allegations of forced labour and human rights violations &#8220;groundless rumour and slander&#8221;.
The ACN report said Catholic hierarchy in China &#8220;continue to suffer harassment and arrest&#8221; despite a landmark deal signed in 2018 between Bejing and the Vatican on the appointment of bishops on the mainland.
Reuters reported last year that two nuns who work at the Vatican mission in Hong Kong were arrested when they went home to the mainland for a visit.
China was increasing the use of facial recognition on worshippers of various religions, it said.
In Myanmar, the report said Rohingya Muslims &#8220;have been the victims of the most egregious violations of human rights in recent memory&#8221;.
Last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Myanmar to take urgent measures to protect Rohingya from genocide. The government has denied accusations of genocide.
The ACN report said the military coup on Feb. 1 was &#8220;likely to make things worse for all religious minorities&#8221; in Myanmar, where about 8% of the population is Christian.
Africa would be &#8220;the next battleground against Islamic militants,&#8221; the report said.
Militant groups were causing havoc in countries including Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, northern Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Mozambique, it said. (Reporting By Philip Pullella, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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China, Myanmar and others criticised in report on rising religious persecution

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Low demand and stiff competition by competing grades meant sales of West African crude were slow on Tuesday and large overhangs from previous months remained.
* Sales of heavy sweet Djeno crude from Congo were especially slow as main customer China held off on purchases.
* As many as five cargoes of the grade remain for sale even before publication of the June-loading programme, including a couple April-loading barrels. Offers are as low as dated Brent minus $2 a barrel.
* Sales for competing Brazilian sweet crude grade Tupi were better but had also slowed, with sale prices at premiums of about $1.
* Ancap purchased a cargo of Okwuibome Nigerian crude in its latest buy tender, which closed late last week, traders said.
* Traders awaited results of buy tenders from Taiwan&#8217;s CPC and Thailand&#8217;s PTT for July-arriving crude. The tenders are set to close this week.
RELATED NEWS
* Italy&#8217;s Eni is considering spinning off oil and gas operations in West Africa and the Middle East into new joint ventures to help to reduce debt and fund its shift to low-carbon energy, company and industry sources said.
* China&#8217;s March imports of crude oil from top supplier Saudi Arabia rose 8.8% from a year earlier, driven by strong demand and as delayed shipments finally arrived after port congestion. (Reporting by Noah Browning Editing by David Goodman) ))
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W. Africa Crude-Crude glut lingers as diffs slip

By John Irish and Tangi Salaün
PARIS, April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Chad&#8217;s longtime ruler President Idriss Deby, a Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants in Africa, was killed on the frontline against rebels in the north.
His main ally, France, has about 5,100 troops based across the region as part of international efforts to fight Islamist militants, including its main base in the Chadian capital N&#8217;Djamena.
His death, which Paris described as the loss of a courageous friend who had sought peace and stability for three decades, poses questions on the future of France&#8217;s regional operations.

WHY IS CHAD AN IMPORTANT ALLY TO WESTERN POWERS?
Nestled in between Libya, Niger, Central African Republic, Sudan, Nigeria and Cameroon, Chad is a strategic outpost for France and the United States in the fight against Islamist militants across the Sahel and Boko Haram in Nigeria as well as for monitoring political instability in neighbouring countries.
Deby has in recent years stepped into a void left by Africa’s traditional heavyweights and turned his desert nation into a powerbroker as France sought to disengage from its former colonies, most notably after a rebellion in Central African Republic in 2013.
Highlighting his importance, in February 2019, French warplanes and drones struck Chadian rebels advancing on the capital to ensure its interests were not put at risk during a critical stage in operations against Islamist militants in the region. Sources said Paris would only intervene directly again if those interests were put in danger.
France provided intelligence and logistical support against a new rebellion launched this month, but stopped short of direct action amid growing unease in French domestic political circles at the prospect of Deby winning re-election for a sixth time, extending his 30 years in power.

HOW EFFECTIVE HAS CHAD BEEN IN FIGHT AGAINST ISLAMISTS?
Chadian troops were in 2020 mostly engaged in fighting insurgents from Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa in the Lake Chad region.
Chad’s armed forces are among the most respected and battle hardened in West Africa. That reputation was forged after 2,000 troops took part in a French-led mission in 2013 to hunt down al Qaeda fighters in the deserts of northern Mali marking Chad out as the only African nation to quickly deploy an effective fighting force.
However, there have been concerns over discipline and accusations of acts against civilians in during their operations.
The deployment of a battalion of 1,500 men to the tri-border theatre between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger earlier this year was seen as a vital to enable French and other forces to re-orient their military mission to central Mali and to target Islamist leaders linked to al Qaeda.
France has bet on local forces eventually taking control of their own security to withdraw its 5,100 troops from the region.

