Gemfields Reaches Settlement Over Mozambique Rights Abuse Case

Gemfields Reaches Settlement Over Mozambique Rights Abuse Case

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa)  – Gemfields Group Ltd., the owner of colored gemstone mines and maker of Faberge jewelry, has agreed to a 5.8 million pound ($7.6 million) settlement with a group of Mozambicans who said they suffered rights abuses around the company’s ruby mine in the north of the country. London-based law company Leigh Day last year brought a claim on behalf of the 273 people who lived near the Montepuez Ruby Mining…

Read More

Is South African Clothing Retailer Edcon Too Big to Fail?

Is South African Clothing Retailer Edcon Too Big to Fail?

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa)  – South Africa’s national power utility’s woes have threatened to shut down industries, while the flagship airline has received repeated bailouts to keep it afloat. Now, a scramble to help a retailer that sells school shoes and fast fashion suggests it, too, may to be seen as too big to fail. Edcon Holdings Ltd. has 30,000 employees, a supply chain that includes 750 companies and floor space that accounts for a…

Read More

Fleeing Investors, Unloved Malls Plague Top U.K. Property Funds

Fleeing Investors, Unloved Malls Plague Top U.K. Property Funds

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa)  – Mom-and-pop investors are fleeing U.K. property funds at the fastest pace in more than two years, roiling an almost $24 billion-corner of the money management industry. Withdrawals from the biggest U.K. property funds accelerated in the final months of 2018 as the global equity market rout added to worries about Brexit and the floundering retail sector. That’s forcing several funds, including those managed by Standard Life Aberdeen Plc and Nuveen LLC, to sell real…

Read More

World’s Most Hated Stocks Won’t Be Saved by Brexit Delay

World’s Most Hated Stocks Won’t Be Saved by Brexit Delay

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa)  – It may take more than a delay in Brexit to lure foreign funds back to U.K. stocks, a market that’s been deemed by some strategists as “uninvestable.” No matter that banks from Citigroup Inc. to JPMorgan Chase & Co. have touted U.K. shares, and no matter their cheap valuations. The country remained the most hated region in Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s global fund manager survey in January, with…

Read More

Here’s What FX Traders Should Watch as May Faces Brexit Votes

Here’s What FX Traders Should Watch as May Faces Brexit Votes

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The pound is vulnerable to swings Tuesday as traders tweak positions ahead of votes by lawmakers to change Theresa May’s Brexit deal. The currency could climb to levels not seen in six months if Parliament votes to accept what has come to be known as the Cooper-Boles amendment, which seeks to defer Britain’s departure from the European Union should the prime minister not win approval for her deal by a…

Read More

Having Lost $15,000, Bitcoin Has $2,000 More to Go; Here’s Why

Having Lost $15,000, Bitcoin Has $2,000 More to Go; Here’s Why

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa)  — The Bitcoin price has fallen by about $15,000 since its Dec. 18, 2017 peak, hovering around $3,400, and key indicators give us reason to believe it has another $2,000 or so to slide. There’s little to stop it from revisiting the $1,000 range, about where the 2017 frenzy began.  Highly correlated to Bitcoin (BTC), estimated dollar-transaction value has declined to levels last when the cryptocurrency’s price was about $2,400….

Read More

Zimbabwe to Allow Dollar Trading to Ease Currency Squeeze

Zimbabwe to Allow Dollar Trading to Ease Currency Squeeze

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa)  – Zimbabwe said it will allow companies and individuals to transfer dollars electronically, as it looks to ease a crippling scarcity of foreign exchange that’s sent the economy into meltdown and triggered protests. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has upgraded its systems to allow for such transactions and will run testing until Feb. 1, after which it plans to go live, the bank said in a statement Monday. The southern African nation’s…

Read More
1 398 399 400 401 402 1,073