The Editorial Team |

Bitcoin Is the Most Perfect Bubble Possible

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – What else would you call something that, as of Tuesday morning, has gone up 47 percent the past week, 181 percent the past month, and 2,119 percent the past year? Not to mention the most remarkable part of this all: It has happened for no discernible reason. People haven’t started to actually, you know, use bitcoins much more than they did a year ago, but that hasn’t stopped its…

Moody’s: Challenging operating conditions keeps 2018 outlook for African banks negative

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Moody’s Investors Service says its negative outlook for the African banking system in 2018 reflects high macroeconomic risks that expose banks to asset quality pressures, reduced government support and sovereign credit risk. Moody’s report, “Banks — Africa, 2018 Outlook”, is available on www.moodys.com. Moody’s subscribers can access this report via the link provided at the end of this press release. This report does not constitute a rating action. “Although…

Bitcoin Shorts Are Hard to Find, Keeping Futures Above Spot

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – For traders used to seeing arbitrage plays vanish within seconds, bitcoin futures’ rise back to more than $1,300 above the spot price a full day after their debut is another testament to the cryptocurrency’s unconventional evolution. Professional investors and analysts predict the premium will collapse over time. Yet its persistence and volatility — from as low as 1.8 percent to as high as 13 percent — indicate how a market that’s captured Wall Street’s…

Top Frontier Bond Manager Sees Best Value in Local Debt

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – One of the most successful money managers in the world’s riskiest markets piled into local-currency debt this year, and plans to stick with the bet for 2018. Kevin Daly, who runs Aberdeen Asset Management Plc’s $125 million frontier-markets bond fund, outperformed 99 percent of peers this year as he doubled investments in domestic government notes. Now almost a third of his holdings are non-dollar assets, including local securities from Egypt, Mongolia,…

Angola Too Small for Four Phone Operators, Dos Santos Says

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LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angola’s plan to allow a fourth telecommunications company to enter the market will make life tougher for existing operators and probably lead to consolidation, according to Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman and a shareholder of local wireless carrier Unitel SA. “Four licences in a 24-million-people market is a non-sustainable scenario,” Dos Santos, the former Angolan president’s oldest daughter, said in an interview during a conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm…

Teetering Steinhoff Prepares to Shop Around Its Retail Assets

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Steinhoff International Holdings NV, which sells $89 mattresses to Americans and two-for-a-pound cans of tomato soup to the British, faces a potential fire sale of its global retail holdings as it battles for survival. After a week in which its shares collapsed and its bonds were downgraded to junk amid an accounting scandal that prompted Chief Executive Officer Markus Jooste to quit, the owner of U.S. furniture chain Mattress Firm…

Africa’s Richest Woman Prepares New Deals After Losing Oil Post

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LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Less than a month after being fired as head of Angola’s state-owned oil company, Isabel dos Santos says she is studying new deals. Dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, said two major Angolan banks she has links to are preparing to sell shares as part of plans to strengthen their operations at home and abroad. She also said Friday she remains committed to her investments in Portuguese oil company Galp Energia SGPS…

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