The Editorial Team |

Bain Exit Leaves Edcon Struggling in South Africa Retail Slump

JOHANNESBURG, Capital Markets in Africa: Bain Capital Partners LLC’s decision to walk away from Edcon Holdings Ltd. leaves South Africa’s largest clothing retailer to claw back market share amid weak consumer confidence and a market recently populated by international heavyweights like Hennes & Mauritz AB. The owner of the Edgars, Jet and CNA chains needs to make up ground ceded while struggling under a debt burden caused by Bain’s 25 billion rand ($1.8 billion) purchase in 2007. Competitors…

Kenyan Lender CBA to Take Mobile-Bank Service Deeper Into Africa

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NAIROBI, Capital Markets in Africa: A Kenyan lender that transformed from an also-ran into the country’s biggest deposit-taker, mainly through a mobile-phone banking service started four years ago, plans to use the product as a beachhead to expand outside its East African home base. Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd., which also has units in Tanzania and Uganda, is seeking to export its M-Shwari mobile-phone service as part of a strategy to eventually have operations in 16 African…

Anglo American Hires Fortescue’s Debt Slashing Finance Chief

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JOHANNESBURG, Capital Markets in Africa: Anglo American Plc has picked a debt-cutting specialist as the embattled miner seeks to further reduce its borrowings. It named Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.’s Stephen Pearce its new finance director after he led the drive to slash debt at the world’s fourth-largest iron ore producer. Pearce will join Anglo in January and take up his new post on April 24, the producer said Friday in a statement. The 52-year-old has been chief financial officer of…

South Africa’s Rand Shows a Little Local Strife Can’t Derail Emerging Gains

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JOHANNESBURG, Capital Markets in Africa: For evidence that fundamentals hardly matter in today’s world of easy money, look no further than the rand. In a quarter marked by a political feud between South Africa’s president and his finance minister, stagnant growth and mounting concern that the country may lose its investment-level credit status, the rand returned 11 percent for investors selling the dollar to chase higher yields — more than twice as much as its next-best peer….

Nigeria’s Currency Woes a Boon for Top Palm-Oil Producer

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LAGOS, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria’s ban on importers accessing foreign exchange for certain products is proving a boon for the country’s biggest palm-oil producer as it stokes demand for domestic goods. Profit at Presco Plc, a Benin City-based manufacturer of the edible oil, more than doubled in the six months through June as sales jumped 60 percent to 7.5 billion naira ($24 million), according to results published in July. The outlook for the next four…

African Union Says EU Funds Secured for Its Mission in Somalia

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LAGOS, Capital Markets in Africa: The African Union said it secured 178 million euros ($199.6 million) of financial support from the European Union for its peacekeeping mission in Somalia, as the war-torn nation prepares for elections next month. The contract signed Wednesday covers the period from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, 2016, with funds to be used for the allowances of mission troops and police, international and local civilian staff salaries and operational costs, the…

Tunisia reaches deal with Petrofac protesters, in company talks

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TUNIS, Capital Markets in Africa: Tunisia has reached a deal with protesters who have disrupted gas production by Petrofac for months, the government said on Friday, part of an effort to stop the British energy firm closing its business. Petrofac, which supplies 13 percent of Tunisia’s gas through the Chergui venture in the south, officially informed the government this week that it had started shutting down its local gas operations. Since January Petrofac has had…

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