Finance

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — South Africa is rushing to boost radio spectrum for its main telecommunications companies to avoid a network breakdown as Africa’s most industrialized nation prepares for a three-week lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa is in talks with companies including Vodacom Group Ltd. and MTN Group Ltd. to find ways to provide the wireless carriers with additional capacity, the regulator’s spokesman, Paseka Maleka, said by…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria opened a new front in the oil price war between some of the world’s largest OPEC+ countries, offering to sell its crude in April at unusually large discounts in an effort to undercut its rivals. Even so, traders said the West African country may not have gone cheap enough. Exports of Qua Iboe and Bonny Light crude — two banner Nigerian grades — will be sold in April for discounts…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — As oil crashes due to the impact of the coronavirus, it’s easy to overlook an even more dismal reality for producers: the real prices they’re getting for their barrels are worse still. Having collapsed by about 60% this year, Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude have stabilized at around $25 a barrel, but the price rout is far deeper for actual cargoes, which are changing hands at large and…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Boris Johnson’s government is considering tougher action to fight the spread of the coronavirus in London but has denied it is planning to confine residents to their homes or seal off the city. “There are no plans to close down the transport network in London and there’s zero prospect of any restrictions being placed on people traveling in or out of London,” Johnson’s spokesman James Slack told reporters. It is “not…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) –  The bonds of emerging-market nations are entering distressed territory at an alarming rate as the soaring dollar raises the prospect of government defaults. Fifteen nations now have dollar-bond spreads of at least 1,000 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, a level many investors consider to be the threshold for debt to be classed as distressed. And that doesn’t even include Lebanon, which defaulted this month, and Argentina, which has begun restructuring talks with bondholders. At the…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The debate around South African interest rates has now moved from whether the central bank will cut on Thursday to by how much. Of 21 economists in a Bloomberg survey, 11 predict a 50 basis-point reduction, while the balance expects the rate to be lowered by 25 basis points. Forward-rate agreements show traders have switched from pricing in a less than 50% chance of a 25 basis-point cut three…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Emerging-market sovereign bonds tumbled as the prospect of billions of dollars in stimulus packages threatened to flood the market with new debt, and in some cases undermine already fragile finances. The extra yield developing nations need to pay to borrow dollars from abroad has doubled since the start of the year to 629 basis points — the highest since the global financial crisis. The prospect of a wave of…