GRi Business, Economics & Finance 06 –
02 - 2003
Ghana Airways withdraws from Nationwide deal
World Bank Country Director visits Tema
ADB President address All-Africa Law Conference
Accra bourse in moderate gain despite Aluworks big loss
Ashanti goes into platinum exploration
Ghana
Accra
Dr Richard Anane, Minister of Roads and Transport told a press
conference in
However, the Board of Ghana Airways (Ghanair) advised the Ministry late
January this year that the business plan submitted by Nationwide did not meet
the requirements.
The business plan was one of the five requirements, which the
prospective joint venture partner was expected to prepare at its own cost to
guide the venture. The others required the partner to assist government
establish a debt restructuring agreement with creditors, make available
experienced managerial and technical services.
It was also to provide all the seed capital in the initial start-up
phase and make available such aircraft and other equipment as required to
operate the agreed service schedule.
Out of the five, Nationwide could not meet the requirement to provide
all the seed capital for the initial start-up phase of the joint venture
company and the assistance required for the government to put in place a debt
restructuring agreement with creditors.
Dr Anane said Nationwide has been duly informed of the decision. The
government opted to go into a joint venture partnership to restructure Ghanair
as recommended by a diagnostic study report that advised it to salvage the
airline through three options of total liquidation, a turn around and a joint ventureship.
According to the Minister, the first two options would have obligated
government to pay off the existing debt of $167m. The second one would in
addition require re-capitalisation, which he said "would have been too
much for the government to bear considering other competing priorities."
Explaining the rationale that informed government to choose the joint
venture, Dr Anane said: "The joint ventureship
option was selected to ensure the injection of private capital, management
expertise and operational efficiency, which are,
accepted industry practices worldwide into the management and operation of the
airline."
Dr Anane explained that given the sensitivity of much of the commercial
information on Ghanair and that unsolicited offers had been made even before
the government had finalised its options, a decision was made to seek targeted
offers and to open the offers.
Some major airlines the government approached, such as KLM, British
Airways, Alitalia and Continental however did not
yield any results. Dr Anane said some investors and other airlines both local
and international, including T and E Aviation,
The would-be partner was among other requirements expected to access
aircraft of acceptable standards, provide acceptable under-wing and over-wing
service standards, have capacity to train staff, especially, cockpit and cabin
crew and be traceable.
Nationwide met the preliminary requirements from proposals it submitted
to the Board and Management of Ghanair and the sector Ministry and also shared
the vision to create a sub-regional hub, hence the signing of the abortive MOU.
Dr Anane however, said that government pursued some restructuring
measures in the Ghana Airways while the negotiations were going on. This has so
far yielded positive results with the Airline being able to pay $20m out of the
$167m it owed creditors since July last year.
The airline was recording a monthly loss of one million dollars before
the restructuring measures and has in addition been able to ferry the DC 10
aircraft grounded for more than 15 months to
The aircraft was grounded due to Ghanair's
inability to meet part of a contractual obligation. The Minister said before
July, he had had debt countless sleepless nights as a result of the airline
situation and the pressures from creditors.
He said the sleepless nights have ceased following the turnaround in the
airline's business and negotiations with the creditors, which was never done
before July. He said: "In the light of the recent stabilisation of the
company, the board has advised that the Airline should be re-positioned before
further consideration for possible ventureship or
alliances.
On the question of the inability of Ghanair to pay salaries of workers
at the close of last week, Dr Anane said that was due to payments made by the
airline on behalf of the Hajj participants and he gave the assurance that that
would be corrected soon.
The Minister answered in the positive, questions put to him as to
whether the Airline could, with time stand on its feet and discard the idea of
joint ventureship in view of the current situation,
whether the airline could become time conscious and whether the current
temporary management team could bring efficiency to Ghana Airways.
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
World Bank Country Director visits Tema
Accra (Greater Accra) 06 February 2003- Mats Karlsson,
the World Bank Country Director in Ghana, has noted that Ghana's economic
potential could be greatly enhanced if she vigorously implemented her gateway
policy that would boost the nation's export potential and enable her to raise
the needed funds for development projects.
