Nigeria’s Wema Bank raising $100 mln Tier II capital to grow loans

Nigeria’s Wema Bank raising $100 mln Tier II capital to grow loans

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Wema Bank aims to complete a $100 million Tier II capital raising exercise by the second quarter of this year to fund its growing foreign currency loan portfolio, its chief financial officer said on Thursday. Tunde Mabawonku said the commercial lender also planned to start the process of raising fresh equity capital of between 30 billion naira ($151 million) to 40 billion naira, from strategic investors by the fourth quarter. Mabawonku…

Read More

National Bank of Canada Buys an Equity Stake in the African Financial Group NSIA

National Bank of Canada Buys an Equity Stake in the African Financial Group NSIA

National Bank of Canada (“National Bank”) today announced that it is purchasing a stake in NSIA Participations (“NSIA”), a financial group headquartered in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, with operations in 12 countries across West and Central Africa. With this transaction, National Bank and Amethis Africa Finance (“Amethis Finance”) acquire the equity stake held by private equity fund ECP Africa Fund III PCC in NSIA. National Bank will have a 20.9% interest, while that of Amethis Finance…

Read More

IMF approves $18 mln aid to Malawi after commitment to fight corruption

IMF approves $18 mln aid to Malawi after commitment to fight corruption

LILONGWE (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund will provide $18.1 million to Malawi after its government promised to tackle the corruption that led to a suspension of aid by donors following large-scale graft involving public funds. Donors led by former colonial ruler Britain have withheld direct aid to the southern African nation for more than a year over a corruption scandal in which top government officials and ministers siphoned millions of dollars from the public…

Read More

Japan tops project finance investment into the continent…

Japan tops project finance investment into the continent…

Over the last 10 years, the level of project finance investments sponsored by Asian funds in Africa has increased by over 160%, with the amount of fresh capital poured into the continents’ projects such as roads, water sanitation plants and oil and gas pipelines in 2014 alone standing at USD 4.2bn, according to research by global law firm Linklaters. The surge, especially in the last five years, is perhaps surprisingly attributable to Japanese investors, who…

Read More

PIC puts R5bn into Northern Cape renewable energy projects

PIC puts R5bn into Northern Cape renewable energy projects

RENEWABLE energy projects received a boost with the announcement on Wednesday of two new solar power plants to be built in the Northern Cape. The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) will invest R4.4bn, buying a 20% stake in each plant and providing debt funding for both totalling R600m. Worth R22bn, the Ilangalethu and Xina power stations are expected to contribute a combined 200MW to the national electricity grid. It usually takes two years to build a…

Read More

What can $300 billion buy in Egypt? A new capital or a pipedream

What can $300 billion buy in Egypt? A new capital or a pipedream

CAIRO (Reuters) – It is a project as ambitious as Egypt’s ancient pyramids. Built from scratch to escape Cairo’s choking pollution, a planned new capital will feature an airport larger than London’s Heathrow, a building taller than Paris’s Eiffel Tower and more than 10,000 km (6,200 miles) of boulevards, avenues and streets.The city, meant to be built within just seven years, was unveiled last week at the Sharm El-Sheikh economic summit, where President Abdel Fattah…

Read More

Egypt’s Sawiris to diversify Orascom, invest $500 mln in Egypt

Egypt’s Sawiris to diversify Orascom, invest $500 mln in Egypt

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – Top Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris said he was ready to invest $500 million in Egypt and was diversifying his telecoms business into infrastructure, energy and transportation, sectors which need major funds in the country.Sawiris, a billionaire from a powerful Coptic Christian family, said the investment conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh had been a success but that the government would need need to make efforts to…

Read More
1 178 179 180 181 182 187