The Editorial Team |

China Eases Back on Mideast, African Oil After Buying Binge

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – China’s crude oil purchases from the Middle East and West Africa dropped to a four-month low in December, following a buying binge the previous month that saw the Asian country’s stockpiles swell. Observed flows to China from the two regions dropped to 5.04 million barrels a day, the lowest since August, after reaching a 2018-high of 6.45 million barrels daily in November, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Most of the…

Zambia Mine Tax Increase Risks Cutting Revenues, JPMorgan Says

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LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia’s mining-tax increase could lower government revenues instead of boosting them as copper miners fire workers and curb production, according to JPMorgan Cazenove. Under the higher royalties introduced on Jan. 1, almost one-third of the country’s mine output is unprofitable, JPMorgan said in a note to clients dated Jan. 7. That means the new tax regime could backfire on Africa’s second-biggest copper producer. “These higher-cost operations are also the more labor-intensive…

Africa Finance Corp. Helps SIR Raise $662 Million in Ivory Coast

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Africa Finance Corp. said that as the sole mandated lead arranger it helped raise a syndicated loan totaling 577 million euros ($662 million) for Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage, an oil and gas company with operations in the Ivory Coast. “AFC’s participation was for 192 million euros,” the African finance institution said in an emailed statement on Monday. “The purpose of the facility is to repay historical obligations on…

Uganda Central Bank Says Lenders’ Asset Quality Still a Concern

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KAMPALA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The asset quality of Uganda’s banking sector “remains a concern,” even as the country’s 24 commercial lenders reduced the amount of non-performing loans in the past fiscal year and were able to record higher profits, the Bank of Uganda said. The ratio of non-performing loans to total loans declined to 4.4 percent in the 12 months through June from 6.2 percent a year earlier, but “credit quality could be…

Sonia Gets Clean Sweep in 2019 Sterling Bonds as Libor Fades

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – U.K. regulators are seeing some success as they try to shift the sterling bond market away from scandal-hit Libor. Five all-new floating-rate pound notes have come to market this year, and all of them have been tied to the Sterling Overnight Interbank Average rather than Libor. FMS Wertmanagement, Lloyds Banking Group Plc and International Finance Corp were the latest names to join the offering list. The five deals, totaling at least 3.5 billion pounds…

Uganda Targets 1,000 Megawatts of New Generation by June 2020

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KAMPALA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Uganda plans to boost power generation capacity by at least 1,000 megawatts by June 2020 to promote industrial growth by adding renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass to hydropower. Increased generation will enable the East African nation to raise access on the national grid to 30 percent, according to a sector budget document on the Finance Ministry’s website. The World Bank estimates the country’s access at 26.7…

Gabon Government Says It Quashed Coup by Army Mutineers

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LIBREVILLE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Gabonese authorities said they put down an attempted coup by a group of mutineering soldiers who’d seized control of the national broadcaster and vowed to “save a democracy in danger.” Communication Minister Guy-Bertrand Mapangou told Radio France Internationale on Monday that order had been restored, and the capital, Libreville, was largely quiet. His statement came hours after Ondo Obiang Kelly, an army lieutenant, read a statement on state TV…

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