Guinea foul. A scandal in Africa.,Tullow Oil plc (TLW), a British oil exploration firm mostly working there, has had to suspend work at a Guinea offshore oil site because its US partner is under investigation by the SEC and the US Dept of Justice for alleged bribery. The Houston firm Hyperdynamics acquired a kicense from Conakry and later sold 40% of it to TLW.

Tullow, which planned to start drilling a deepwater well by now, cannot do so because of "force majeur", the US DoJ probe. TLW paid $27 mn to Hyperdynamics and agreed to invest as much as $200 mn in offshore Guinea.

Our DoJ is also examining how iron mine concessions were awarded in the West Africa country's huge Simandou deposit. This affects one of our non-UK stocks.

Steve Halpern featured our own Frida Ghitis writing in this newsletter about Orocobre on today's Money Show blog. OROCF is the subject of the article "Gambling on Lithium" quoting from www.global-investing.com. The share is now $2.13 bid 2.20 ask, 5% above our readers' cost 5 days ago. We told you first (WTYF).

More follows about Canada, Jordan, Guinea, Israel, Brazil, Finland, India, Belgium, and Britain.

*Trefis reported on another problem in foul Guinea closer to home: It writes that Vale may lose the $1 bn it paid for a stake in the northern Simandou project to an Israeli partner, Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR), run by millionaire Benny Steinmetz. BSGR appears to have bribed the wife of the former president of Guinea to win the concession. The rich but undeveloped iron ore depost had very high iron ore content and can be developed with little processing--but will need power, water, and a railway to operate. The sea coast is over 1000 miles from Simandou.

An initial concession for the whole of Simandou was granted to Rio Tinto but then transferred to BSGR in 2008 because Rio hadn't invested in developing the site. Then VALE bought 51% of the northern Simandou project from BSGR for a total of $2.5 bn, $500 paid up front. Vale then spent another half billion bucks on developing the site.

Now there has been regime change in Conakry and a "technical" committee is investigating how Steinmetz got the concession ostensibly for only $160 mn up front, although there may have been side-deals. It has decided to exclude both BSGR and Vale from reapplying for nothern Simandou rights. It reported to a "strategic committee" advising the Guinea government on concessions made by the prior government including the oil deal mentioned above.

BSGR threatens to sue if it is stripped of its rights. Even if eventually allows a VALE bid on the renewed north Simandou tender now being planned, Conakry has to decide whether to credit or reimburse Vale for what it has spent so far. Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are likely to bid if the mine again goes out to tender.

BSGR has attacked what it calls a “pre-determined and orchestrated plan” to strip it of its mining rights. It has warned that if the recommendations are accepted the company will opt for international arbitration, a lengthy process that will further delay developing the mine.

"The Simandou project was put on hold in October 2012 following the constitution of the government committee to review mining concessions. Therefore, any expected production from this deposit is not factored into the company’s growth plans or valuations. We think that this limits the impact on [VALE]’s stock valuation to only the non-cash impairment that will have to be incurred if the deposit gets taken away. This assumes that an international arbitration process will fail to bring relief.

However, if the project does go through, there could be upside for Vale’s stock in the long term. The production targeted from this deposit is 50-70 mn tonnes per year if and when operations begin and Vale’s share would be half of this. To put it in perspective, [Vale] produced 300 mn tonnes of iron ore in 2013. The benefits wouldn’t accrue as soon as production begins because upfront capital expenditure for the project is expected to be $8-10 bn and Vale would definitely have to fund a large portion.

"Given that there are too many unknowns at this stage, it is not possible to come to a conclusion about the impact of this news on Vale’s valuation for the foreseeable future."

*Canada's most international bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, like all 5 banking majors up north, offers both regular banking and investment banking-brokerage services. It is more international than other Big 5 Canadian banks because rather than heading for the US, its network is gig in Latin America and the Caribbean. It you want to send money to buy a Malaysian airplane ticket, it operates in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia.

And unlike Citibank which suffered fraud and money-laundering by leaving it to "Mr. Mexico" to operate there without head office supervision, BNS has experienced bankers from its own bench. Unlike Chase, this smaller bank keeps track of trading done by its foreign staff on behalf of the bank itself. Canadians almost all study foreign languages (French) and coming from a small rather boring country open to immigration they often have the ability and desire to operate in foreign lands.

