While the UN warns of a second recession, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has a very upbeat view of the world.

Its January fund manager survey, released yesterday, said: “Global investors have started 2012 with a reawakened sense of optimism towards the global economy and greater appetite for risk.”

The global survey of 214 institutional investors shows fewer predicting a slowdown. “Only a net 3 percent believe the world economy will weaken in the coming 12 months, down from a net 27 percent in December, the biggest one-month improvement in the growth outlook since May 2009.” The survey showed cash levels had fallen to their lowest levels since July last year.

“Cash now makes up, on average, 4.4 percent of a portfolio, down from 4.9 percent in December. The proportion of investors taking lower than normal levels of risk has improved to a net 33 percent of the panel, compared to a net 42 percent in December.”

But the institutions surveyed still had a sharp eye on geopolitical risk.

“The proportion of respondents viewing geopolitical risk as above normal has jumped to 69 percent from 48 percent last month. This has, in the past, been correlated with a spike in the oil price.”

The bank said investors “are tiptoeing rather than hurtling toward higher risk exposure; the US market and high quality cyclical sectors, such as energy and tech, have been the main beneficiaries of lower cash holdings.”

However, investors remain sceptical about European equities, especially banks. And asset allocators have “further increased their exposure to US equities. A net 28 percent are overweight US equities, up from a net 23 percent in December.

A net 31 percent remain underweight euro zone equities, an improvement from a net 35 percent a month ago, but the second-worst reading on record.”

Umthombo

Matodzi Nesongozwi, a former director of Umthombo Resources, was not unlawfully removed as a director despite his claims to the contrary, an investigation by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) has found.

Jacob de Vos, a lawyer representing Nesongozwi, complained to the commission last month that Vuslat Bayoglu, a director and shareholder of Umthombo, had unlawfully removed Nesongozwi as a director of the company on November 26.

He said the document purporting to remove Nesongozwi as a director, replacing him with Bally Chuene, a lawyer for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, was fraudulent as the signatures were forged.

However, Lana van Zyl, the director of investigations at the CIPC, found De Vos’s claim to be unsubstantiated.

In her finding, she wrote: “All the information gathered in December 2011 was evaluated and it was concluded that a Form CoR39 informing the CIPC that Mr Nesongozwi has vacated his office and that Mr Chuene was appointed as a director of Umthombo was received. It complied with the requirements for registering a change in the directorship and CIPC records were amended accordingly.”

Nesongozwi and Bayoglu have been involved in civil litigation for almost a year regarding Umthombo, with Bayoglu allegedly having taken control of the company and denying Nesongozwi access to the affairs of the firm. Bayoglu denies this.

Umthombo operates the Hakhano Colliery in Middelburg, Mpumalanga. According to Nesongozwi’s court papers, the coal deposits are estimated to be worth between R900 million and R1.5 billion.

Air travel

The monthly business confidence survey of the International Air Transport Association reflects falling passenger numbers and growing pessimism over the euro zone woes that threaten Europe’s trading partners, including South Africa.

But South Africa’s airports are reporting high numbers of passengers arriving from overseas as the annual holiday season continues after a buoyant start in November and December. Emirates yesterday announced plans to increase capacity on its Dubai-Durban route by nearly 30 percent.

And British Airways (BA), celebrating the 80th anniversary of flights between London and Cape Town, yesterday confirmed plans to increase the number of services to Johannesburg from March. Daniel Bainbridge, BA’s strategic commercial manager for South Africa, said it supported efforts to lengthen Cape Town’s holiday season, now in full swing, to make the city a year-round destination.

If this succeeded, BA would offer more flights.

The first regular passenger service between London and Cape Town started in April 1932 and took 10 days to arrive, with overnight stops, and included travelling on a Handley Page aircraft, a Kent flying boat, an Argosy aircraft, a Calcutta flying boat and finally a De Havilland DH66 Hercules aircraft. By 1938, the service had been increased to two a week and by the following year, the flight time had been reduced to four-and-a-half days.

During the last war, when direct flights over Europe were impossible, BA’s predecessor, the British Overseas Airways Corporation, used flying boats between Poole and Lagos as part of a route across central Africa to Durban.

After the war, the first commercial passenger jet aircraft service almost halved travelling time between London and Johannesburg to 23 hours, flying by way of Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe and Livingstone.

It was not until the 1970s that the introduction of the Boeing 747 made commercial airline travel accessible to the mass market.

Edited by Banele Ginindza. With contributions by Ethel Hazelhurst, Wiseman Khuzwayo and Audrey D’Angelo.