Finance

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Helios Towers Ltd. rose 5.7% on its first day of trading after the company raised 288 million pounds ($364 million) in a long-delayed initial public offering that gives investors a foothold in Africa’s fast-growing wireless tower industry. Shares in the company that was backed by billionaire financier George Soros priced at 115 pence apiece, the bottom of the range, before closing at 121.50 pence. After a subdued start to the…

ADISS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) – A former JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst is using drones and satellites to boost Ethiopia’s agricultural exports and improve food security in a nation once synonymous with famine. Africa’s second-most populous country still struggles to feed itself. But now the government’s Agriculture Transformation Agency, headed by Khalid Bomba, is aiming for widespread commercial farming and food security in 20 years. It’s modeling itself on initiatives in South Korea and Taiwan….

GABORONE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Botswana, the world’s second-biggest diamond producer, expects its trade with the U.K. to continue unhindered after Brexit. The Southern African Customs Union, which comprises Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, and Eswatini, along with Mozambique last month agreed on a deal with the U.K. to govern trade should it leave the European Union at the end of the month. The deal mirrors the terms SACU currently has with the EU….

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) – At least two former Credit Suisse Group AG bankers will testify for the U.S. at a federal trial this week, describing their roles in what the Justice Department says was a $2 billion kickback scam in Mozambique. Andrew Pearse, who headed the global financing group in the bank’s London office, will be one of the government’s first witnesses at the trial of Jean Boustani, a former executive at the…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya plans to borrow 422 billion shillings ($4.1 billion) from external lenders after lawmakers approved the government’s proposal to increase its debt limit. The government of the East African nation is negotiating or about to sign 44 loan agreements with 15 lenders including the African Development Bank, China, Japan and the World Bank, parliament documents show. The lawmakers last week approved the National Treasury’s proposed debt limit of 9…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria began preliminary talks with international oil companies to settle a dispute over revenue. The government, citing a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, says it’s entitled to $62 billion from the companies after they failed to comply with a 1993 law that hands the state a greater share of income when oil exceeds $20 a barrel. The companies are challenging the claim. “We have opened up a process of engagement between the…