The Editorial Team |

Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission Officials Quit En Masse

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – The head of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and other officials resigned with immediate effect, the government said. Chairman Job Whabira and the other commissioners will step down on Thursday, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda said in a statement handed to reporters in the capital, Harare. “All commissioners have gone on leave pending the finalization of their terminal benefits,” Sibanda said, without providing a reason for…

Kenya’s CBA Gets 53% of NIC in Biggest Bank Deal in Decade

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd. and NIC Group Plc agreed to combine their operations to create Kenya’s third-largest lender in the biggest banking tie-up in at least a decade. Privately-held CBA will get 53 percent of the merger entity, while NIC Group will hold the balance, NIC’s Chief Executive Officer John Gachora told investors at a briefing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The merged bank will have a combined asset base…

IMF Says Talks With Kenya on Fund-Supported Program Progress

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – The International Monetary Fund said there is progress in talkswith Kenya for a new program, months after a standby facility for the East African nation ended. “Significant progress was made during the mission” in December “and discussions on a new fund-supported program are continuing,” said Jan Mikkelsen, the Washington-based lender’s representative in Kenya. “There is no particular timeline.” The previous program, an insurance-type facility that Kenya would draw from in the event…

Kenyan Bank Sees Decade’s Biggest Merger as African Springboard

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – After agreeing to Kenya’s biggest banking merger in at least a decade, Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd. and NIC Group Plc, are ready to take on regional rivals that have outsized them until now. The combined entity will have assets of 415 billion shillings ($4.1 billion) — about double what they each hold individually in the country — catapulting it past Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd. as the East African nation’s third-largest…

Gunvor Is Said to Discuss Possible Sale to Algeria’s Sonatrach

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ALGIER (Capital Markets in Africa) – Gunvor Ltd., the commodity trading house controlled by billionaire Torbjorn Tornqvist, has discussed selling the company to Algeria’s state oil and gas producer, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The idea is preliminary but Sonatrach has started due diligence on acquiring all or part of the company, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private negotiations. A second plan under consideration would see Sonatrach,…

Dollar Risk to Emerging Markets Is Over for Top European Manager

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The rising-dollar trend that inflicted so much damage on risk appetite in 2018 is all but a thing of the past, according to Amundi Asset Management. And that can only be good for emerging markets. “The two macro threats — basically the dollar and higher interest rates coming from the U.S. — are basically diminished and they are behind us,” Pascal Blanque, group chief investment officer for Amundi, said in…

Rwanda’s Biggest Lender to Start Investment Bank, Insurer

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KIGALI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Rwanda’s biggest lender is expanding into investment banking to win more business customers as competition for consumers intensifies. BK Group Plc’s Bank of Kigali will start its investment-banking unit in March, Chief Executive Officer Diane Karusisi said in an interview in the Rwandan capital. The lender also plans to start an insurance unit as it seeks to diversify earnings, she said. Rivalry in retail banking among the nation’s 11 commercial lenders is…

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