WHAT MILITARY ASSETS DOES FRANCE, ALLIES HAVE IN CHAD?
Chad&#8217;s capital N&#8217;Djamena is the central command hub for France&#8217;s Barkhane counter-terrorism operation for the West Africa region. Just under 1,000 troops are based there along with a few Mirage 2000 fighter jets.
The G5 Sahel, which brings together troops from Chad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso, has its command centre in the previous headquarters of France&#8217;s Epervier mission from the 1980s, when Paris supported Chad against a Libyan offensive on the country.
As well as its main operations, France has two forward operating bases in Faya-Largeau in the centre of the country with one eye on the northern border with Libya and Abeche near the borders with Sudan and Central African Republic.
The United States also has had a small military presence in the country to help in training, equipping and capacity building. A U.S. official said there have been less than 70 US military personnel in the country.
WHAT WILL BE THE IMMEDIATE CONCERNS FOR FRANCE/ALLIES? France and its allies will be looking to see how the political handover happens in the coming days. With Deby technically still president for the next few weeks, the head of the National Assembly should have taken over. However, with the military announcing Deby&#8217;s son, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, also know as Kaka, as interim president that could lead to a further destabilisation in the capital.
All eyes will also turn to the rebel Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), which had embarked on the offensive against Deby. If the advance were to gather steam now, that could force Paris&#8217; hands, although it will seek to avoid intervening directly given the general uncertainty and impact it could have on the wider Sahel operations.
With possible panic setting in the capital, there will also be concerns that a new humanitarian and refugee crisis beginning should people start converging from N&#8217;Djamena to the Cameroon border
(Writing by John Irish; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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EXPLAINER-Chad’s strategic interest to France, Western allies

(Adds Canadian National, Asda, DBS Group, Eni, Innospec, Suez; Updates Toshiba, William Hill)
April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1530 GMT on Tuesday:

** Canadian National said on Tuesday it had offered to buy railroad operator Kansas City Southern for about $30 billion, trumping a rival bid by Canadian Pacific and sending the U.S. company&#8217;s shares up more than 20%.

** Banks including DBS Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), OCBC and Standard Chartered are set to bid for parts of Citigroup&#8217;s consumer business in Asia, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

** Toshiba Corp has decided against evaluating a $20 billion buyout offer from CVC Capital Partners, saying it lacked detail, while adding it was open to &#8220;credible&#8221; offers.

** Italy&#8217;s Eni is considering spinning off oil and gas operations in West Africa and the Middle East into new joint ventures to help reduce debt and fund its shift to low-carbon energy, according to company and industry sources.

** DBS Group has agreed to buy a 13% stake in privately owned Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank Corp (SZRCB) for 5.29 billion yuan ($814.3 million), marking the Southeast Asian lender&#8217;s biggest acquisition in China.

** Bookmaker William Hill moved closer to being taken over by Caesars Entertainment on Tuesday, saying it had gained approval in a British court for the 2.9 billion pound ($4 billion) deal, which was opposed by minority shareholder HBK.

** Australia&#8217;s biggest supermarket chain Woolworths Group sought to take control of data analytics firm Quantium by raising its stake in the company to 75% from 47%, signaling its increasing reliance on analytics to target and retain customers.

** Britain&#8217;s Issa brothers and private equity group TDR Capital must address the competition regulator&#8217;s concerns that their purchase of the Asda supermarket chain could lead to higher fuel prices to avoid the deal being referred for an in-depth probe.

** Innospec Inc said it was no longer considering a possible offer for rival Elementis after the British company rejected a 160-pence per share takeover approach from the U.S. chemicals firm.

