Company News in Brief

Trade tensions, aid cuts won't trigger Africa credit downgradesPressure from U.S. aid freezes and global trade tension is unlikely to result in widescale credit downgrades in Africa, Fitch Ratings said on Thursday.The impact of tariffs on Africa is limited, Fitch said, due to the region's export composition and weaker integration into global supply chains compared to a region such as Asia.The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here.But Sub-Saharan Africa has been one of the largest recipients of funds disbursed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which was frozen by executive order of U.S. President Donald Trump.Nonetheless, South Africa, Namibia and Ivory Coast remain relatively shielded from recent events, Paul Gamble, head of Middle East/Africa in Fitch’s Sovereign Ratings Group, said.And Nigeria and the Seychelles both hold positive credit outlooks from Fitch Ratings - an indication that a rating is expected to be raised in the future - thanks to ongoing reforms, he told a webinar."The reforms that we've seen really put the region in a better position to absorb some of these shocks," Gamble."The impact for the ratings looks manageable."However, the freeze on U.S. foreign aid was not without negative consequences, Fitch said.-REUTERS Egypt to sell stakes in military companies Egypt will offer stakes in military-owned companies through its sovereign wealth fund, the cabinet said on Wednesday, seeking to meet the requirements of the International Monetary Fund to expand the private sector's role in the economy.The wealth fund will aim to sell stakes in fuel station operators Wataniya Petroleum and Chillout, mineral water company Safi, Silo Foods, and the National Company for road building this year and next, the cabinet said.It did not give the size of the stakes to be sold, which will follow a restructuring of the companies by the $12 billion wealth fund.Financial services companies EFG Hermes Holdings and CI Capital will promote and underwrite the offerings, the cabinet added.Dozens of military-owned companies have flourished since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces chief, became president in 2014, a year after leading the military in ousting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.This has raised concerns among local businesses and foreign investors about potentially unfair competition. The government says there is a level playing field for private companies and military-backed firms fill gaps in the market.-REUTERS Apple airlifts 600 tons of iPhones from IndiaApple chartered cargo flights to ferry 600t of iPhones, or as many as 1.5 million, to the US from India, after it stepped up production there in an effort to beat President Donald Trump’s tariffs, sources have said.The details of the push provide an insight into the US smartphone company’s private strategy to navigate around the Trump tariffs and build up inventory of its popular iPhones in America, one of its biggest markets.Analysts have warned that US prices of iPhones could surge, given Apple’s high reliance on imports from China, the main manufacturing hub of the devices, which is subject to Trump’s highest tariff rate of 145%.The company lobbied Indian airport authorities to cut to six hours the time needed to clear customsThat figure is far in excess of the tariff of 26% on imports from India, but which is now on hold after Trump called a 90-day pause this week that excludes China.Apple “wanted to beat the tariff”, said one of the sources familiar with the planning.-REUTERS

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