The Editorial Team |

Eskom Bonds Are Trading Like There’s a Rescue Plan in Place

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – There’s been enough bad news about South Africa’s state-owned electricity company in recent months to rattle the hardiest bond investor. Or so you’d think. Even before President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday the nation won’t allow Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to fail, the company’s bonds were trading as if its troubles were over. The premium investors demand to hold the company’s 10-year dollar bonds rather than U.S. Treasuries dropped this week to the lowest…

Zambia Finance Minister Holds Firm on Increased Mining Royalties

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LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, sees recent changes to its mining royalties regime as fair and won’t consider a review despite warnings from the industry that it could deter investment and result in job losses, Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe said. “There is no renegotiation taking place because a law has been passed in parliament to change the tax regime,” Mwanakatwe said Tuesday in an interview in Cape Town. “We don’t want…

Palladium Rally Offers Lifeline to Buoy South African Miners

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Record palladium prices and a weaker rand are lifting the gloom enveloping South Africa’s platinum industry. For South African producers, the rally in palladium is partially offsetting the slump in platinum prices to near a decade low. Combined with a decline in the rand, which lowers costs for miners selling metal for dollars, that’s extending a lifeline to companies such as Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., Sibanye Gold Ltd. and Lonmin Plc. “While the…

Cash-Rich Ghana Banks Seen Boosting Loan Growth After Purge

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – A regulatory spring-clean that’s cut the number of Ghanaian banks by almost a third is strengthening the industry, brightening prospects for lending growth and easing the pain of unpaid debts. The expanding economy is also helping lenders put behind them years of challenges weighing on the West African nation — including daily power outages, poor banking regulation and an inflation rate that has averaged 14 percent since 2013. Flush with cash after…

Absa Enters Aviation Finance to Challenge Investec, Nedbank

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Absa Group Ltd. poached a team of bankers from cross-town rival Nedbank Group Ltd. to begin financing aircraft deals in Africa. South Africa’s third-largest bank late last year hired Morne Visagie, who spent 13 years at Nedbank, to head its structured finance and aircraft funding businesses, said David Renwick, head of global finance and trade at Absa’s corporate and investment bank. He brought three other members of his team with him….

Zimbabwe Lesson for Venezuela: Fixing Broken States Is Hard

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Simukai Tabvura knew nothing other than Robert Mugabe’s strongman rule in Zimbabwe until his ousting little more than a year ago. The promise of change that accompanied the end of Mugabe’s near-four-decade reign has long since withered for the used clothes seller. “It’s like a year of being able to speak freely never happened,” said Tabvura, 41, sitting on a home-made wooden stool at her second-hand stall on a broken…

May on Collision Course With Pro-Brexit Tories Over Irish Border

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – British Prime Minister Theresa May risked enraging members of her Conservative Party by insisting she wants to keep the most contentious part of her Brexit plan for avoiding a hard border with Ireland. The premier said she will not push people to accept a divorce deal with the European Union that does not include the so-called backstop guarantee for keeping the Irish border open for goods trade. May’s comments were aimed…

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