The World Bank has granted a $50m credit facility to
Karlsson said this when he visited Tema Harbour as part of a working visit to
the Tema Municipal area, a statement issued by the Information Service
Department said in Accra on Wednesday.
Karlsson inspected various projects being jointly undertaken by the World Bank
and the government of
At the Harbour, Karlsson praised the
co-operation between the implementation agencies and said their commitment to
the project would determine its overall success.
The Chief Engineer of the harbour, Richard Anamro
told Karlsson that the
He said the GPHA was to relocate the containers and cocoa sheds to a new
site to decongest the harbour and encourage brisk business there. At the Ashiaman East and West electoral areas, Karlsson
urged residents to be resourceful in initiating projects to provide basic
needs, which would demonstrate the people's readiness to improve their lot and
thereby win support from donor agencies.
The World Bank has assisted
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
ADB President address All-Africa Law Conference
"The Organisers of this conference have boldly set out the thesis
that sustainable economic growth and development are achievable in each African
country, if Africa re-commits itself to re-affirming the pre-eminence of the
rule of law and if it acts resolutely to promote justice for all, "Kabbaj told the gathering which included President Olusegun Obasanjo.
A statement from the bank said the conference, being attended by jurists
from
Kabbaj attributed the successes achieved by the Bank in the last couple of
years to the fundamental internal reforms, which his administration has been
implementing since 1996.
"These reforms introduced by the Board of Governors of the Bank,
the institution's highest governing organ, have sought to ensure proper
separation of powers and responsibilities among the principal decision-making
organs of the Bank," he said.
In addition to strengthening its own internal governance structure, the
Bank has also been very active in improving governance systems in some of its
53 regional member countries.
Kabbaj cited countries that have received financial and technical support to
improve their governance, namely
He also named four other areas in which the Bank is working hard to
promote good governance. These include preparation of Country Governance
Profiles, support to NEPAD, OHADA and other regional initiatives. It has also
introduced governance criteria as a condition for the provision of loans to
member countries.
He said the ADB facilitated the establishment of the Africa Law
Institute, the first African think-tank. It has also recently co-sponsored a
seminar with the African Union in
The Bank is co-sponsoring the first
It has also taken Observer Status with the Financial Action Task Force
to work on matter pertaining to money laundering. Kabbaj
is scheduled to sign an agreement with Citibank
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra
The equity lost 200 cedis, but Ghana Commercial Bank, which led gainers,
propped up the index. The GSE All-Share index gained 6.58 points to close at
1,442.00 from 1,435.42 points.
Traded shares remained in the 600,000 shares range, going up to 632,000
from Monday's close of 607,100 shares. Eleven of the 24 listed equities sold
shares, with British American Tobacco (BAT) selling 437,700 shares followed by
ALW, which sold 150,900 shares.
On the broader market, there were four price changes - three up and one
down. Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) gained ¢128 at ¢3,800, Fan Milk Limited (FML)
was seven cedis richer 1,807 cedis and Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL) rose by
five cedis at 1,115 cedis. ALW lost ¢200 at ¢3,600.
Market capitalisation rose to ¢6,421.02bn from ¢6,408.11bn. The change
for the year jumped to 3.35 per cent.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 390
AGC 28,000
ALW 3,500 -200
BAT 1,101
CFAO 67
EIC 4,600
FML 1,807 +
GBL 551
GCB 3,800 +128
GGL 1,115 +5
HFC 1,200
MGL 254
MLC 272
MOGL 19,730
PAF 750
PBC 390
PZ 2,016
SCB 28,700
SPPC 387
SSB 4,154
SWL 285
TBL 4,850
UNIL 4,863
CMLT 460
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Ashanti
Obuasi (Ashanti Region)
The project is a joint venture, with Timeng
Mining and Exploration of South Africa with 60 per cent shares while
He said
Platinum is a soft metallic chemical highly resistant to corrosion and
electrochemical attack. It is used as a catalyst for acid-proof containers
ignition fuses, jewellery and dental alloys among
other things. It is also used in the automobile industry. Fuel cells use
platinum to create electricity without pollution by combining hydrogen and
oxygen into water.
Owusu said AGC would go into a leasing agreement for the concession
after the exploration activity. AGC,
Exchanges.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com