Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria Eyes Mozambique to Double Income From Africa

Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria Eyes Mozambique to Double Income From Africa

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Guaranty Trust Bank, Nigeria’s biggest lender by market value, plans to open in Mozambique as it targets the country’s gas market to help prop up profit from African subsidiaries. The lender will enter Mozambique in the first quarter of 2019 “to capitalize on the country’s offshore gas boom,’’ after it opens in Tanzania in January next year, it said. The expansion will increase the contribution to profit by African…

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South Africa Central Bank Has Little Policy Space to Boost Growth

South Africa Central Bank Has Little Policy Space to Boost Growth

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa has limited space for counter-cyclical monetary policy to support economic expansion because inflation risks have increased, central bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said. The balance of risks for growth in consumer prices is “on the upside,” with the rand weakening against the dollar, a higher oil price, and a chance that power prices will increase, he said in an interview Friday in New York with Bloomberg TV. The Monetary Policy…

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KCB of Kenya Nine-Month Profit Growth Slows as Loan Income Falls

KCB of Kenya Nine-Month Profit Growth Slows as Loan Income Falls

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – KCB Group Ltd., Kenya’s biggest bank by assets, posted slower growth in profit in the first nine months of the year as income from loans dropped. Profit grew to 15.1 billion shillings ($145.7 million) from a restated 14.4 billion shillings a year earlier, as earnings from loans decreased 1 percent to 35.7 billion shillings, the Nairobi-based bank said in an emailed statement. Non-interest income climbed by almost a fifth to…

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Ghana Central Bank Governor Sees Room for Further Rate Cut

Ghana Central Bank Governor Sees Room for Further Rate Cut

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison said there is scope for a further cut in the country’s main interest rate should the economy keep improving.  “If the fundamentals of the economy are seen to be improving, then there is room for a rate cut, even though inflation has stayed at around 12 percent,” he said in an interview Tuesday in the capital, Accra. The central bank of West Africa’s biggest economy…

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FirstRand, South Africa Challenges U.K. Lenders With Aldermore Buy

FirstRand, South Africa Challenges U.K. Lenders With Aldermore Buy

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa’s largest lender by market value plans to take on Britain’s biggest banks with the takeover of Aldermore Group Plc as growth in its home market stutters. FirstRand Ltd. said on Monday it agreed to buy all of Aldermore after winning the backing of the U.K. lender’s board and its largest shareholder. The offer, which values Aldermore at about 1.1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion), will help the Johannesburg-based company diversify away from…

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Standard Bank Denied Access to Rand-Rigging Investigation Record

Standard Bank Denied Access to Rand-Rigging Investigation Record

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s Competition Tribunal declined Standard Bank Group Ltd.’s request for the early release of the investigators’ report into the lender’s alleged part in currency manipulation. The tribunal, which rules on antitrust matters like a court, won’t “order the immediate production of the record, as Standard Bank was not yet entitled to it,” the Pretoria-based antitrust body said in an emailed statement on Monday. While the earlier production of the investigation…

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Moody’s: Morocco’s diversifying economy and stable policy support positive banking system

Moody’s: Morocco’s diversifying economy and stable policy support positive banking system

RABAT (Capital Markets in Africa) – Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) says its outlook for the Moroccan banking system is positive, supported in part by the country’s on-going economic diversification and stable and predictable political and economic policy environment. Moody’s report, “Banking system outlook: Morocco, improving operating environment and rising credit growth support positive outlook”, is available on www.moodys.com. Moody’s subscribers can access this report via the link provided at the end of this press release….

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