The AfrAsia Titanium MasterCard

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AfrAsia Titanium MasterCard

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Grégory Havret - Winner of AfrAsia Golf Masters 2011

To view photos and read more about the event, please visit our

Website, LinkedIn Group, AfrAsia Bank Facebook page, AfrAsia Golf Masters Facebook page.

AfrAsia Bank offers a priceless experience to its clients

AfrAsia Bank hosted the AfrAsia MasterCard PRO-AM on Monday 12th December at Ernie Els designed golf course - Four Seasons Golf Club Mauritius at Anahita. The Bank has invited its clients to play with the pros offering them a priceless experience to cherish for a lifetime. This competition was a prelude to the AfrAsia Golf Masters 2011 starting 13th December 2011.

The winner of AfrAsia MasterCard PRO-AM goes to the team led by Jason BARNES (Pro) and comprised of 3 amateurs being Brigitte ROBERT PARKER, Grant KURLAND, and Roopal GOSWAMY.

The AfrAsia MasterCard PRO-AM revolves around the concept of “4 balls-2 best balls”, bringing together a team of 4 players - 1 pro and 3 amateurs – and the 2 best net scores for each hole is recorded.

AfrAsia MasterCard PRO-AM regrouped 12 pros namely:

• Ricki NEIL-JONES (Eng)
• Julien FORET (Fra)
• Nicolas JOAKIMIDES (Fra)
• Jason BARNES (Eng)
• Julien QUESNE (Fra)
• Benoît TELLERIA (Fra)
• Edouard DUBOIS (Fra)
• Romain SCHNEIDER (Fra)
• Ignacio SANCHEZ-PALENCIA (Esp)
• Richard KILPATRICK (NIR)
• Rémi DUPUIS (Fra)
• Emilien CHAMAULTE (Fra)

Click here to view the scoreboard for AfrAsia MasterCard PRO-AM including results and handicap adjustments for each amateur team member.

To stay tuned to news and updates, please visit our Website, LinkedIn Group, AfrAsia Bank Facebook page and AfrAsia Golf Masters Facebook page.

Hennie Otto & Gregory Havret make an emphatic impression 2 weeks prior to the AfrAsia Golf Masters 2011

The South African golfer Hennie Otto carves his name in the South African Open Championship by holding off the Austrian Bern Wiesberger, who will also be present at the AfrAsia Golf Masters as from the 11th December. Otto presented himself as a leader at the fourth round of this European circuit, and while resisting to the fight-back of his competitors, Otto captured his second victory on the tour, his first since the Italian Open 2008. “I was close to winning several times since, but I never managed to succeed”, he declared.

Two other guests of the prestigious AfrAsia Golf Masters Mauritius at Anahita were also leaders of the 4-day S.A competition – The Austrian runner-up Bern Wiesberger and the French Jean-Baptiste Gonnet, gearing towards victory until the last round but eventually ranked 32nd.

Another talented golfer, the French Gregory Havret, will also be joining the competition following a good result at the last UBS Hong Kong Open trophy. Playing alongside World number two Rory McIlroy, he settled for second place with a 65, while the former, closed the competition with a spectacular five-under-par 65 which included a dramatic closing birdie from the bunker for a two-stroke victory.

Havret, who also finished second behind McIlroy at the U.S. Open, said an opening bogey proved costly although he fought back with four birdies and one eagle. “The only mistake is probably the first hole where I three-putted. Nothing of absolute beauty because I didn’t win. I had a chance going into the last one behind him but I obviously made a bad drive, and that was for me very hard to make par, but Rory did and managed to make an efficient shot. He seems to like this hole quite a lot, and, yeah, his shot (birdie) was absolutely amazing,” said Havret.

All these amazing performances look very promising before this second edition of the professional Mauritian tournament which will bring together the twenty best golf players of the Allianz Golf Tour and ten specially invited guest players of the European Tour. The competition will take place at the Ernie Els designed golf course with breathtaking oceanfront holes – the Four Seasons Golf Course Mauritius at Anahita. Besides Otto, Wiesberger and Gonnet, the competition also welcomes Grégory Havret, Christian Cévaër, Victor Dubuisson as well as the Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, the winner of the 2010 edition who is holding on to an impressive season and who will be keen to secure his title. In line with being a big-hitter, this young player looks a firm favourite for this year’s challenging competition.

Organised by Canal+ Events, the game is played on stroke play. On 15th and 16th December, an original pairing (one professional and one amateur) is established in an Alliance format. Moreover the competition is preceded by two PRO-AMs (AfrAsia PRO-AM and Anahita World Class Sanctuary PRO-AM), where professionals and amateurs will be mixed in an opening round scheduled on the 13th & 14th. The Pro tournament will be held on Saturday 17th December 2011 and will be opened to the public. As compared to last year, the total prize money has been increased to €75,000, thus rendering it one of the most sought-after competitions in this geographical area.

The competition will be broadcast four times on the Sport+ channel worldwide, in order to allow Mauritius to show the quality of its golf courses as well as its legendary hospitality.