** Investment funds Ardian and Global Infrastructure Partners may not participate in the plan to create a new French water company after the takeover of Suez by its bigger rival Veolia,, a spokesman for the funds said.
(Compiled by Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru)
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Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions

By Aaron Ross
April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; In 30 years as Chad&#8217;s president, Idriss Deby emerged as one of Africa&#8217;s wiliest political survivors, holding on to power through rebellions that reached as far as his palace gates and establishing himself as a key military ally of Western powers.
But it was in an apparent moment of triumph, just hours after he was declared the winner of an April 11 election, that the 68-year-old former army officer met his end, killed in battle fighting rebels in the desert north.
Deby had ruled for three decades by centralising power around his family and Zaghawa ethnic group.
Key to his hold on power was Chad&#8217;s formidable military, which he used to assure control at home and win friends abroad.
In 2013, he deployed 2,000 troops to northern Mali to participate in a French-led mission to push back al Qaeda-linked fighters, making Chad the only African country to quickly deploy an effective fighting force.
Earlier this year, Deby dispatched 1,200 troops to the tri-border region of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali where Islamist militants are expanding their influence, while farther south Chadian forces fought against Nigeria&#8217;s Boko Haram militants.
That won him the gratitude of former colonial master France, which has more than 5,000 troops across West Africa&#8217;s arid Sahel region to battle militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State and is looking for an eventual exit strategy.
&#8220;France lost a brave friend,&#8221; President Emmanuel Macron&#8217;s office said in statement. &#8220;It expresses its strong attachment to Chad&#8217;s stability and territorial integrity.&#8221;
French forces have intervened on several occasions to bail Deby out of danger, most recently in 2019 when French warplanes took out a column of rebels that was crossing the desert from Libya.
RISING CHALLENGES
Idriss Deby Itno was born on June 18, 1952, in northeastern Chad. He joined the army in the 1970s when the country was going through a long-running civil war and received military training in France, where he earned a pilot&#8217;s licence.
He returned to Chad in 1978 and threw his support behind the president, Hissène Habré, rising to become chief of the armed forces.
In 1990, he seized power, leading a rebel army swathed in desert headgear in a three-week offensive launched from neighbouring Sudan&#8217;s Darfur region.
Since then, Deby has fended off more than a half-dozen rebellions and attempted coups. His closest call came in 2008, when rebels from Darfur reached the capital N&#8217;Djamena and besieged the presidential palace before France intervened to help push them back.

WARTIME LEADER
Deby frequently cast himself as a wartime leader. He would often don military fatigues and pay visits to soldiers on the battlefront.
Diplomats and analysts said Deby had been grooming his adopted son, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno &#8211; named on Tuesday as interim leader &#8211; to eventually take over, but had given little indication he intended to step down anytime soon.
He pushed through a new constitution in 2018 that would have allowed him to stay in power until 2033 &#8211; even as it re-instated term limits. Last year, he took the title of &#8220;Field Marshal&#8221;.
But he faced mounting discontent at home over his management of Chad&#8217;s oil wealth, crackdowns on opponents and alleged corruption.
Low crude prices in recent years ate into government revenues, forcing cutbacks to services that led to public sector strikes.
Most of Deby&#8217;s main opponents boycotted the latest election, whose lead-up was marred by deadly clashes between opposition supporters and security forces. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; Additional reporting by David Lewis; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Alex Richardson)
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OBITUARY-Idriss Deby, Chad’s president and West’s ally against Islamists

