Finance

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African bank workers were blocked from participating in what would have been the industry’s biggest strike in almost a century as labor unions protest against job losses. Unions failed to comply with rules allowing demonstrations and those who down tools will have no protection, Judge Hilary Rabkin-Naicker said in her ruling in the Johannesburg-based Labour Court on Thursday. The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the nation’s largest labor federation, and…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The man who runs Hong Kong’s stock exchange fleshed out his vision for combining with its London counterpart, saying the marriage could funnel Chinese cash to the U.K. capital and make it the world’s dominant financial center long after Brexit. “In 20 years, together, this city is going to be the renminbi, dollar, and euro center — the center of everything,” Charles Li said at a conference in London….

Biggest endowment struggled to unload a troubled investment NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Colin Butterfield was frantic. The Harvard University endowment executive wanted to unload a disastrous $270 million investment in Brazilian farmland. But the school had no takers, and it was burning through millions of dollars. “Why I’m freaking out is that we’re running out of money,” Butterfield said in a November 2017 conference call, referring to the project, not the college. “We have no more money.”…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The U.K.’s top judges inflicted an unprecedented legal defeat on Prime Minister Boris Johnson, branding his controversial decision to suspend Parliament unlawful and calling on lawmakers to return to Parliament as soon as possible. The unanimous landmark decision by the 11 judges Tuesday is a boost for MPs seeking to prevent Johnson pulling the country out of the European Union by Oct. 31 without a deal. By limiting the prime…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Investors should be more concerned about the increasing prospects of Elizabeth Warren being the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee than any fallout from the scandal around Donald Trump’s phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, according to AGF Investments. The outrage surrounding allegations that Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, is unlikely to affect markets, Greg Valliere, the firm’s chief U.S. policy strategist, wrote in a…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bovis Homes Group Plc has restarted talks to buy Galliford Try Plc’s housing division after discussions earlier in the year broke down. The potential deal could see the Galliford’s housing business valued at 975 million pounds ($1.2 billion), plus 100 million pounds of debt, bringing the total valuation with debt to 1.075 billion pounds, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. More work is needed before the tie-up of Bovis and…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Interswitch, a Nigerian-based payments business, is in talks with potential anchor investors as it ramps up preparations for a potential London initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said. The company is planning to kick off the share sale as soon as November, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. An IPO could value the company at as much as $1.5 billion,…