Banking

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa): For HSBC Holdings Plc’s frustrated shareholders, time is running out on Chairman Mark Tucker’s mission to deliver. The former insurance executive, who arrived in 2017 after making his mark in Asia, is set to roll out a top-to-bottom overhaul of the sprawling lender after two post-crisis resets and his first pick as chief executive officer flopped. Costs remain too high, red tape is too thick and not enough businesses generate…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – A profit bonanza for Egyptian banks is ripening the industry for acquisitions. If only there were more willing sellers. One buyer found a way in. First Abu Dhabi Bank PSJC is in talks for the Cairo-based unit of Lebanon’s Bank Audi SAL, which needs cash to cope with an economic crisis back home. The bid is the first for an Egyptian bank by a Gulf lender in seven years, as companies…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa): The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority said it’s examining the spike in the British pound about 15 seconds before Thursday’s Bank of England’s interest-rate decision. Sterling shot up toward $1.31 just before BOE officials surprised markets by announcing that they had voted 7-2 for no change to the policy, even though many analysts and investors had expected a closer decision or a rate cut. The move prompted traders and analysts to…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The bank, which has offices in Johannesburg and London, is readying a spinoff of its asset-management business in March and also plans to sell some private-equity investments. The lender wants to reduce its 25 billion rand ($1.7 billion) of private-equity holdings to 15 billion, Richard Wainwright, the chief executive officer of Investec’s South African bank, said in an interview at the lender’s local headquarters. “If we are successful in releasing…

LONDON (Capital Markets in  Africa): The Bank of England kept interest rates on hold in Governor Mark Carney’s final meeting, waiting for more evidence of an economic rebound before supporting it with a cut. The pound jumped. Policymakers voted 7-2 to keep the benchmark at 0.75%, an unchanged split from their previous meeting that belied investor expectations the decision was on a knife-edge. The committee noted that surveys of business activity have picked up “quite markedly in some…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa): Kenya’s central bank joined its South African counterpart by unexpectedly cutting interest rates, citing well-anchored inflation expectations and an economy that’s operating below its potential. The monetary policy committee reduced its key rate to 8.25% from 8.5%, Governor Patrick Njoroge said in an emailed statement on Monday. That’s the second consecutive cut and moves the rate to the lowest in more than eight years. All three economists surveyed by Bloomberg said it…

KIGALI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Changing weather patterns are pushing up food prices and will drive inflation in Rwanda for the first few months of this year, central bank Governor John Rwangombwa said. Unexpectedly heavy rains in the second half of 2019 caused some crop damage and food inflation reached 23.8% in December, the highest in almost three years.  “Because of the bad rains we had in the last quarter of 2019 we expect inflation in…