The Editorial Team |

Hedge Fund That’s Never Lost Bets Big on South African Debt (2)

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — A London-based hedge fund that has made gains every year since it was founded, through risky bets including Ukrainian GDP warrants and sanctioned Russian bonds, is now putting its money on South Africa. ProMeritum Investment Management LLP has allocated a fifth of its money — its biggest single holding — to South African government bonds, among the worst performers in emerging markets this year. It’s betting on a 15%…

Ghana Says Its Virus Lockdown Became Untenable for Economy

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) — A 21-day lockdown of Ghana’s biggest cities became financially unbearable for most of the population, a concern that gave the government little choice when it lifted the restrictions last month, said Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta. Ghana, which identified its first two coronavirus cases on March 12, was the first in sub-Saharan Africa to ease movement restrictions after ramping up its testing capacity. With at least 160,000 people tested, more…

Virus Surge Means Cape Town Home to Half of South African Cases

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — The coronavirus outbreak in South Africa has hit hardest in the Western Cape, home to the city of Cape Town. The province now has more than half of the 12,074 confirmed cases nationwide and in recent days contributed about 90% of new infections recorded by the Health Ministry. Contrary to initial projections, infections and deaths have increased at a much slower rate in the economic hub of Johannesburg in…

MTN Cuts Spending to Preserve Cash During Virus Pandemic

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — MTN Group Ltd. reduced spending plans for the full year to focus on preserving cash and maintaining networks as Africa’s biggest wireless carrier by sales navigates the Covid-19 pandemic. The Johannesburg-based company will invest 21 billion rand ($1.1 billion) to 22 billion rand in 2020, compared with earlier guidance of 28.3 billion rand, it said in a statement on Thursday. The group stuck with a medium-term growth forecast and…

South Africa Prepares to Gradually Reopen Hobbled Economy

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — South Africa’s government announced plans to further ease a nationwide lockdown as the fallout from shuttering much of the economy threatens to outweigh the damage wrought by the coronavirus. Consultations will begin in the coming days about moving most of the country to disease alert level 3 by the end of the month, from level 4, and allow a number of additional industries to resume operations, President Cyril Ramaphosa…

Nigeria’s Biggest City Mulls New Lockdown With Twitter Poll

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, took to Twitter to gauge support for a new lockdown as authorities complain residents aren’t following public-health guidelines. More than 52,000 people had voted in the poll by 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday, with more than half supporting another lockdown. The poll still has two days to go. The city has 1,999 confirmed infections or 42% of known cases in Africa’s most populous country….

Boris Johnson’s Toned Down Back-to-Work Plan Has U.K. Confounded

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — Boris Johnson watered down his plan for rebooting the U.K. economy after employers and labor unions said many workplaces are not yet ready for the return to work he called for on Sunday night. Just 24-hours after telling Britons they “should go to work if you can’t work from home,” the prime minister used a televised press conference on Monday evening to say they “should now think about going…

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