Hollywood is at risk of becoming Detroit, advocates warn, unless the U.S. responds to the 81 countries embracing filmmaking as an economic tool.
“I watched the demise of steel and rubber and automotive manufacturing as I grew up,” says IATSE vice president Mike Miller, who was raised in Cleveland. “This is identical in many ways. We have an undeclared trade war that our government is standing by and watching happen.”
Read the full cover story on the mass exodus of LA productions by @GeneMaddaus: https://t.co/wwHFxvtsaB
💔Je suis si triste d'apprendre la mort de Nelly Chatue Diop, une de nos plus grandes ambassadrice de la tech. Elle était engagée dans l'innovation financière et a co-fondé @EjaraApp considéré comme pionnier dans notre système fintech. VERY SAD.
Repose en paix @chakaneld. 🪽
"True democracy is a safety valve to let a youthful populace register their desire for change. The alternative is that they gravitate toward violence or even terrorism. Biya has found a way to stay on, but ... demographics mean that change is inevitable."
https://t.co/uiBKijPe7H
Kareyce Fotso parle, et non ce n’est pas un cas exceptionnel, c’est une habitude répétée.
« 🛑🛑🛑 MON CALVAIRE AVEC CAMAIR-CO
CECI N EST PAS UN.TÉMOIGNAGE C'EST UN CRI
J'avais un projet de création artistique à Garoua.
Je prends Camair-Co le 13 juillet au départ de Yaoundé, vol prévu à 11h30.
Nous décollerons finalement à 19h30, sans aucune explication.
Le 18 juillet, je dois absolument être à Yaoundé. Mon vol est prévu à 12h, nous partons à 13h.
Après 30 minutes de vol, le commandant nous annonce une panne détectée en plein ciel. Il faut atterrir en urgence à Douala, car il est impossible de rejoindre Yaoundé.
Nous atterrissons à 14h30 à Douala.
Et là, plus rien. Plus d’informations. Plus de Camair-Co.
Nous sommes abandonnés dans l’aéroport, livrés à nous-mêmes.
On murmure que nous repartirons à 19h... Mais 19h arrive, et toujours rien.
Aucun agent Camair-Co en vue. Aucune explication. Aucun respect.
Des passagers s’énervent. Une dame des ADC, présente par hasard, devient la cible d'une colère collective.
Elle-même n’a aucune information.
Il est 22h, je suis épuisée, dévorée par les moustiques.
Pas de logement, pas de nutrition
Je decide finalement de chercher un abri, je prends une chambre à l’hôtel Krystal Palace
Le lendemain, toujours aucun signe de Camair-Co.
J’ai dû prendre la route pour Yaoundé, ( toutes ces charges à mes frais )
sans jamais recevoir un seul message, ni appel, ni excuse.
Je repars pour Garoua le 20 juillet.
Vol prévu à 20h. Nous décollons à 24h55 pour arriver après 02h du matin.
Après notre création, le spectacle a lieu à l’Alliance Française de Garoua le 3 août.
Le 4 août, je dois rentrer. Mon vol est prévu à 11h30.
Je reçois un appel de Camair-Co :
> “Il n’y a pas de vol pour Yaoundé jusqu’à date ultérieure.”
Aucune autre explication. Même quand je demande :
“Date ultérieure ça veut dire quoi non la mère?
Silence.
Le 6 août, je reçois un message :
> “Décollage à 22h.”
Et ce 7 août, il est plus de 01h du matin quand je vous ecris ce message . Je suis toujours à l’aéroport de Garoua, avec d’autres passagers.
Aucun rafraîchissement, aucune information. Juste des moustiques pour compagnie.
Un message vient de passer dans les hauts-parleurs :
> “Décollage à 03h30.”
Mais vous savez quoi ? Je n’y crois plus.
J’ai des concerts internationaux j ai deja raté mon départ qui était prevu hier soir par Nsimalen.
je suis ici, bloquée, assise sur un banc d’aéroport, sans perspective.
Alors je pose ces questions :
🛑Qui est à la tête de Camair-Co ?
🛑 Qu’est-ce qui ne tourne pas rond ?
🛑Combien de Camerounais doivent encore être humiliés, abandonnés, en détresse dans vos avions ou dans vos halls d’aéroport ?
Si ça ne marche plus, fermez, mais cessez de nous maltraiter.
On ne joue pas ainsi avec la vie et les projets des gens.
Merci à vous tous qui lirez ce message.
