Libya Bids to Resume Oil Exports From Key Ports Within Weeks

Libya Bids to Resume Oil Exports From Key Ports Within Weeks

LIBYA, Capital Markets in Africa: Libya’s National Oil Co. plans to restart oil exports from key ports “immediately” after reaching a deal with Khalifa Haftar, commander of the military forces who took control of the facilities on Sunday. The resumption of shipments from ports including Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina would allow Libya to double crude output to 600,000 barrels a day within four weeks, NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said Tuesday in a statementon the company’s website. The…

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Heineken Looks to Premium Brands in South African SAB Battle

Heineken Looks to Premium Brands in South African SAB Battle

Johannesburg, Capital Markets in Africa: Heineken NV’s recent introduction of Sol Mexican lager to South Africa forms part of a plan to boost its market share in a country dominated by soon-to-be-acquired SABMiller Plc. The Dutch brewer brought Sol to South Africa this month and plans to add more premium brands there, country head Ruud van den Eijnden said in an interview Tuesday. Growth will also be achieved through established brands such as Heineken, Amstel and Windhoek, he…

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South Africa Current-Account Gap Narrows as Rand Boosts Exports

South Africa Current-Account Gap Narrows as Rand Boosts Exports

Johannesburg, Capital Markets in Africa: South Africa’s current-account deficit narrowed to 3.1 percent of gross domestic product in the second quarter after the nation’s exports received a boost from the lagged effect of last year’s rand weakness. The gap on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, narrowed from a revised 5.3 percent in the first three months after the nation recorded its first quarterly trade surplus in a year, the Reserve Bank…

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Ghana’s Eurobond Loosens IMF Straitjacket Ahead of Elections

Ghana’s Eurobond Loosens IMF Straitjacket Ahead of Elections

ACCRA, Capital Markets in Africa: Ghana will have more fiscal room to maneuver ahead of elections as a fifth Eurobond gives the nation funds to pay debt and implement projects amid spending restrictions imposed by the International Monetary Fund. West Africa’s second-largest economy raised $750 million at a yield of 9.25 percent last week in an auction that was more than four times oversubscribed. About $400 million of the bond proceeds will be used to refinance the nation’s…

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Kenyan Central Bank Sets CBR as the Base Rate for Loan Charges

Kenyan Central Bank Sets CBR as the Base Rate for Loan Charges

NAIROBI, Capital Market in Africa: Kenya’s central bank said lenders should peg their loans to its Central Bank Rate, or CBR, in line with a new law capping costs and as the International Monetary Fund warned that legislation limiting how much lenders charge for credit risks impeding access to loans. East Africa’s biggest economy has introduced restrictions on borrowing costs that set commercial rates at 400 basis points above a central bank base rate. Most…

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Zambian President Lungu Faces Challenge to Repair Economy

Zambian President Lungu Faces Challenge to Repair Economy

LUSAKA, Capital Markets in Africa: Zambian President Edgar Lungu, who was inaugurated Tuesday after his narrow re-election last month, faces two immediate challenges: boosting an economy that’s expanding at the slowest pace in 17 years and reining in a ballooning budget shortfall. “We will remain focused on facilitating a conducive business and investment environment,” Lungu, 59, said in his inauguration speech in front of an audience that packed the 60,000-seat National Heroes stadium in Lusaka, the capital…

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Kenya Treasury Secretary to Meet Prospective Eurobond Buyers

Kenya Treasury Secretary to Meet Prospective Eurobond Buyers

NAIROBI, Capital Market in Africa: Kenyan Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich said he’s likely to meet potential investors in the East African nation’s next Eurobond while visiting the U.S. next month. The government has also factored a possible U.S. Federal Reserve interest-rate hike later this year into its plans for selling more debt offshore, he said in an interview Tuesday in the capital, Nairobi. Rotich will be attending the International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Washington scheduled to take place…

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