The Editorial Team |

Angola Plans to Open Up Downstream Oil Industry to Investors

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angola is opening up its downstream-oil industry to private investors to improve competition, Petroleum Minister Diamantino Azevedo said. The government plans to scrap a law that grants state-owned oil company Sonangol EP a monopoly of the industry, Azevedo said in an interview Thursday in the capital, Luanda. Liberalizing the downstream industry, which includes imports, distribution and storage, may result in “better prices,” he said. “We already initiated the process of liberalization,”…

Algeria’s Tempest Grows as Powerful Groups Back Protesters

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ALGIERS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Opposition to Algeria’s ruling regime swelled as lawmakers from the OPEC member’s oldest party resigned from parliament and a powerful group of veterans joined demonstrations against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term. The escalating opposition against the 82-year-old president has posed the biggest challenge yet to a ruling elite, known as “le pouvoir,” that managed to avoid the turmoil that gripped neighbors during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. The…

Trump Wants China Deal and Stocks Rally. He May Not Get Both

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa): President Donald Trump wants the stock market to celebrate if he strikes a trade deal with China. Investors may struggle to deliver. The outcome could fall short of the definitive resolution of trade tensions that equities investors have priced in. Instead, the most likely scenario is an accord with few details, or a paucity of specifics on which tariffs will stay and which may go. Or, as Secretary of State Michael Pompeo pointed out this…

EU, U.K. See Little Hope of Brexit Breakthrough With Days to Go

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – European and U.K. officials are pessimistic about the chances of a breakthrough in Brexit talks, with Britain accusing the bloc of intransigence and European negotiators worried that whatever they offer won’t be enough to get Parliament behind Theresa May’s deal. According to three people familiar with the European side, there’s increasing concern that any concessions the bloc would be prepared to give wouldn’t be sufficient to win a majority in…

Congo Lost $617 Million Dispute Before Approving Oil Deal

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KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – An international court ordered the Democratic Republic of Congo to pay DIG Oil Ltd. of South Africa $617 million for failing to honor two oil contracts, weeks before outgoing President Joseph Kabila finally approved one of the deals. The previously undisclosed ruling is the latest twist in an 11-year dispute over concessions in the central African nation, which may hold as much as 6 percent of the continent’s oil reserves. Kabila’s belated assent…

Jobs at Risk as Absa Overhauls South African Retail Bank

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Absa Group Ltd. is restructuring its South African retail and business banking unit within months of reducing the division’s management team and rolling out a new strategy. Finance labor union Sasbo was notified to begin consulting staff last week on the potential impact of the move, union representative Philip Landman said by phone Wednesday. About 15 retail-banking executives exited their positions at the Johannesburg-based lender in June, after a similar…

Troika Back to Haunt Standard Bank Long After Lender’s Exit

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Standard Bank Group Ltd., which owned a minority stake in Moscow-based Troika Dialog from 2009 to 2012, said there’s no reason to believe any of its businesses were linked to alleged money laundering involving the Russian lender. None of the entities that the Johannesburg-based company was involved in at the time have been mentioned in reports about the scandal, Alan Bedford-Shaw, the head of corporate development, said on a…

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