The Editorial Team |

Bidvest Can Tap $1 Billion for Deals Outside South Africa

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bidvest Group Ltd. is seeking deals outside its South African home market and could borrow as much as $1 billion for acquisitions after it spun off its food-services unit last year, its chief executive officer said. Lindsay Ralphs, the CEO, is plotting Bidvest’s next phase of growth after the Johannesburg-based company listed Bid Corp Ltd., which is about 40 percent larger by market capitalization at 80 billion rand ($6 billion). Now…

S&P says South Africa needs to deliver growth, fiscal improvements

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s sovereign credit rating could come under pressure if the country’s economic growth and fiscal performance do not improve, the head of the sub-Saharan region of S&P Global Ratings said on Wednesday. “We have certain expectations with regard to GDP growth and certain expectations with regard to fiscal improvements. If there is no delivery in this regard, that could certainly put pressure on the rating,” Konrad Reuss told…

Tunisian banks pressurise amid significant asset risk and challenging operating conditions

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TUNIS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Moody’s Investors Service says that subdued economic growth, evolving regulation and significant asset risk pressure will maintain pressure on Tunisian banks’ performance. Moody’s report, entitled “Banks – Tunisia: Subdued economic growth, evolving regulation and significant asset risk will maintain pressure on banking performance,” is available on www.moodys.com. “Asset risk is a major issue facing Tunisian banks, and we expect non-performing loans to remain at high levels — at around…

Rand Merchant Bank lists US Dollar Custodial Certificates on JSE

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), has listed an innovative new product on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), which will enable companies and individuals to hold unlimited quantities of cash in US dollars. US Dollar Custodial Certificates (DCCs), listed on the Exchange Traded Funds sector of the JSE on 24th January, are easily tradable, dollar-denominated investment instruments which have no exchange control implications. Investors earn the return of a US Treasury…

Nigerian MPC Member Turns on Central Bank over Policy Paradox

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria is undermining its own efforts to tame inflation and strengthen the naira by “pretending” to tighten policy while boosting the money supply, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee said in an extraordinary attack on the central bank published a day before the first interest-rate decision of the year. While the MPC raised the benchmark interest rate to a record 14 percent last year, the central bank’s management was…

Guinness Nigeria to Convert Loans to Shares to Conserve Funds

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Guinness Nigeria Plc, the country’s second-biggest brewer, plans to convert a portion of dollar-denominated loans from parent Diageo Plc into shares to limit the impact of exchange-rate volatility and conserve cash. “We don’t want to be holding foreign-currency loans,” ChairmanBabatunde Savage told shareholders at a meeting in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, on Tuesday. The company’s cash flow is already under pressure from a Nigerian economic downturn, he said. The company took out…

Angolan Fund Says China Exim Will Lend $600 Million for New Port

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LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Export-Import Bank of China is lending Angola as much as $600 million for the construction of a deep-sea port in the northern enclave of Cabinda, according to Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the chairman of Angola’s sovereign wealth fund. The first phase of the port, which will include a 630-meter (2,070-foot) container terminal, ship-repair facilities, warehouses, a power plant and a free-trade zone, will be completed in the second half of this year,…

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