The Editorial Team |

Diamond Said to Mull Atlas Options Including Taking Private

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bob Diamond, co-founder of Atlas Mara Ltd., is weighing options including taking the sub-Saharan African bank acquirer private, people with knowledge of the plan said. One option being considered is to find an investor or private-equity vehicle to back such a move, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private. A merger with another financial institution with a presence in Africa is also being weighed,…

Nigerian Equity Market Sustained Rally in Banking Sector buoys Market Performance

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – It was a positive trading day for Nigerian equities market as the All Share Index (ASI) added 18bps to close at 26,373.83 points. Consequently, market capitalization improved by N16.5bn to settle at N9.1tn. Today’s positive performance was driven by further gains in Tier-1 lenders – ZENITH (+2.1%), ETI(+4.3%) and ACCESS (+2.9%). Market activity, however, remained mixed as volume traded improved by 17.1% to settle at 174.0m units while value traded fell 68.7% to settle at…

Kenyan Stocks, World’s Worst This Year, Set to Fall Further

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan stock prices at more than three-year lows may have further to fall with domestic investors favoring bonds and foreign buyers waiting for lower valuations, the head of the bourse said. Shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange have dropped 6.9 percent since Jan. 1, extending last year’s 8.5 percent decline, because of jitters among investors about elections scheduled for August. The yield on Kenya’s benchmark 10-year bond has fallen almost 200 basis points to…

Volatile Pound Stokes Life Into Emerging-Market Carry Trades

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – There’s life in the great emerging-market carry trade yet, although now it comes with a twist. Investors are betting a trade that reaped returns of more than 20 percent last year for borrowing dollars to buy Brazil’s real, Russia’s ruble and South Africa’s rand has further to run — only they’re using the battered British pound to fund long positions in emerging-market currencies. Citigroup Inc. on Monday named shorting the pound against the Russian…

South Africa Inflation at 10-Month High as Food Costs Surge

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African consumer-price growth quickened in December as food costs surged, complicating the central bank’s task less than a week before it will decide on borrowing costs. Inflation accelerated to a 10-month high of 6.8 percent from 6.6 percent in November, Statistics South Africa said in a report released Wednesday in the capital, Pretoria. The median estimate of 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for inflation of 6.5 percent. Prices rose 0.4 percent in…

Nigeria Plan to Link Mines to Steel Mill Seen as Buhari Test

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s plan to build a railway to supply iron ore to its idle Ajaokuta steel plant could be the biggest sign yet that President Muhammadu Buhari is implementing his policy to diversify away from oil. The project began in 1979 with what the World Bank in 2002 called obsoleteSoviet technology, and has never been finished. Authorities want to revive it as part of Buhari’s efforts to lessen the economy’s dependence on crude, which accounts for…

Citigroup, Top Africa Loan Arranger, Sees M&A Boosting Lending

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Citigroup Inc., sub-Saharan Africa’s top loan arranger in 2016, expects increased sovereign demand and mergers and acquisitions to drive lending in the region this year as low valuations spur deals. “Lots of financing activity is expected in 2017,” Aziz Rahman, the bank’s head of corporate finance in the region said in an interview on Monday. Loans to sovereigns and corporates will increase as M&A deals rise and infrastructure spending picks…

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