Features

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – As he negotiated a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter Inc., Elon Musk told bankers that he would be focused on the social-media company’s bottom line, and floated the idea of cutting both costs and jobs, according to people familiar with the matter. On calls with teams of bankers before the deal was announced, Musk fielded questions on how he would generate financial returns at Twitter. While nothing is…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Trafigura Group and Zimbabwe’s government have discussed a deal that would give the commodities trader control over output from some of the nation’s biggest mines as repayment for debts, documents seen by Bloomberg show. Under the agreement, Trafigura will be paid $225.6 million by nickel- and gold-mining subsidiaries of state-run Kuvimba Mining House Ltd. for fuel bills Zimbabwe owes Trafigura on contracts dating back to 2016, the documents show….

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – About 80% of freshly minted cryptocurrencies are underwater and their average returns are close to zero relative to Bitcoin within a year, according to a Jump Crypto analysis. While there are a few high-profile outliers, the majority of new coins were underperforming within the first month, the public-facing crypto brand for Jump Trading Group found, after analyzing 3,759 tokens — excluding assets like stablecoins — that were listed on CoinGecko and…

ALGIERS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Algeria threatened to cut natural gas flows to Spain if it re-exports Algerian supplies to other countries, amid rising diplomatic tensions over Morocco.The warning came after Spanish Energy Minister Teresa Ribera said Madrid would start sending gas, albeit of non-Algerian origin, to Morocco via the Maghreb-European pipeline.Spain has discussed the use of the pipeline, known as MEG, with Algeria in recent months and its decision was communicated on Wednesday, according to…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – UPL Ltd. has proposed releasing water contaminated by a pesticides spill in the eastern South African city of Durban into the sea or municipal sewers. While the Indian agro-chemical firm said experts it contracted have since late 2021 deemed the water fit for disposal using these methods, the city says that as recently as April 11 storm-water contained in a pollution control dam “remained highly toxic to the environment.”…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s Finance Act 2021 (FA 2021) has ushered in notable modifications to several provisions of the country’s tax statutes. One of the most significant is the reintroduction of capital gains tax on transfers of shares in Nigerian companies, a move by the Federal Government of Nigeria, which has been battling revenue shortfalls since 2014, to increase income. Capital Gains Tax on Share Transfers Immediately prior to the amendment of…

ALGIER (Capital Markets in Africa) – Algeria became one of the first countries in Africa to start a permanent unemployment-benefits program for its young population, as surging energy prices give the OPEC member more firepower to tackle social unrest. About 580,000 job-seekers between 19 and 40 years of age are eligible to collect monthly payments of 13,000 dinars ($91) from the state starting Monday, according to the National Employment Agency.  While a tiny fraction of…