Finance

KIGALI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Qatar Airways plans to purchase a 49% stake in Rwanda’s national carrier, stepping up its presence in the market weeks after taking a majority holding in the African country’s new airport. The Gulf airline is investing in Rwandair after identifying Africa as a market with significant potential, Akbar Al Baker, its chief executive officer, said in a briefing at the CAPA Qatar Aviation conference on Wednesday. The holding being negotiated…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s efforts to raise domestic revenue are beginning to bear fruit and will help the country to be less dependent on debt, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said a day after the nation sold $3 billion in Eurobonds. West Africa’s second-biggest economy received about $15 billion in offers for the debt issuance that included a tranche of sub-Saharan Africa’s longest-yet Eurobond with an average life of 40 years. The sale would increase…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – While his inner circle is full of activists, his past statements are all over the place. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson stood next to legendary wildlife filmmaker David Attenborough on Tuesday at a press conference for the COP26 United Nations climate conference set for Glasgow in December. He said urgent action is needed to fight global warming and called for an international effort to solve the problem. Then, as he was leaving the…

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Democratic Republic of Congo is looking for private partners to help fund a government-owned company created to buy all the country’s hand-mined cobalt. The new monopoly is aimed at better regulating small-scale mining and giving Congo an influence over cobalt prices. The country produces more than 60% of the world’s cobalt, an essential ingredient in lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, and some 20% of the metal is hand-dug…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The largest Chinese oil refiner is seeking to offload millions of barrels of West African crude it no longer needs as the coronavirus squeezes the nation’s demand. Unipec, the in-house trading arm of refining giant Sinopec, is trying to sell at least five cargoes of West African crude that it already owns and would normally have shipped home, according to people familiar with the matter. China’s biggest refiner of…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa): The Brexit battle between the U.K. and the European Union resumed as British leader Boris Johnson clashed with the bloc’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier at the start of 11 months of talks on a future trade deal. The pound fell. Barnier said in Brussels that a “highly ambitious” trade deal is on offer for the U.K. — but only if Johnson signs up to strict rules to prevent unfair competition. Speaking minutes later in London, Johnson rejected Barnier’s…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – The biggest mystery left in Donald Trump’s inevitable impeachment acquittal is whether any Democrats will join Senate Republicans to give him a bipartisan vote to clear him of the House’s charges. Democratic senators who represent Trump-leaning states have to decide whether they will buck their party on what could be the most important vote before the November elections and risk alienating voters who like the president. The most vulnerable…