No Easy Solution to Power-Producer Drain on S.Africa Economy

No Easy Solution to Power-Producer Drain on S.Africa Economy

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is looking for a way to keep the country’s main power producer from sucking the life out of the economy. Debt at Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. has ballooned to 419 billion ($31 billion) and it’s struggling to supply Africa’s most-industrialized nation with enough power even as it weighs on finances, with most of its borrowings guaranteed by the state. The Department of Public Enterprises says the utility…

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Zimbabwe Is Said to Consider Devaluing Quasi-Dollars

Zimbabwe Is Said to Consider Devaluing Quasi-Dollars

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) -Zimbabwe’s central bank is considering devaluing its quasi-currency as part of a raft of reforms to the nation’s foreign-exchange system, according to a central bank official. Depreciating the so-called bond notes would be an acknowledgment that the official one-for-one exchange rate is no longer sustainable. It would also mark the second major overhaul to Zimbabwe’s currency regime since October, when the central bank ordered lenders to separate deposits of U.S. dollars and…

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HSBC’s U.K. Unit Could Be Helping Fuel Mortgage War Market Price

HSBC’s U.K. Unit Could Be Helping Fuel Mortgage War Market Price

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Rules put in place to save U.K. taxpayers from bailing out major lenders again are having an unintended side effect. They’re encouraging HSBC Holdings Plc to wade into a market it long neglected: British mortgages. Trading updates in recent weeks from Nationwide Building Society, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Metro Bank Plc said competition to lend to British home buyers was intensifying, even with Brexit looming. HSBC has been wooing first-time home buyers in…

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Egypt Is Returning to Dollar Bond Market With Three-Tranche Deal

Egypt Is Returning to Dollar Bond Market With Three-Tranche Deal

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt is returning to the dollar debt market to benefit from renewed investor confidence in the economy after sweeping reforms and support from the International Monetary Fund. The government is offering benchmark-sized tranches maturing in five, 10 and 30 years, according to a person familiar with the matter. The initial pricing target is more than one percentage point over last year’s three-part deal that raised $4 billion across similar maturities. Egypt plans to sell as…

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Honda Is Preparing to Shut U.K. Car Plant by 2022, Sky Says

Honda Is Preparing to Shut U.K. Car Plant by 2022, Sky Says

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Honda Motor Co. is planning to close its factory in the U.K., dealing a new blow to a British auto industry already struggling with a Brexit-related slowdown and potential tariffs, Sky News reported, citing an unnamed source close to the company. The Japanese manufacturer could announce the decision to close the plant in Swindon by 2022 as early as Tuesday. The factory, Honda’s only one in the EU, employs around…

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Specter of Idiosyncratic Risks Returns to Haunt Emerging Markets

Specter of Idiosyncratic Risks Returns to Haunt Emerging Markets

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – With the U.S.-China trade dispute dominating headlines this year, idiosyncratic risks in emerging markets have played second fiddle to concerns over global growth. South Africa, Nigeria, Thailand and Russia each gave money managers a reminder of how quickly local issues can flare up over the past week. It happened just as some investors were starting to ask if the emerging-market trade was getting overcooked. A Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey…

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Zimbabwe Groups Slam `Shocking’ Statements by President

Zimbabwe Groups Slam `Shocking’ Statements by President

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean human-rights activists criticized President Emmerson Mnangagwa for ordering the arrest of individuals suspected of helping people injured in protests last month. Mnangagwa told supporters at a ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front rally in southern Zimbabwe on Saturday that law-enforcement agencies will detain doctors, lawyers and human-rights activists who provided the assistance. At least 17 people died and hundreds of others were injured when police and men in military uniforms opened fire…

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