The Editorial Team |

Trump Gave Israeli Billionaire Dan Gertler Sanctions Reprieve

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Sanctioned Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler can once again access the U.S. financial system after the Treasury Department approved authorization in the waning days of the Trump administration. The U.S. sanctioned Gertler and his companies in 2017 for allegedly corrupt mining and oil deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the world’s poorest countries. At the time, the Treasury said Gertler worked as a middleman between multinational companies…

South African Stocks Post Biggest Drop This Month on Tencent Effect

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — South Africa’s main stocks index declined 1% by 9:53 a.m. in Johannesburg, the biggest intraday decline in 2021, after a slump in Tencent Holdings Ltd. in Hong Kong pulled benchmark giant Naspers Ltd. and its subsidiary, Prosus NV, lower. Tencent lost as much as 6.7% in Hong Kong on Tuesday, as traders took profit after Monday’s 11% surge, which was Tencent’s biggest in almost a decade. Investors were also…

Moderna Says Shot Works Against Variants, Developing Booster

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Moderna Inc. said its vaccine will protect against two known variants of the Covid-19 virus, but it plans to start human studies of a booster shot for a strain from South Africa that may cause immunity to wane more quickly. In laboratory tests, Moderna’s vaccine produced antibody protection against the B.1.1.7 strain first identified in the U.K. at levels comparable with older forms of the virus. But against the…

Bitcoin Return to $40,000 in Doubt as Flows to Key Fund Slow

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Cryptocurrency enthusiasts counting on Bitcoin to bounce back above the $40,000 level face a challenge due to faltering demand for the biggest fund tracking the digital asset, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The pace of flows into the $20 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust “appears to have peaked” based on four-week rolling averages, JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said in a note Friday. The fund slid 22% over the past two weeks…

Global Banks Warn of Market Chaos If Court Abolishes Libor

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Some of the world’s biggest banks are urging a U.S. judge not to immediately terminate Libor after a group of borrowers filed suit claiming the benchmark was the work of a “price-fixing cartel.” Defendants in the case, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG, said in a November filing that an injunction abruptly ending the London interbank offered rate would wreak havoc on…

Kenya Risk Premium Widens After Latest Paris Club Debt Relief

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) — Yields on Kenyan Eurobonds rose, widening the risk premium over U.S. Treasuries, after the Paris Club of creditors granted the East African country’s request for a delay in some interest payments, raising concern of potentially larger debt challenges. The Paris Club of creditors agreed to delay $300 million of debt-service payments by Kenya, the nation’s Treasury said. Kenya, however, won’t seek debt suspension from multilateral and commercial creditors, as it wants…

IMF Disburses $488 Million to Angola, Backs Plan to Cut Debt

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LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) — The International Monetary Fund approved the disbursement of $488 million to Angola and reiterated its confidence that Africa’s second-biggest oil producer will rein in public debt to sustainable levels. The disbursement approved by the executive board comes four months after the Washington-based lender increased the size of the loan by almost a quarter to $4.5 billion to help Angola weather the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The three-year Extended Fund Facility,…

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