Nigeria’s Forte Oil Falls Most in Nine Months as MSCI Exit Looms

Nigeria’s Forte Oil Falls Most in Nine Months as MSCI Exit Looms

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian fuel retailer and electricity provider fell 9.7 percent to 43.89 naira by Monday close in Lagos. Volume traded more than 3 times the daily average for past 3 months. Decline “may be related to investors’ reactions to the announcement of the complete removal of the stock from the MSCI Frontier Market Indexes,” Kikelomo Alatise, equity analyst at Lagos-based Meristem Securities, says by email Funds tracking stocks that were deleted…

Read More

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Faces Impeachment as He Balks at Retiring

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Faces Impeachment as He Balks at Retiring

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean lawmakers are set to begin impeachment proceedings against President Robert Mugabe on Monday after he missed a ruling-party deadline to end his 37-year reign. Mugabe, 93, was widely expected to announce that he was stepping down in a televised address late on Sunday to enable Emmerson Mnangagwa, whom he fired as vice president earlier this month, to take over. Mugabe instead delivered a rambling and largely incoherent speech, in which he pledged…

Read More

IMF Sees Tough South Africa Budget Unless Fiscal Risk Sorted

IMF Sees Tough South Africa Budget Unless Fiscal Risk Sorted

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa will face more fiscal difficulties and higher financing costs should state-owned companies’ debt continue rising and if the nation’s local debt is downgraded to junk, the International Monetary Fund said. If state entities such as cash-strapped power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and South African Airways request more state support, the government will have to step in to help, removing fiscal space for “more socially useful activities,” Montfort…

Read More

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Said to Risk Impeachment If He Won’t Quit

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Said to Risk Impeachment If He Won’t Quit

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe could be impeached if he refuses to bow to pressure to resign, according to four officials close to mediation efforts aimed at ending a political standoff in the southern African nation. The military placed the 93-year-old Mugabe under house arrest early Wednesday and detained top officials who’d backed his wife, Grace, to succeed him. Mugabe has been made aware he could be impeached but he initially dismissed the…

Read More

Angolan Sonangol’s Fired Boss Said She Leaves $2 Billion in Reserves

Angolan Sonangol’s Fired Boss Said She Leaves $2 Billion in Reserves

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, said Sonangol will be left with a financial reserve of $2 billion after she leaves as chair of Angola’s state-owned oil company. Her firing Wednesday marks the first time Angolan President Joao Lourenco has directly targeted the family of his predecessor, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Africa’s second-biggest oil producer for 38 years and appointed his eldest daughter to the helm of Sonangol last year. She was relieved…

Read More

Bitcoin Flirts With Record $8,000 High, Leaving Sell-Off Behind

Bitcoin Flirts With Record $8,000 High, Leaving Sell-Off Behind

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin has picked up right where it left off, capping a resurgent week by climbing within a few dollars short of a record $8,000 just days after a plunge of as much as 29 percent from the previous high tested the confidence of advocates of the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has gained 17 percent this week, touching a high of $7,997.17 during Asia hours before moving lower in late trading. The rally…

Read More

UBS Shuns Bitcoin Allocations Due to Threat of Crypto Crackdown

UBS Shuns Bitcoin Allocations Due to Threat of Crypto Crackdown

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – UBS Group AG, the world’s largest wealth manager, isn’t prepared to make portfolio allocations to bitcoin because of a lack of government oversight, the bank’s chief investment officer said. Bitcoin has also not reached the critical mass to be considered a viable currency to invest in, UBS’s Mark Haefele said in an interview. The total sum of all cryptocurrencies is “not even the size of some of the smaller currencies” that UBS…

Read More
1 585 586 587 588 589 1,077