BNS trades at 11.5x its expected earnings this year of $5.47 (Canadian), cheaper than most of its rivals up north. Moreover it pays you a dividend of 4.1% (C$2.56).

While it isn't a fair comparison, the Dow-Jones average yields 2.16%. Moreover Scotiabank raised its dividend in its Q1. It aims to pay out 40 to 50% of its profits to investors.

BNS offers private banking and wealth management services. It handles brokerage and manages funds. It advises its clients, both corporate and consumer, and both Canadian and Latin. It underwrites securities and is diversifying into insurance. Presumably it doesn't have to squeeze its corporate customers with skyrocketing fees for accepting credit cards like Chase does. Or charge for cheque (sic) accounts.

Cheap is a characteristic of Canadian stocks because outside of the US, most companies with size and clout have to treat their shareholders better than our firms do. Moreover, they have to lure Yankees in because of the decline of the loonie (the C$).

Special factors make BNS cheap right now. It is growing faster than its rivals, but of course this cannot be predicted with certainty. It uses an odd fiscal year which ends in February. BNS is very global compared to other banks, earning as much as 40% of its income outside North America mostly in (eek!) emerging markets.

A final reason to avoid BNS is its being under investigation gold price rigging at the pool fixing, the London 5-bank system to set the daily price, the only American bank (north or south) in the gold pool. I think it is a good buy now.

*The first uranium ore was produced at the Cigar Lake mine, operated by Cameco in Saskatchewan. The first ore was mined, processed underground, and shipped yesterday to Areva’s McClean Lake mill 100 miles away. The Cigar Lake project represents a $2.6 bn investment.

The mine relies on a high-pressure water jet boring mining system for production. CCJ suffered costly delays at the mine because of water break-through but now it is operational at last. All the ore is to be processed at Areva's McClean Lake mill, with the first output before the end of Q2. With a production capacity of 10,900 metric tonnes of uranium per year, McClean Lake is expected to produce 770 to 1,100 mt of uranium concentrate from Cigar Lake ore this year, equivalent of 2 to 3 mn lbs. Production rate will ramp up to 8,100 tonnes by 2018.

CCJ was scooped on news of the mine startup by ARVCF which reported European time. CCJ rose 2.6% before the opening of US trading. It then rose 3.75% in US trading.

*After reaching two new highs in two days, our Jordanian generics producer, Hikma Pharma, is on a roll. It increased its US sales last year by 158% to $268 mn thanks to shortages of doxycycline, an injectable generic antibiotic which works against deer-tick-borne Lyme disease. Now the US competition is gearing up to produce the Lyme-disease jab too. Revenues overall last year rose 23% to $1.4 bn. Not all the US rise was from Lyme disease; HKMPY also bought Baxter's injectables unit for $112 mn. During the course of 2013, Hikma fended off offers to buy its injectables unit from drug majors.

UK brokerage Questor rates HKMPY a hold fearing that it is a one-deer drug firm. Its injectables now account for a third of sales and are relatively low margin, but HKMPY is keeping the line and expanding it. Today it is $51.42 bid $52.1 ask.

*GlaxoSmithKline PLC reported yesterday on two good phase III trial results for its severe asthma drug which should win approvals soon from regulators as a result. In one trial against placebo, intravenous mepolizumab reduced by half the frequency of eosinophilic asthma attacks, a severe and often crippling form of asthma.

Another trial gave patients mepolizumab every 4 weeks, This allowed them to reduce their daily use of oral coritosteroids which reduce the swelling of air passages. The patients could reduce their cortisone dosage during weeks 20-24 of the trial vs those on placebo.

Side effects in both studies were similar for mepolizumab: nasopharyngitis (nose and throat infection), headaches, sinus and upper respiratory infections.

Barclays says GSK revenues could be boosted by 2021 by GBP 400 mn by the drug; Deutsche Bank thinks it can also work against chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and add another GBP 300 mn to Glaxo sales.

*Belgian Galapagos n.v. is selling for euros 129 mn (~$179 mn) its contact research organizations (CRO), Argenta and BioFocus to Charles River Laboratories, a Cambridge MA CRO firm, to concentrate on its drug discovery business. GLPYY. CMO is hot and DSM from across the border in the Netherlands is in a combo with US interests in the field.

