OPEN MIND ON FB’S CRYPTOCURRENCY PLAN

he was referring to “one of the country’s highest-profile chief executives from one of Africa’s biggest finance companies.” No mean pick here.

Moyo has said that there has been no wrongdoing on his part, adding that “the disagreement was the result of differences over the approach to engagement rather than the relationship itself.”

Moyo plans to take the South African insurer to court.

Should investors be concerned with the firing of Moyo?

Often investors will find recurring themes where listed shares are declining in price and these themes are typically related to one of three things: market movement as a whole, industry action in which the firm operates, or firm-specific issues.

However, in most corporate environments when there are changes in top management as people retire or move on to different jobs, the majority of times these moves are amicable and will have no lasting impact on the company. But this does not seem to be the case with Old Mutual.

Usually, well-run boards will strategise to deal with a top manager in such a situation.

Behind-the-scenes discussions take place and deals are made in order to manage investor confidence and limit the behaviour of opportunists and speculators who thrive on such blunders in order to trade based on rumours and bad management. Good communication is key.

The type of language and actions that a company uses can affect its share price in a big way – just as what happened with Old Mutual.

In the case of Old Mutual, it seems that last month’s action by the board led to the decline in the share price. The “government speak” used in their communication compounded the problem.

Darryl Dioso, founder and managing partner of Resource Management Solutions Group, said: “Employee engagement is the degree to which an employee feels that they are truly part of a company, have a voice in its decisions and feel respected.”

Old Mutual’s bad handling of its problems with Moyo puts it in a catch22 scenario, pitting Moyo against the board, which is bad for investor confidence in the company. Everybody loses.

Sello Mashao Rasethaba is the chairperson of the African Entrepreneurs Council. A SENIOR member of the Swiss National Bank said he was open-minded about Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, while an Italian official looked for more information as central bankers try to get to grips with the initiative. Facebook revealed plans last week to launch Libra, the latest development in its effort to expand beyond social networking and move into e-commerce and global payments. “Overall I think it’s an interesting development and

I’m pretty relaxed about it,” Thomas Moser, an alternate member of the Swiss National Bank’s governing board, said at the Crypto Valley Conference in Zug. “They have clearly indicated that they are willing to play according to the rules, they have been contacting the regulators,” he added. How regulators of the international financial system respond to the Libra project, which Facebook aims to launch by the first half of next year, will have a crucial impact on its prospects. The cryptocurrency must respect anti-money laundering regulations and its backers must seek licences if it offers banking services, France’s central bank chief said in a magazine interview. Domenico Gammaldi, head of the Bank of Italy’s head of market and payment system oversight, said he wanted more information on the project. “I’ve read more than 200 pages of comments, and it’s very strange for me to give a personal opinion on 12 pages in the white paper,” Gammaldi said yesterday. | Reuters RUSSIA’S largest online taxi service Yandex.Taxi is likely to sell new shares in its planned initial public offering (IPO), an executive at its majority shareholder Yandex, said. Russian internet company Yandex and US group Uber Technologies combined their taxi businesses across Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan in 2017 to create an enlarged Yandex.Taxi. The company was valued at more than $3.8 billion (R54.46bn) at the time. Yandex holds a 59.3 percent stake, Uber has

36.6 percent and Yandex.Taxi staff own 4.1 percent. Since 2017, the firm has entered Israel, the food delivery sector and other sectors. Greg Abovsky, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Yandex, said Yandex had yet to decide on a stock exchange for the IPO of Yandex.Taxi or the timing and size of the deal. “But we consider the Moscow Exchange an important exchange. At the same time, it should be taken into account that Uber is trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and (rival taxi firm) Lyft on Nasdaq,” Abovsky said. Yandex itself trades on Nasdaq and has a market capitalisation of almost $13bn, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. Uber’s market capitalisation is $73bn.

I Reuters African News Agency (ANA)