Barclays Ex-Chief Diamond Replaced in Atlas Mara Shakeup

Barclays Ex-Chief Diamond Replaced in Atlas Mara Shakeup

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bob Diamond, the financier who once ran Barclays Plc, is stepping down as executive chairman of his African banking venture as it reviews assets and seeks to exit some countries. He will be replaced by Michael Wilkerson, the chairman of Fairfax Africa Holdings Corp., which owns 49 percent of the firm, but will stay on as a non-executive director, Atlas Mara said in a statement on Wednesday. Diamond wants to “increase his…

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Ghana on Hook for China Deal If Bauxite Pay Is Insufficient

Ghana on Hook for China Deal If Bauxite Pay Is Insufficient

ACCRA(Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana will have to use alternative sources to pay back China’s Sinohydro Corp. for $2 billion in infrastructure if the revenue from an earmarked bauxite project is insufficient to meet installments. Sinohydro agreed to a deal with the West African nation in May to build bridges, roads, hospitals and housing as part of the government of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s plans to lift economic growth. In return, Ghana undertook to repay the…

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Algeria Signs With Vitol for First Oil-to-Refined Products Deal

Algeria Signs With Vitol for First Oil-to-Refined Products Deal

ALGIERS (capital Markets in Africa) – Algeria’s state-run Sonatrach signed an agreement with oil-trader Vitol Group to ship crude to Italy to be processed and sent back as refined products, in the first deal of its kind to trim the country’s $2 billion annual bill for imported fuel. Sonatrach selected Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil trader, from among five companies that participated in a tender to ship its crude outside the country and have it sent…

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Angola’s Devaluation Is Just the Start as Investors Expect More

Angola’s Devaluation Is Just the Start as Investors Expect More

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angola may have devalued its currency by more than 10 percent, but it will take more than that to end dollar shortages and revive the OPEC member’s battered economy. The kwanza weakened 11 percent to 187.95 per dollar by 2:34 p.m. in Luanda, the capital, a day after the central bank let it drop in an auction of foreign exchange, its first since saying last week it would end an almost…

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Angola Too Small for Four Phone Operators, Dos Santos Says

Angola Too Small for Four Phone Operators, Dos Santos Says

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angola’s plan to allow a fourth telecommunications company to enter the market will make life tougher for existing operators and probably lead to consolidation, according to Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman and a shareholder of local wireless carrier Unitel SA. “Four licences in a 24-million-people market is a non-sustainable scenario,” Dos Santos, the former Angolan president’s oldest daughter, said in an interview during a conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm…

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Heineken Starts $100 Million Mozambique Brewery in Africa Push

Heineken Starts $100 Million Mozambique Brewery in Africa Push

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Heineken NV, the world’s second-largest brewer, started building a $100 million plant in Mozambique as it seeks to compete with its larger competitor, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, in the southeast African country. The brewery, to be located in Maputo province, will have a capacity of 800,000 hectoliters and will start production in the first half of 2019, Heineken said in an emailed statement Monday. The world’s two beer-making giants are expanding…

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It’s Hot Money, Not FDI, That’s Bringing Dollars Into Nigeria

It’s Hot Money, Not FDI, That’s Bringing Dollars Into Nigeria

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Investors haven’t pumped this much hot money into Nigeria in three years. Portfolio investment more than tripled in the third quarter from a year earlier to $2.8 billion, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. Foreign direct investment fell 65 percent year-on-year to $118 million, the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2013. Debt traders have mostly piled into short-term securities, attracted by yields of almost 20…

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