To stay tuned to news and updates, please visit our website: www.afrasiagolfmasters.com

Nexus of Business facilitation, fiscal rebalancing, social inclusion for good of growth

AfrAsia Bank is pleased to post the following from guest blogger Afsar Ebrahim. Afsar Ebrahim is Partner at BDO International (Mauritius) and here outlines an analysis of the Budget 2012.

The professional background of the Honorable Xavier Luc Duval, the first chartered accountant to act as Finance Minister, comes across clearly in his budget. He, in fact, favors prudence and pragmatism over economic theories. The budget takes into account the murky waters of the global economy and the recurrence of shocks of globalization which a small island economy like ours is exposed to. The recent economic turmoil has put forward various imperfections of our economy which may have stifled growth. He is forecasting a marginal reduction in growth to 4.0% from 4.2%.

The Minister of Finance has addressed the previous simplistic policies that might have curtailed growth through fiscal measures :

• Abolition of solidarity levy tax on dividends and interests
• Abolition of capital gains tax
• CSR Tax now computed on chargeable income, thereby avoiding the cascading effect of dividend income being taxed twice or more
• Abolition of business rates by Municipalities
• Fiscal incentives to Freeport companies extended indefinitely

He has also realised that the various public sector institutions need reform and some will even require the help of strategic partners, the aim being to enhance competitiveness of these institutions.

The engines of growth are set to be SMEs and the traditional private sector. The Minister of Finance has in fact elaborated a ‘Marshall Plan’ for the SMEs which takes into account access to credit, cost of credit, access to space, better access to markets and ease for financial institutions to account for bad debts.

To balance the growth for good he has given an impetus to the social sector.

First, he has bridged the medical care of public and private partnerships by allowing NSF to be used for private health care which resolves the burden on public health.

Second, he has set the foundation for a strong development of low-cost housing with the setting up of the Housing Development Trust, partially financed by Government and the CSR funds.

Third, he has embarked on the inclusion of workers of the informal sector within the NPF with Government contributing for the worker’s share.

Fourth, he has broadened beneficiaries of sports activities by encouraging the private sector to employ high -potential athletes and also assist them in benefitting from the Trust Fund.

Fifth, he has ensured that the unemployed acquire on-the-job experience with the assistance of HRDC and Government sharing in the stipend.

However, to balance his books and to ensure that his budget deficit is maintained at 3.8% of GDP and to reduce its Debt to GDP ratio to a more cautious level of 54%, he has been innovative with his fiscal measures:

• Tax of 10 cents on sms
• Offshore Management Companies be charged solidarity levy in addition to banks and telecoms
• Tax amnesty for a specific window – June 2012

Overall, the Minister of Finance has set policies with a view to steer the economy towards a robust resilience and fiscally prudent manner by drawing lessons from economies that are currently in dire situations. He has redressed anomalies and has put the ball squarely in the hands of investors to take advantage.

This is not a budget to be judged as a ‘one-off’ but is part of a process, of a vision for the betterment of the economy provided no further external shocks force a change in direction. In summary, it is about sustainable growth, private sector initiatives, an SME Marshall Plan, affordability of services, institutional reforms and catering for the most needy.

The development of Renminbi in Africa

AfrAsia Bank is pleased to post the following from guest blogger Randolf Chen. Randolf is from a reputed Financial Marketing Department and here outlines the development of Renminbi in Africa.

The Chinese Yuan (short name CNY, also known as CNY) is getting more and more important place in the world to compete with US dollar, and is becoming one of the main trade settlement currencies between China and Africa.

With reference to the report issued by Standard Bank in September, the CNY internationalisation process is growing steadily, and at least the 40% (about 100 billion USD) of total trade volume between China and South Africa will use CNY as settlement currency toward 2025. This amount is almost near the total trade volume between China and Africa in 2010.

The CNY internationalisation will help China to improve its own efficiency and elasticity of trade and investment flows, and also create a more flexible and free financial environment. However, it takes time for the process to be finalised. CNY trading in the global foreign exchange market currently is only accounting for 3% in total trade volume. There will be a long process to internationalise CNY completely, but unlike USD which took 50 years for to be internationalised, the CNY speed should be faster than expectation. By comparison to other continents, Africa will be the fastest growing region in terms of CNY trade. One good example would be Nigeria who has recently announced to convert 10% of national currency reserves into CNY. We believe more African countries will soon to join. In addition, one of benefits of CNY internationalisation for both Chinese enterprises as well as Africa itself is to decrease the financing and transaction costs for importers and exporters substantially. It is understandable that African enterprises have been dealing USD as trade settlement for a long period of time. Therefore, it is necessary to explain the benefits of using CNY to make settlement instead. On one hand, there is a better discount to use CNY making settlement of the import price for African business. On the other hand, Chinese enterprises can now avoid the foreign exchange risks and enjoy the benefit of export tax rebate faster in local China.

From the technical analysis perspective, the CNY has strengthened against USD since 2010 by 7%, appreciated from 6.83 to currently trading at 6.375. Accounting for the China’s economic growth in comparison to global economic status, the 1 year prediction for USD against CNY is said to be looking at 6.20 level.

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