The Editorial Team |

Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: Deregulation and Proxy Recounts

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – There have been a lot of stories recently about how the U.S. government has kind of given up on financial regulation. This week the Senate moved to limit strict Fed oversight (and stress tests) to just the dozen biggest banks. Here is a story about how the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has gotten much laxer on a range of mostly consumer-protection-type regulations. (Its interim head “declared that the agency was returning…

This Cryptocurrency Miner Says It Solved Bitcoin’s Power Problem

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A green-energy startup says it can solve bitcoin’s surging electricity consumption without boosting pollution, an issue threatening to halt the meteoric rise of the virtual currency. Austria’s HydroMiner GmbH raised $2.8 million after closing its first initial coin offering on Wednesday, according to its website. The cash will be used to install high-powered computers at hydropower plants, where the company says it can mine new digital currencies at a cheaper cost and…

Investec First-Half Profit Climbs 21% as Funds Increase

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JOHANNESBURG Capital Markets in Africa) – Investec Plc, which owns a lender and money manager in South Africa and the U.K., said fiscal first-half profit rose 21 percent as funds under management increased, equity markets rose and the banking business increased lending. Net income climbed to 252.4 million pounds ($332 million) in the six months ended Sept. 30 from 208.6 million pounds a year earlier, the London- and Johannesburg-based lender said in a statement on Thursday. The dividend…

Secession Talk Enters Kenyan Mainstream as Poll Feud Simmers

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s protracted election dispute has spawned secession calls from opposition supporters who say their vote has no influence on how East Africa’s biggest economy is governed. The increased agitation follows the declaration of President Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of October’s election rerun that the main opposition alliance boycotted, alleging it wouldn’t be a fair vote. His victory in the poll, in which turnout was just 38.8 percent and clustered in…

Mugabe Refusal to Quit Is Said to Stall Zimbabwe Transition

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s refusal to publicly resign is stalling plans by the military to swiftly install a transitional government after seizing power on Wednesday, two people familiar with the situation said. The military wants Mugabe, who’s under house arrest, to agree to step aside so it can claim its action isn’t a coup and head off tension with the Southern African Development Community, which includes Zimbabwe and South Africa,…

Ivory Coast May Legalize Cocoa Farming in Some Protected Forests

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, plans to legalize farming on almost 5 million acres of protected reserves to help balance the rebuilding of forests with an output of its most important export. The government wants to reclassify protected forests that have been destroyed by more than three-quarters because of unauthorized farming — most of it cocoa — into “protected agroforest” areas, according to a Forestry Ministry document obtained by…

In Topsy-Turvy Zimbabwe, Stocks to Fall on Confidence Return

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – If investors want a sign that confidence is returning to Zimbabwe following the armed forces’ seizure of power from President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday morning, they should look for stocks to fall. In Zimbabwe’s dysfunctional market, the deeper the economy has sunk, the more equities have soared. The nation’s main gauge is up 322 percent in the past year in dollars, the best performance globally, even as a cash shortage choked businesses and…

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