The Editorial Team |

Standard Bank Tightens Grip on Liberty After Row With CEO

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – History is repeating itself at the insurer controlled by Africa’s largest bank by assets. Standard Bank Group Limited on Tuesday announced that its head of investment banking will take over as chief executive officer of Liberty Holdings Limited in an effort to end the drag that the Johannesburg-based insurer is having on profit. The deployment of David Munro to the post comes after the abrupt departure of Thabo Dloti following a bust-up with his…

Mauritian Banks Seen as Haven as Politics And Oil Roil Peers

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PORT LOUIS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mauritian banks are becoming beacons of growth and stability in sub-Saharan Africa. Unscathed by the vagaries of the oil price and unhindered by the political battles that have roiled some of their continental peers, the Indian Ocean island’s lenders have been bolstered by an economy growing faster than many of the mainland countries. The central bank expects the Mauritian economy to expand as much as 4 percent this year, compared with…

Nampak Surges as Can-Maker Extracts More Cash From Nigeria

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nampak Limited rallied the most on record after Africa’s biggest beverage-can maker said it significantly improved its ability to get cash out of Nigeria while increasing the use of hedging contracts to protect against currency fluctuations. The Johannesburg-based company expects to get $54 million out of Nigeria by the end of September, Chief Financial Officer Glenn Fullerton said by phone. The combined rate at which Nampak extracted money out of Nigeria and Angola…

Kenyan Central Bank Says Lenders Face New Era of Smaller Profits

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan lenders must adjust their business models to adapt to a new era of lower profits as interest-rate caps curb investor returns, Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge said. Return on equity in the Kenyan banking industry declined to 13.6 percent in March from 18.2 percent in June, Njoroge told reporters Tuesday in the capital, Nairobi. For the country’s biggest lenders, the drop was more severe, slumping to 23 percent…

Mutinies `Humiliated’ Ivory Coast, Parliament Speaker Says

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – A series of mutinies by soldiers in Ivory Coast demanding payments for supporting President Alassane Ouattara humiliated the West African nation, according to National Assembly Speaker Guillaume Soro, who once commanded the troops as a former rebel leader. “I can only note that we are despised,” Soro, 45, said in an interview Sunday at his residence in Abidjan, the commercial capital. “It’s a humiliation for us — the state, the president, myself…

Majority of South Africa’s ANC Want Zuma to Resign, Poll Shows

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African President Jacob Zuma’s public approval rating has reached an all-time low and most members of his ruling African National Congress want him to resign, according to an opinion poll released two days after he survived a second bid to oust him. Almost two-thirds of eligible South African voters want Zuma to quit, the survey released Tuesday by research company Ipsos found. About 54 percent of ANC supporters say the president should…

Glencore Renews Deal Hunt Untroubled by Memories of Debt Panic

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Commodities tycoon Ivan Glasenberg is chasing multibillion-dollar deals once again, and that’s fine with debt investors who were fleeing Glencore Plc less than 18 months ago. Glencore notes sank as low as 56 cents on the euro early last year after a commodity slump stoked concerns about the $30 billion of debt that Chief Executive Officer Glasenberg had amassed building one of the world’s largest raw-materials trader. Now, the bonds are back at around face…

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