Finance

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The pound is breaking the time-honored tradition that higher interest rates will mean a stronger currency, as growth and inflation fears take their toll.  U.K. two-year yields climbed this week to the highest since the start of the pandemic, buoyed by traders’ ramped-up expectations for Bank of England rate hikes in 2022. Yet the pound fell to a year-to-date low and suffered the most volatility since March — a sign that…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa’s biggest fund manager said its 70 billion-rand ($4.7 billion) unlisted assets division has been without a mandate to invest from its largest client since March, highlighting the dysfunction in the unit that drives investment in Black-owned businesses. The five-year agreement with the Government Employees Pension Fund, which accounts for 89% of the Public Investment Corp.’s total assets under management of 2.34 trillion rand lapsed on March 30 and has…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A BP Plc executive told internal investigators he was concerned about the energy giant’s dealings with a Nigerian middleman and payments being discussed to secure lucrative contracts. The suspicions didn’t make it into the investigators’ final report, which emphasized that the 2017 deal never went through. But notes from their interviews show a senior executive at the company’s London headquarters was worried that proposed payments to an agent in…

LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia may owe Chinese creditors almost double the amount the government has previously disclosed, complicating restructuring negotiations, a study found.  The Johns Hopkins’ China Africa Research Initiative estimates the nation’s total liabilities to Chinese lenders at $6.6 billion and spread across at least 18 creditors, according to a report published Tuesday. That compares with an official figure of $3.4 billion. The finding doesn’t mean that Zambia’s total external public…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Almost from the day he started his wealth-management firm in 2014, Russ Charvonia would get unsolicited emails offering to buy the company. He’d send them directly to his trash folder. But like hundreds of other managers this year, Charvonia eventually took the plunge. Last month, his Ventura, California-based Channel Islands Group and its $277 million in client assets under advisement officially became part of Mariner Wealth Advisors, for an undisclosedsum.The sale…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Wealth funds in Abu Dhabi are on the prowl in Turkey, scouting for targets for billions of dollars in investments, according to people familiar with the matter. Talks between the funds from the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates and companies in Turkey have been ongoing for months, the people said. The interest preceded a breakthrough phone conversation in August between Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) –  Egypt sold $3 billion in its second Eurobond issuance of the year, joining a rush of emerging-market governments taking advantage of low borrowing costs before the U.S. Federal Reserve starts tapering its pandemic stimulus. The issuance was three times oversubscribed, with total bids of $9 billion by more than 300 investors from U.S., Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa, the Finance Ministry said Friday in a statement. The sale included $1.125…