Merci de partager, de relayer, de témoigner si vous avez vécu la même chose.
Il est temps que les voix se lèvent. On mérite mieux.
Mais là là là je faisbcomment?
Votre Mama Afric❤️ est dans de sales draps »
Littéralement, Cyril Hanouna est payé par Cyril Onana à Yaoundé et Harouna Coulibaly à Abidjan. L'Afrique finance CNEWS. De battre mon coeur va s'arrêter là. (Chiffres de 2018 à actualiser).
https://t.co/Z7Ro2zzrms...
Four malls in Ghana and Nigeria, including West Africa's largest mall (West Hills), are being sold by two real estate players - Hyprop and Atterbury's Attacq - at a considerable loss to a lucky buyer: a young, ambitious, pan-African, real estate investor called, Lango.
The four malls (West Hills, Kumasi City, Accra City & Ikeja City), besides their scale, are also the swankiest in the largest cities of West Africa's two largest economies, Ghana and Nigeria.
When I saw the PR-heavy press coverage, my antenna jacked up since I have been investigating the World Bank's IFC's mall investments as part of a long-term project that seeks to understand how and if investments by the World Bank truly benefit people on the ground.
First off (no prizes for guessing), the PR that the three Ghanaian malls were sold for $200 million was false. Newsrooms are very busy nowadays, giving free rein to PR agents to push fake news through at a worrying pace. 😊 🤦🏽♂️
And, yes, the World Bank's IFC is somehow involved in this affair. The company (Lango) that bought the 4 malls began life as an Investec-Growthpoint entity that was funded by the IFC in May 2018 with a $40 million contingent-equity facility.
Attacq's and Hyprop's stakes in the four malls actually all sold for a total of $60 million. Their stakes in the three Ghanaian malls fetched ~$27 million. Consider that in 2017, Sanlam valued the Accra Mall alone (the smallest of the 3 malls) at $129 million, up 100% in value from the $65 million it assessed in 2012 when, together with Attacq, it bought it from Actis.
The two mall sellers were in such a hurry to leave the Sub-Saharan Africa malls business that they even took their payment in Lango shares, as there was no cash at hand.
The buyer itself, Lango, had to restructure its debts in 2021, kind courtesy of a Stanbic facility. Imagine how it licked its lips when it picked up the malls for cheap last week without having to put down any cash. 😁
The sellers disclosed net losses on the four malls totaling ~$37 million for FY 2023. It would seem like the original mall financiers - the likes of Actis - got off lightly, since Actis reported a 7.2% exit yield on its Ghana mall holdings when exiting in 2012. Curious though that they declined to provide the actual numbers.
By the time that Attacq and Hyprop sold the malls last week, the four properties carried a value of ~$179 million, 44.4% less than the total original construction cost of ~$322 million. Selling all their stakes in the four malls for $60 million, net of debt, and in shares rather than cash, implies a steep and dramatic erosion in nominal value over time (much worse in NPV terms). Judging by their valuation curves between 2012 and 2019, the effective erosion of value at the time of the sale exceeds 85% from the base year.
Furthermore, 20% of the Lango shares received for the sale are encumbered until 2025 to ensure smooth onboarding of current customers (some tenants in some of the malls have been really agitated of late). Unsurprisingly, the two sellers say that they won't hold the shares received in payment for long.
The more interesting thing for me, though, is how the sale vindicates my recent positions about "project-specific risks" versus "sectoral risks". I have argued that, in Africa, it pays more to focus on project-level than sector-wide risks.
My remarks concerned how the IFC, a development financier, seems to have embraced the commercial luxury real estate sector in Africa following the lead of commercial investors who talked as if they had de-risked it. Even as it showed continued neglect of major priority sectors in Ghana, like agrotech.
The organisation's stance, from where I sit, requires explanation given its comfort with risks in categories like luxury malls and condos despite their relatively weak link with the organisation's (and, for that matter, the World Bank's) longstanding mission to end poverty and broaden shared prosperity.
Most of the world’s oldest leaders — in their 80s and even one in his 90s — are in Africa, which has the youngest population of any continent. And many of those young people want their leaders to follow President Biden’s lead and head toward the exit. https://t.co/dtT5ifXcjU
Diageo is the latest multinational to divest from Nigeria. What is interesting is the selling price valuing the total business at £93m while the smaller Cameroon unit was sold for £389m in 2022. Why such a discrepancy? Dropping Valuations? Drowning Naira?
https://t.co/cZIPnPXXty