Inverted Yield Curve’s Recession Flag Already So Last Year

Inverted Yield Curve’s Recession Flag Already So Last Year

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – If 2019 was the year the yield curve went mainstream, with an inversion sending a stark recession warning, then 2020 is already shaping up as a welcome return to normality. Nobody is willing to call the all-clear on the global economy yet given a trade deal between the U.S. and China is still to be reached. Even so, the prospect of longer-term yields stretching their premium over shorter…

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Developed Stocks Hit a Record as Merger Mania Tops US$70 Billion

Developed Stocks Hit a Record as Merger Mania Tops US$70 Billion

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – A buyout frenzy is taking hold of boardrooms from Tokyo to San Francisco, and it’s adding fuel to a record-breaking rally across the world’s major stock markets. More than $70 billion of deals have already been announced this week, with Charles Schwab Corp.’s $26 billion buyouts of discount brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. leading the pack. Luxury goods giant LVMH, Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG and Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi…

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Kenya Cuts Rates After Scrapping Loan-Price Cap to Boost Growth

Kenya Cuts Rates After Scrapping Loan-Price Cap to Boost Growth

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in 16 months as the removal of a cap on borrowing costs will make it easier for policy decisions to flow to help boost credit and economic growth. The Monetary Policy Committee lowered the rate to 8.5% from 9% to prop an economy “operating below its potential,” Governor Patrick Njoroge said in an emailed statement. The decision was in…

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Luxury Tycoon Said to Mull $1.5 Billion South African Fiber Sale

Luxury Tycoon Said to Mull $1.5 Billion South African Fiber Sale

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Johann Rupert, the billionaire who controls luxury-goods giant Richemont, is considering selling stakes in two South African fiber networks valued at as much as $1.5 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said. The tycoon is working with an adviser to gauge interest from potential investors in buying stakes in Vumatel Pty and Dark Fibre Africa Pty, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private….

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Johnson Unveils ‘Sensible’ Manifesto to Keep Tories in Power

Johnson Unveils ‘Sensible’ Manifesto to Keep Tories in Power

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is aiming to consolidate his lead in the polls in the final weeks of the general election campaign. On Sunday, he announced a safety-first policy package based on “sensible” promises, which included hiring 50,000 nurses for the country’s cherished National Health Service and cutting taxes for working people. Johnson carefully avoided the radical language and out-of-the-blue policy announcements that derailed his predecessor Theresa May’s campaign in 2017….

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Big Four Grip Loosens as U.K. Politicians Pledge Audit Reforms

Big Four Grip Loosens as U.K. Politicians Pledge Audit Reforms

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Small and mid-sized accounting firms in the U.K. are poised to continue winning more audit business regardless of the outcome of the Dec. 12 election. The U.K.’s top parties, Conservative and Labour, both support audit market reforms and want to shift more business away from the domination of the Big Four firms. That means the inroads made this past year by three smaller firms—Mazars, MHA MacIntyre Hudson, and RSM—to…

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Teva, Drugmakers in Talks With U.S. to End Generics Probes

Teva, Drugmakers in Talks With U.S. to End Generics Probes

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and other generic drugmakers have held talks with the U.S. Justice Department in the past six months about resolving a long-running criminal antitrust probe of alleged price-fixing by the companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Among the possible outcomes that have been discussed are deferred prosecution agreements in which the companies would admit to certain allegations but would be shielded from an indictment…

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