• A barrel of Brent crude traded at $80.93 on Monday, the highest level since November 2014, after OPEC and its partners signalled less urgency to boost output at a meeting in Algiers yesterday. 

• The move comes despite a call from Trump to increase supply in order to cap rising oil prices. Major energy trading houses are predicting OPEC will continue to hold the upper hand with forecasts for $100 crude becoming more common.

Source: Bloomberg

• Theresa May's Brexit negotiations with the European Union (EU) are going very, very wrong and there is speculation that the U.K. could be heading for a snap election.
• Both the ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour party appear to be considering the possibility of a snap election as early as November, particularly in light of May's disastrous meeting with her EU counterparts in Salzburg last week, at which they appeared to throw her and her Brexit proposals under the bus.

 Source: CNBC

• ”I hope in three years' time, there will be a number of foreign ventures qualified for full-license, full-ownership operation in the financial sector,” Premier Li Keqiang told a group of business leaders at a World Economic Forum conference.
• Recent financial reform efforts that Chinese authorities have taken include allowing individual foreign investors in the country to buy mainland-traded stocks, known as A shares, and removing limits of foreign holdings in banks.

Source: CNBC

• Petrotrin’s re­fin­ery gates won’t be closed im­me­di­ate­ly on Oc­to­ber 1 - there’ll be a phased ex­it of em­ploy­ees start­ing with the re­fin­ery. 

• The jobs of al­most 4,800 per­ma­nent and tem­po­rary/ca­su­al em­ploy­ees will all be af­fect­ed, par­tic­u­lar­ly 1,700 re­fin­ery posts. Work­ers will even­tu­al­ly have to reap­ply for jobs in a re­struc­tured Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion di­vi­sion which will be Petrotrin’s new fo­cus. 

• Notes to Petrotrin’s Au­gust 2018 fi­nan­cial state­ments showed the com­pa­ny record­ed a net prof­it af­ter tax of $83.2 mil­lion for last month. Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion, in­clud­ing Trin­mar, record­ed a net prof­it of $20.5 mil­lion - but Re­fin­ing and Mar­ket­ing record­ed a net loss of $7.5 mil­lion. 

• The board’s memo al­so stat­ed that de­tails on com­pen­sa­tion and ben­e­fits are “cur­rent­ly be­ing fi­nalised.”

 Source: TT Guardian

Wisynco Group Limited (WISYNCO), as a result of an equity investment in Worthy Park Estate Limited by its parent company, has negotiated a five (5) year exclusive distribution agreement with Worthy Park Estate Limited (WPEL) for the distribution of WPEL’s spirits and sugar, WISYNCO advised.

WISYNCO further advised that the distribution of WPEL’s spirits will commence on November 1, 2018 and will include the ‘Rum-Bar’ and Worthy Park Estate brands of spirits. The distribution of WPEL’s sugar will commence on January 1, 2019 at the start of the new sugar crop.

Source: JSE

Wisynco Group Limited (WISYNCO) has advised that it has taken note of the Government of Jamaica’s recently announced ban on plastic bags, plastic straws and Styrofoam, pending final legislative provisions.

The areas of impact for WISYNCO include plastic straws and Styrofoam, which the Company manufactures.

Regarding plastic straws, it is proposed that this can take effect on January 1, 2019. Plastic straws represent less than 1/10th of 1% of the Company’s revenue and the ban will therefore have no impact.

Regarding the ban on Styrofoam for local manufacturers, though there is still some uncertainty, it is currently proposed that this ban take effect on January 1, 2020. Styrofoam represents 4% of the company’s revenue and approximately 3% of the company’s net income.

Source: JSE

The All Jamaica Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August 2018 recorded an inflation rate of 0.9 per cent. This was outlined in the Consumer Price Index Bulletin – August 2018 released today by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN). The upward movement in August 2018 CPI was influenced by a 1.6 per cent increase, in the index for the ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ division. This was primarily due to higher prices for agricultural produce resulting in an increase of 0.6 per cent in the class ‘Vegetables and Starchy Foods’. Another influence on the upward movement was the ‘Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Household maintenance’ division as a result of the increase in the Minimum Wage of approximately 13.0 per cent. These increases were mitigated by a fall of 0.1 per cent in the index for the division ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’, due to lower electricity rates. The calendar year-to-date inflation was 1.6 per cent while the movement in the index for the fiscal year-to-date was 1.9 per cent and the point-to-point movement was 3.9 per cent. A breakdown of the three regions for the month showed that all three regions recorded increases in their index: Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA) (1.2 per cent), Other Urban areas (OUC) (1.0 per cent), and Rural Areas (0.7 per cent).

Source: STATIN

(Bloomberg) U.S. President Donald Trump resumed his criticism of OPEC, saying on Twitter that the cartel “must get prices down now!”. Trump’s fresh intervention in the oil market comes before a meeting of ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies in Algeria on Sunday. His complaint follows signals from Saudi Arabia that it was content to see prices climb above $80. That’s been a red line for the White House in the past, provoking the president to direct his first social-media barb against the cartel since July 4. According to commodity analyst Giovanni Staunovo, Trump’s tweet makes sense “with oil prices close to the highs of the year,” Considering the upcoming OPEC meeting in Algiers, he wants to keep the pressure on the group ahead of the mid-term elections.”

Plans are in earnest to refinance Petrotrin’s US$850Mn bond which fall due 2019, with a request for proposals (RFP) expected as soon as next month according to the company’s chairman Wilfred Espinet. 

In an effort to curb losses emanating from the company’s operations, Petrotrin in a statement released on August 28, 2018 announced that it will be closing its Pointe-a-Pierre oil re­fin­ing op­er­a­tions while completely re­designing its Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion divisions.  Refinancing the 2019 in­ter­na­tion­al bond, held widely by for­eign in­vestors, is seen as one of the key is­sues fac­ing the com­pa­ny whose re­fin­ery operations are scheduled to be closed in two weeks. Estimates are that approximately 3500 permanent workers and another 1200 non-permanent workers will be affected by the closure which is expected to cost the state-owned Oil Company upwards of $1Bn.  However, concerns abound that the costs associated with the closure may come out well above the $1Bn estimate due staff related costs such as pension benefits as well as unpaid supplier costs.   

With respect to the refinancing plans, Es­pinet indicated that the company is currently weighing its options, stating further, “we'll is­sue a re­quest for pro­pos­als for re­fi­nanc­ing by Oc­to­ber. It will take a lit­tle time but we an­tic­i­pate that with­in the next two months we should have an idea of where we are on the sit­u­a­tion.”

Source: Trinidad & Tobago Guardian