Finance

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African media company Naspers Ltd. is cashing in a tiny sliver of one of the greatest venture-capital investments ever. The company is selling $10.6 billion of shares in Tencent Holdings Ltd., equal to 2 percent of the stock in the Chinese operator of the WeChat messaging service, the Cape Town-based company said in a statement Thursday. The sale comes hours after Tencent, Asia’s most valuable company, warnedit will sacrifice short-term margins, spending…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Karo Resources, a company linked to mining entrepreneur Loucas Pouroulis, will spend $4.2 billion on a Zimbabwean platinum project in the first big investment since President Robert Mugabe’s ousting in November. The deal is the largest to date in Zimbabwe’s mining industry, Mines Minister Winston Chitando said. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has declared the “country open for business” as he seeks to revive the economy and attract investment.  “It is not business as usual anymore,”…

SOUTH SUDAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Sudan will raise oil production by 30 percent when output resumes “soon” at a field damaged by conflict four years ago, Petroleum Minister Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth said. Greater Pioneer Operating Co. will initially pump about 40,000 barrels per day, raising national output to about 175,000 barrels, Gatkuoth said in response to questions sent by Facebook Messenger on Thursday. GPOC’s owners include China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysia’s Petroliam National…

LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa)- Zambian President Edgar Lungu wants his tax authority and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. to speedily resolve a disputed $7.9 billion tax bill the copper producer received this week, his spokesman said. Shares in the Vancouver-based company gained. “It’s a policy of government not to interfere with independent assessments made by the tax authority,” Amos Chanda said by phone Wednesday from the capital, Lusaka. “All we do is to encourage quick negotiation of the…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nine years and one revolution after agreeing to manage more than $620 million of Libyan funds, a London banker is in court fighting the firm he founded, and defending fees he used for a lifestyle that included a 165,000-pound ($232,000) stay at a five-star hotel in the British capital. Frederic Marino is accused by FM Capital Partners of taking more than $16 million in secret commissions between 2009 and 2014, seeking and…

DJIBOUTI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Djibouti’s government will embrace greater Chinese involvement in the nation’s ports and sees no reasons for U.S. concern that its strategic interests may be threatened, Finance Minister Ilyas Dawaleh said. Situated on a global shipping choke-point that links the Red Sea and Suez Canal, Djibouti has become increasingly important to regional and world powers. Smaller than the state of Massachusetts, it hosts the largest U.S. military base in Africa and China’s…