The Editorial Team |

Investec Scraps Asset Management Unit IPO But Spinoff Goes Ahead

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Investec scrapped a plan to sell a 10% stake of its asset-management unit in an initial public offering as the coronavirus sparked a global selloff in equities. A spinoff and separate listing of Investec’s Ninety One division in London and Johannesburg will go ahead as scheduled on March 16, the South African and U.K. bank said on Thursday. The IPO was expected to raise as much as 226 million…

Low Oil Prices Negative for Nigerian Banks, Moody’s Says

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) A sustained period of low oil prices will weaken dollar liquidity and elevate asset risks for Nigerian lenders as their “balance sheets are partially dollarized,” Moody’s Investors Service said. “Foreign-funding contributes about 25% of total funding and low oil prices translate to lower foreign currency receipts for the Nigerian government,” analysts including Peter Mushangwe said in a note to clients on Thursday. Banks will come under pressure from a drop in foreign…

Ivory Coast Economy More Than a Third Bigger After Data Overhaul

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast’s economy is more than a third bigger than previously estimated after the West African nation changed its base for measuring gross domestic product. The country’s GDP at current prices measured 27.1 trillion CFA francs ($46 billion) in 2015, government spokesman Sidi Toure said in an emailed statement. That’s 38% bigger than the 19.6 trillion francs-estimate of the previous 1996 base. The statement didn’t give updated figures for…

Here’s What Investors Say About Trump’s Shock Virus Plan

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A combination of President Donald Trump’s unprecedented travel restrictions between the U.S. and Europe and underwhelming stimulus measures sparked a fresh exodus from risk assets in global financial markets Thursday. The rush to gauge the impact on the global economy and corporate earnings, a sense of disappointment at the lack of detail in the U.S. stimulus package and an impression that Washington has fallen behind the curve in its…

Emerging-Market Stocks Sink Most Since ‘08 as Virus Wreaks Havoc

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Emerging-market equities posted their worst daily decline since November 2008 as traders shunned all but the safest securities on concern U.S. measures to stem the gathering pace of the coronavirus outbreak aren’t robust enough. Currencies weakened and sovereign bond spreads widened. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index of equities fell 6.6% Stock benchmarks from Brazil to Poland and Thailand tumbled more than 10% A measure of currencies dropped by the most in almost four…

Oil Crash Is a Double-Edged Sword for LNG With Projects at Risk

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Oil’s rout may have been an unexpected boon for the biggest buyers of liquefied natural gas, but its knock-on effects may come back to bite. That’s because more than a dozen proposed LNG export projects from the U.S. to Mozambique are at risk of being delayed or scrapped as crude careened to levels that make most of them unprofitable. If fewer of them come to fruition, that would ease…

Kenyan Treasury Opposes Plan to Securitize Pending Bills

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s Treasury opposed a plan by lawmakers in East Africa’s biggest economy to securitize the country’s stock of pending bills for supplies and services rendered, saying it will only inflate debt costs. Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani said the proposal to convert all pending bills of more than 500 million shillings ($4.88 million) into long-term instruments was “a weird idea.” In the fiscal year through June 2019 the state owed suppliers 190…

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