Finance

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Investors pulled money from emerging-market ETFs last week for the first time since October as disappointing data from China, the world’s second-largest economy, crimped the outlook for growth across Asia. After 21 weeks of inflows, money managers withdrew $108.6 million from U.S.-listed exchange-trade funds that invest across developing nations as well as those that target specific countries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The withdrawal trimmed this year’s inflows…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The uncertainty surrounding the U.K.’s departure from the European Union has left trade negotiators from six Southern African nations pondering how their future ties with one of their largest trading partners will pan out. “Even if there is a deal, it will take months, if not years, to manage the administration around trade and tariffs,” South Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies told reporters in Cape Town on Monday. South…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Anglo American Platinum Ltd. is giving hundreds of hectares of land to communities living in a South African area that’s rich with the ore as the nation’s ruling party seeks to introduce laws that make it easier to expropriate land without paying for it. The world’s top platinum supplier is handing over 270 hectares (667 acres) of land to people living in Rustenburg, about 140 kilometers (86 miles) northwest of…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Billionaire Mike Ashley’s latest bid to control Debenhams Plc has sharpened battle lines with the troubled U.K. department-store chain’s lenders as it seeks to restructure its debt and avoid insolvency. Ashley, angling to add Debenhams’s roughly 240 U.K. and overseas stores to his empire that already includes Sports Direct International Plc and House of Fraser, has launched an effort he’s dubbed “Project Serpico” to expose what he says is an insider plot to steer…

CONGO (Capital Markers in Africa) – The Republic of Congo sought the assistance of former International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the debt-strapped nation’s bid to secure a bailout stretches into a third year. Strauss-Kahn and Lazard France Chief Executive Officer Mathieu Pigassetraveled to the Congolese capital, Brazzaville, in January for talks with President Denis Sassou Nguesso, Finance Ministry spokesman Adrien Wayi Lewy said in an interview. “They have a great understanding of global finance and were…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s construction industry is being demolished. After 45 years of trading on Johannesburg’s stock exchange, Group Five Ltd.’s stock was suspended Tuesday after the company filed for bankruptcy protection, making it the fifth local builder to enter business rescue in less than a year. From a peak market value of 8.2 billion rand ($575 million) in 2007, it was worth less than 100 million rand when the shares stopped…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – U.K. organizations supervising accountants are too worried about pleasing their membership to live up to their duty to crack down on money laundering, setting back attempts to rid the country of billions of pounds of dirty money, according to a new report. Some of the U.K.’s 22 groups overseeing accountants and lawyers did no anti-money laundering supervision whatsoever, the Office for Professional Body Anti-money Laundering Supervision said in its…