Mugabe’s Woes Wipe Out $6 Billion From Zimbabwe’s Skewed Stocks

Mugabe’s Woes Wipe Out $6 Billion From Zimbabwe’s Skewed Stocks

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Investors dumped Zimbabwean stocks every day since the military seized power on optimism that 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe will be forced to step down. The stocks, which are denominated in U.S. dollars and were used to hedge against rising inflation, fell another 10 percent on Tuesday, bringing the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Industrial Index’s retreat since the army’s takeover on the morning of Nov. 15 to 35 percent. The bourse’s market capitalization has…

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Nigeria Sells $3 Billion of Eurobonds in Its Biggest Offer Yet

Nigeria Sells $3 Billion of Eurobonds in Its Biggest Offer Yet

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria raised $3 billion in a two-part international bond sale as it seeks to fund a fiscal deficit and reduce its local-currency debt burden. The West African nation split the offering equally between 10- and 30-year tranches. The yield was 6.5 percent for the shorter notes and 7.625 percent for the 30-year portion, down 25 basis points on each tranche from the initial guidance. The offering, its biggest Eurobond…

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Mugabe Era Draws to a Close in Zimbabwe as Impeachment Looms

Mugabe Era Draws to a Close in Zimbabwe as Impeachment Looms

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is facing the last days of his 37 years in power as lawmakers prepare started proceedings to impeach him. The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front says it will work with the opposition to ensure it has the votes in parliament to oust Mugabe, 93, after he missed Monday’s ruling-party deadline to resign. Lawmakers are expected to approve an impeachment motion on Tuesday and then appoint a…

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Kenya’s Biggest Bank Sees Rate Caps Staying Until at Least 2019

Kenya’s Biggest Bank Sees Rate Caps Staying Until at Least 2019

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s biggest bank reckons limits on interest-rate charges that have weighed on profit will be around for at least another year. “There are a lot of conversations happening and I have not seen anything today that says that we are ready to move,” KCB Group Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Joshua Oigara said in an interview in the capital, Nairobi, last week. Even the bank’s best-case scenario is that a review process of the…

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Net1 Understated South Africa Profit to Court, Group Says

Net1 Understated South Africa Profit to Court, Group Says

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa)- Net1 UEPS Technologies Inc., a unit of which distributes welfare payments in South Africa, understated its profit from the government contract in a submission to the country’s Constitutional Court that was audited by KPMG LLP, a report released by a development-economics research agency said. The company rejected the allegation and demanded the report be retracted. The court demanded the submission from Net1’s Cash Paymaster Services this year because the company continued to distribute more…

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Blockchain Gets a Wall Street Win: `We Know the Thing Works Now’

Blockchain Gets a Wall Street Win: `We Know the Thing Works Now’

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The prospect of blockchain technology remaking financial services just moved a step closer to reality after banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. completed a successful six-month test in the $2.8 trillion equity swaps market. The program, managed by blockchain startup Axoni, kept track of the swaps contracts after they were executed, recording things like amendments or termination of the deals, stock splits and dividends, and achieved…

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Bitcoin’s White-Knuckle Ride Continues as It Hurtles Past $8,000

Bitcoin’s White-Knuckle Ride Continues as It Hurtles Past $8,000

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin’s relentless and volatile rally shows no sign of abating, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency defying growing bubble fears to hit yet another milestone. Bitcoin rose as much as 6.7 percent to a record $8,224 as of 9:27 a.m. in New York. It’s been a tumultuous year for the virtual currency, with three separate slumps of more than 25 percent all giving way to subsequent rallies. “The inflation in…

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