Fitch: Angola’s Move to End IMF Talks Increases External Risks

Fitch: Angola’s Move to End IMF Talks Increases External Risks

ANGOLA, Capital Markets in Africa: The Angolan government’s decision to discontinue talks with the IMF on a potential loan increases risks to the sovereign’s external financing position if no other sources of external funding are available, Fitch Ratings says. We identified deteriorating external dynamics as a rating sensitivity when we revised the Outlook on Angola’s ‘B+’ sovereign rating to Negative from Stable in March. The IMF said last week that Angola wanted to halt talks…

Read More

Kenya Pipeline Considers Eurobond to Fund Expansion Projects

Kenya Pipeline Considers Eurobond to Fund Expansion Projects

NAIROBI, Capital Markets in Africa: Kenya Pipeline Co. is considering selling Eurobonds as part of a fund-raising exercise to finance capital-intensive projects around the country. The state-owned company, which is expanding its infrastructure to cater for potential oil production in the north of the country and the construction of the Lamu Port Southern Sudan Ethiopia Transport corridor, plans to start raising capital in the second half of next year, Chairman John Ngumi said. “There will be a need…

Read More

Citigroup, JPMorgan Favour Zambia’s Dollar Debt in Bet on IMF Aid

Citigroup, JPMorgan Favour Zambia’s Dollar Debt in Bet on IMF Aid

ZAMBIA, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are among investors stocking up on Zambian dollar debt, anticipating that a growth revival and an International Monetary Fund aid package will help the southern African nation plug its yawning budget deficit. Citigroup started adding Zambian debt on June 10, while JPMorgan moved its holding of the nation’s dollar bonds to overweight, seeing room to “earn considerable pickup” amid signs of an improving economy….

Read More

Ghana Cuts Growth Outlook to Lowest in More Than 30 Years

Ghana Cuts Growth Outlook to Lowest in More Than 30 Years

ACCRA, Capital Markets in Africa: Ghana cut its economic growth forecast for 2016 to the lowest rate in more than three decades as the country reduced its targets for oil and gold production. West Africa’s largest economy after Nigeria will likely expand 3.2 percent this year after growing 3.9 percent in 2015, Finance Minister Seth Terkper said in a statement on the ministry’s website. That will be the slowest rate since 1983, when the economy contracted 4.6 percent, according…

Read More

Nigerian Regulator Ousts Skye Bank Board Over Capital Concerns

Nigerian Regulator Ousts Skye Bank Board Over Capital Concerns

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria’s central bank replaced almost all the members of Skye Bank Plc’s board for repeatedly failing to meet minimum thresholds on liquidity and capital adequacy ratios. Chief Executive Officer Timothy Oguntayo and three of the bank’s eight other executives quit, along with Chairman Olatunde Ayeni and seven other non-executives, Governor Godwin Emefiele told reporters in Lagos on Monday. Alhaji Ahmad was named as new chairman and Adetokunbo Mukhail Abiru, a former Harvard Business School graduate…

Read More

Brent Oil Trades Near $50 as Nigeria Militants Carry Out Attacks

Brent Oil Trades Near $50 as Nigeria Militants Carry Out Attacks

NIGERIA, Capital Markets in Africa: Brent crude traded near $50 a barrel as Nigerian militants carried out attacks on oil production sites, threatening to deepen the country’s biggest output losses in decades. September futures rose as much as 0.8 percent in London after advancing 1.3 percent Friday. The Niger Delta Avengers said they attacked five crude-pumping facilities overnight Sunday, dealing a blow to a government effort to enforce a cease-fire. Shale drillers in the U.S. brought back the most oil rigs…

Read More

Egypt Stocks Jump Most Since March on Currency Devaluation Hints

Egypt Stocks Jump Most Since March on Currency Devaluation Hints

CAIRO, Egypt, Capital Markets in Africa: Egyptian stocks advanced the most since March after the central bank hinted it may devalue the local currency. The EGX 30 Index rose 2.9 percent to 7,182.8 at the close in Cairo. About 609 million Egyptian pounds ($69 million) of shares traded, the most since May. The rally came a day after Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer said that the policy of defending the pound in the past five years was a “grave mistake,”…

Read More
1 871 872 873 874 875 1,073