*The US Supreme Court may hear other pharma appeals besides Teva now that Pfizer faces premature generics of its Celebrex drug. Teva may be one of the 180-day generic exclusive sellers. It lost its patent for multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone a year early and is appealing to the Supremes. TEVA hosted the Prime Ministers of Israel and the United Kingdom today.

*Comeuppance for Dr. Reddy's Pharma and me. The Indian generics maker has recalled from the US market its heartburn drug lansoprazole (Prevacid) because of microbe contamination. This class II recall indicates that there is a slight risk of serious adverse results or even death. I have been boasting that the problems of other Indian drug makers being scrutinized more closely by our FDA had spared RDY. No longer. Zacks yesterday boosted RCY to "outperform."

*Mallinckrodt plc today announced that the FDA approved Xartemis XR (oxycodone hydrochloride and acetaminophen) Extended-Release Tablets, formerly MNK-795, for treating acute pain severe enough to require opioids in patients for whom alternative treatment with non-opioid analgesics is ineffective, not tolerated, or inadequate. Xartemis is the extended-release oral combination pain medication with both immediate- and extended-release effect. It is formulated to provide pain relief in less than one hour which last, allowing twice daily dosing. The product's newly patented technology from MNK for design, formulation, pharmacolkinetic, and release characteristics, is combined with Depomed's advanced Acuform drug delivery technology. Phase 3 trials were done in acute post-surgical pain patients over 48 hours.

MNK also studied patient abuse risks, presented in 15 papers. These enable the medication to be packed without abuse warnings for now. Mallinckrodt is conducting additional studies and will be providing additional data.

Uncontrolled or un-managed pain harms productivity as well as patients. In 2010, there were over 102 mn surgical procedures ordered or performed at office visits and 51 mn inpatient surgeries. The Institute of Medicine reported in 2011 that 80% of patients undergoing surgery experience postoperative pain.

*Zacks put a buy on Covidien plc, the fellow-Irish stock which spun off MNK last year. I couldn't view the article without paying the Chicago momentum analysis shop, but I suspect it was momentum that led to the upgrade of COV. WTYF.

*Flying higher, Bombardier was given a take off by Royal Bank of Canada writing that CDRAF is "too cheap to ignore" and rating it outperform. WTYF.

*Hear, hear, Nokia is developing "Here," its mapping and location software as a separate operation from handsets now going to Microsoft. It will be a third leg on the stool alongside NOK's Advanced Tech Research and patents armm and its NS Networks businesses. The navigation line is being licensed to MSFT for smartphones for only 4 years, after which it will be a stand-alone product for transit, tourism, and driving, usable on smartphones as an... Android app, according to today's Financial Times.

*Liberty Global will offer Europe-wide mobile phone services through a pan-European mobile virtual network operator system (MVNO), using other carriers’ wireless infrastructure LBTYA's sr VP Manuel Kohnstamm told reporters in Amsterdam.

This will complements its European cable TV operations allowing a single billing system, one back-office, and one back-haul (to connect the core network to smaller subnetworks). Initially the MVNO system will be launched in Benelux, Switzerland, Austria, and the U.K., Kohnstamm said.

We again own two classes of Liberty, having been given LBTYK shares in a weird stock split. But after we sold our earlier Liberty Global C shares, we only have a normal stake in the John Malone UKoutfit.

*Delek Group is selling is Roadchef highway food network according to Sky News of Britain aiming to raise ~GBP 350 mn to invest in energy in Israel. DGRLY owns around 20 of the restaurant-gas station combos which offer the best of British breakfasts, non-kosher, all day long. We used them regularly when we hit English roads with our kids.

*Our Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Fund, FAX, kept its monthly dividend flat at 3.5 cents, but will now pay it at the end of the month instead of the middle. For 2014 to date, and for March, the dividend will be 63% investment income and 37% return of capital (which is not taxed.)

*Stablemate Aberdeen Global Income Fund, FCO, also kept its dividend flat at 7 cents, and will also pay at month's end. The YTD and March payments will be 96% investment income and 4% return of capital.