Abu Dhabi Said to Deepen Egypt Ties With Deals Worth $2 Billion

Abu Dhabi Said to Deepen Egypt Ties With Deals Worth $2 Billion

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – An Abu Dhabi wealth fund agreed with Egypt to invest about $2 billion by buying state-held stakes in some companies, including the North African nation’s largest listed bank, according to people familiar with the deal. Part of the agreement with ADQ involves it buying about 18% of Commercial International Bank, said the people who asked not to be identified as the talks are confidential. Along with the CIB portion, which…

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Dangote Cement Plans $500 Million Investment to Expand Capacity

Dangote Cement Plans $500 Million Investment to Expand Capacity

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Dangote Cement Plc, Africa’s largest producer of the building material, will invest $500 million over the next three to five years to expand production capacity in countries with increasing demand. “We are now focused on the next capital expansion cycle, which includes building grinding plants across West and Central Africa,” Chief Executive Officer Michel Puchercos, said during an investor call on Tuesday. “We are considering increasing capacity in countries with…

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Ex-London Plumber Taps African Aluminum Scrap as Prices Soar

Ex-London Plumber Taps African Aluminum Scrap as Prices Soar

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – As deepening shortages push aluminum to record highs, a London-based startup is raising cash to boost production of the critical industrial metal from untapped reserves of scrap in Africa’s biggest cities.  Founded in 2015 by Raymond Onovwigun, a 31-year-old former plumber, Romco Metals has raised $6.2 million via a private share sale, valuing the recycler at $180 million. After developing a taste for trading scrap from job sites around…

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World Bank Urges Tanzania to Quicken Vaccination to Lift Economy

World Bank Urges Tanzania to Quicken Vaccination to Lift Economy

Dar es Salaam (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tanzania, which was among the last nations to start vaccinations against Covid-19, needs to accelerate inoculation to help quicken its economic recovery, the World Bank said. The East African nation of about 60 million people administered 2.4 million doses over about five months after President Samia Suluhu Hassan launched the program in July. “A slow pace by global standards,” the World Bank said in its biannual Tanzania Economic Update…

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Microsoft’s $22 Billion Army Goggles Still Aren’t Combat-Ready

Microsoft’s $22 Billion Army Goggles Still Aren’t Combat-Ready

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Microsoft Corp.’s new multifunction goggle system for the U.S. Army shows promise, but the $22 billion program isn’t yet ready for combat deployment, according to the Pentagon’s test office. Despite progress since the contract was awarded in 2018, the system “has not yet demonstrated the capability to serve as a fighting goggle,” according to a non-public assessment by the Pentagon’s director of operational testing that was sent to the…

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Pfizer, BioNTech Begin Study of Omicron-Specific Covid Vaccine

Pfizer, BioNTech Begin Study of Omicron-Specific Covid Vaccine

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Pfizer Inc. said it is starting a study of a Covid-19 vaccine that targets the omicron variant, exploring its use in previously vaccinated younger and middle-aged adults as well as those who haven’t received another coronavirus shot.  The New York-based drugmaker and its German partner, BioNTech SE, said in a statement on Tuesday that they had enrolled the first participants in a 1,420-person clinical trial that will evaluate the shot’s…

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Microsoft Gambles on Troubled Activision, But Risks Are Likely Manageable

Microsoft Gambles on Troubled Activision, But Risks Are Likely Manageable

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Microsoft Corp. in its planned purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc. will take on a company with a troubled reputation surrounding its workplace culture, but the risks stemming from those problems are far from insurmountable, deals experts said. Microsoft’s announcement this week that it intends to purchase the videogame company in a $75 billion all-cash deal came after Activision experienced a spate of bad news over the past six months,…

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