* Sol recovers from worst day in five months * Morgan Stanley, BlackRock bullish on EM * Latam stocks come off two-month high * Mexican peso near 3-mth highs amid carry trade prospects By Ambar Warrick April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Strength in copper prices supported Chile&#8217;s peso and Peru&#8217;s sol, with the latter stabilizing after steep losses on expectations for a socialist government, while other Latin American currencies traded sideways. Chile&#8217;s peso led gains in early trade, rising 0.7% to a more than four-month high as copper prices neared 10-year highs on optimism over recovering global demand. World no. 2 copper exporter Peru&#8217;s sol also rose, recovering from its worst session in more than five months, after the first opinion poll ahead of a presidential run-off election in June indicated a win for socialist candidate Pedro Castillo. Mexico&#8217;s peso hovered around three-month highs, with analysts citing the currency having prime conditions for carry trades, along with EM peer South Africa&#8217;s rand. The Mexican economy shrank in March due to the pandemic but is expected to rebound as a U.S. recovery picks up. Sentiment over emerging market assets was helped by major investment bank Morgan Stanley going bullish on currencies and bonds, citing stability in U.S. yields. BlackRock, the world&#8217;s largest asset manager, espoused a similar stance on Monday. Emerging market assets have come under pressure this year as expectations of policy tightening by the Federal Reserve pushed up U.S. Treasury yields. But continued dovish signals from the U.S. central bank doused this notion, resulting in large drops in yields and improving capital flows into emerging markets. Latin American markets have lagged their peers due to a damaging COVID-19 resurgence in the region, and were mostly trading flat to lower for the day. Brazil&#8217;s real rose 0.4%, hovering just below a near one-month high, as the 2021 budget was sent to President Jair Bolsonaro for approval after an initial delay. But the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the country has dulled its economic outlook, with the government ramping up spending to what has been perceived as unsustainable levels to offset the pandemic&#8217;s economic impact. &#8220;The gradual economic recovery continued in February, but the resurgence of the pandemic in March has reversed that trend. Activity data for retail sales and the services sector showed some resiliency in February, but there is little doubt that this trend was reversed by the virus resurgence in March,&#8221; analysts at TS Lombard wrote in a note. They also expect the Brazilian central bank to hike interest rates steeply in the first half of the year &#8211; a move which could support the real. Latin American stocks retreated in early trade, with the MSCI&#8217;s index of regional stocks coming off a two-month high. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies: Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 1348.61 0 MSCI LatAm 2403.67 -0.29 Brazil Bovespa 120681.41 -0.21 Mexico IPC 48012.03 -0.13 Chile IPSA 4951.60 -0.38 Argentina MerVal &#8211; &#8211; Colombia COLCAP 1306.43 -0.47 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.5316 0.39 Mexico peso 19.8200 -0.04 Chile peso 695.7 0.68 Colombia peso 3621 0.12 Peru sol 3.6657 0.16 Argentina peso 92.9700 -0.04 (interbank) (Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis) 
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EMERGING MARKETS-Chilean peso at over 4-mth high on copper gains, Peru’s sol stable

SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Global commodity prices are expected to stay firm around current levels in 2021 after recovering in the first quarter buoyed by strong economic growth, the World Bank said on Tuesday.
Energy prices are expected to average more than one-third higher this year than 2020, with oil averaging $56 a barrel, it said. Prices should rise to $60 a barrel in 2022, &#8220;broadly in line with their 2017-19 average.&#8221;
Metals are expected to climb 30% and agricultural markets are forecast to rise nearly 14%.
Still, the World Bank said its outlook is heavily dependent on progress in containing the COVID-19 pandemic as well as policy support measures in advanced economies.
&#8220;Global growth has been stronger than expected so far and vaccination campaigns are underway, and these trends have buoyed commodity prices. However, the durability of the recovery is highly uncertain,&#8221; said Ayhan Kose, World Bank group acting vice president for equitable growth, finance and institutions, and director of the prospects group.
&#8220;Emerging market and developing economies, both commodity exporters and importers, should strengthen their short-term resilience and prepare for the possibility of growth losing momentum.&#8221;
Crude oil has bounced back from all-time lows reached during the initial months of the pandemic. A rapid global economic recovery and continued production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and partners have supported prices, it said.
Brent crude and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude have climbed more than 30% in 2021.
Metal prices are likely to give up some of this year&#8217;s gains as stimulus-driven growth fades in 2022.
Copper prices are projected to average 38% higher this year on strong construction and consumer goods demand.
&#8220;However, they are expected to ease in 2022 as new supplies materialize.&#8221;
A faster-than expected withdrawal of stimulus by some major emerging market economies could pose a downside risk to metal prices, but higher U.S. infrastructure spending could support some metals, including aluminum, copper and iron ore.
Agricultural markets have rallied on strong Chinese demand and production issues in South America, even though most global food commodity markets remain adequately supplied by historical standards, the World Bank said.
Benchmark Chicago corn and soybeans are trading close to multi-year highs, with prices lifted by food security worries and adverse weather in Brazil.
Food inflation in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa averaged nearly 9% in January-February 2021, and there is risk of higher price inflation if the recent spikes in world food prices &#8220;transmit into domestic markets,&#8221; it added. (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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World Bank expects commodity prices to stay firm on economic growth

KAMPALA, April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Uganda&#8217;s coffee exports surged 20% year-on-year in March, helped by good prices for the beans and favourable weather, the state-run sector regulator said on Tuesday.
The east African country&#8217;s is Africa&#8217;s largest coffee exporter and earnings from the crop constitute the second largest source foreign exchange after gold.
Shipments in March rose to 572,839 60-kg bags compared to exports in the same period 12 months earlier, state-run Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said in a report.
The surge was &#8220;due to a positive trend in global coffee prices which influenced exporters to offload more coffee,&#8221; UCDA said, adding favourable weather also helped. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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