Finance

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya is turning to the bond market to finance water and sewage projects as it seeks to plug a funding gap that’s left nearly half the population without access to a tap. Utilities are pooling together loans and packaging them as debt for investors as they seek to fix poorly maintained and aging networks that lose about 43 percent of the water pumped in East Africa’s largest economy, according…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Orange SA is seeking to build partnerships in Africa rather than making major acquisitions or entering new markets as the French phone carrier focuses on its existing businesses in 21 countries on the continent. Mobile-phone operators in Africa have to increasingly share their investment in infrastructure to reduce costs, Bruno Mettling, Orange’s deputy chief executive officer in charge of operations for Africa and the Middle East, said in an interview…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egyptian real estate developer Medinet Nasr Housing plans to invest about 700 million Egyptian pounds ($40 million) on construction this year as it begins selling the non-residential parts of its Taj City project east of Cairo. The Cairo-based company expects to start sales in the office district in the fourth quarter and will begin talks with hotels in the second half after finishing plans for the hospitality element of the project,…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – It seems it will take more than “Ramaphoria,” as they call it in South Africa, to spur the country’s corporate debt issuers into action. South African assets have rallied since Cyril Ramaphosa was elected leader of the ruling African National Congress in December, setting him on a path to replace Jacob Zuma as the country’s president last month. With economic growth accelerating, inflation slowing and the new administration acting against corrupt officials, business…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Steinhoff International Holdings NV, the retailer that’s wiped out more than $12 billion of value since an accounting scandal exploded in December, plans to reward directors for having to do more work than usual. Steve Booysen, head of Steinhoff’s audit and risk committee and part of the supervisory board’s independent committee, is due a once-off payment of 200,000 euros ($247,000) “to cover the additional work undertaken during the period…