$40
In a dramatic move at the end of last year, Opec set out to woo some of the biggest oil hedge funds in the industry, holding private meetings where it laid out plans to cut crude supplies in an attempt to get prices back towards $60 a barrel.
Six months on the relationship lies in tatters, with traders rapidly losing faith in Opec’s efforts to end a three-year old oil glut and rather than rallying, oil prices have collapsed.
The hedge funds, which at one stage amassed a record billion barrel bet on crude prices rising, are now warning that traders could push oil prices back below $40 a barrel, thus forcing Opec’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, to deliver on a pledge to do “whatever it takes” to balance the market.
10-year low
At $1,839 a tonne, Cocoa is being dragged down by the fall in oil prices, testing the 10-year lows seen in April.
Although correlations over a longer term between different commodities was low, some brokers and analysts said the short-term link in price movements seemed to have strengthened amid the current weakness in crude prices.
This week’s sell-off also affected other so-called soft commodities including sugar and coffee.
126m
HMD, a company formed to revive Nokia’s brand in the phone market, has enjoyed unprecedented publicity since it revealed it was bringing back the 3310. The ex-Nokians that run HMD have talked about the revamped 3310 which sold 126 million units in its heydays, as a “workhorse” phone for those who can live without data. With one eye on the hipster market, they say the new-old model is a “festival phone” for revellers who may want to trade off their Instagram account for a device with a battery life that lasts a week.
44.5%
Atlas Mara is to raise $100m through an offering of new shares – which will be sold at a 10 per cent discount and a further $100m as it seeks to consolidate its holding in Nigeria’s Union Bank Plc.
The company intends to pay $55m for an indirect 13.4 per cent shareholding in Union Bank, which will take its combined direct and indirect holding in the bank to 44.5 per cent.
Atlas said the acquisition “accelerates Atlas Mara’s long term strategy to build its banking business in Nigeria.”
16,000
Ford Motor Co is recalling nearly 16,000 Ikon and Figo models in South Africa due to a potential fire risk, it said on Friday.
The models were built between 2004 and 2012 in India, Ford said in a statement.
“A power steering fluid leak could result in fumes being emitted from the engine compartment,” it said.
