Finance

SOUTH SUDAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Sudan’s oil production will increase by the end of the year as wells reopen in Africa’s youngest country following a truce to end a five-year war, the International Monetary Fund said. The government and rebel leaders signed a peace accord in September as they sought to end a war that had raged since 2013. The conflict more than halved the country’s oil production to about 120,000 barrels…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – A South African engineering contractors’ lobby group asked the the government to better enforce security as criminals have disrupted or vandalized 25.5 billion rand ($1.8 billion) of construction projects across the country. Armed gangs “recently” disrupted the 1.65 billion-rand Mtentu Bridge project in the Eastern Cape province, and a 2.4 billion-rand oil-storage investment project at Saldanha in the Western Cape was halted on March 13 after people demanding to…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The New Development Bank plans to lend as much as $780 million to Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. for infrastructure projects this year as the ailing South African power utility battles to keep power supply steady. Eskom, which on Wednesday entered a seventh day of controlled power cuts, is contending with operational and financial challenges, threatening the productivity of Africa’s most-industrialized economy. The government is considering various interventions to turn…

BENIN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Benin raised 500 million euros ($567 million) in a debut Eurobond sale on Tuesday, the same day that West African neighbor Ghana touted a $3 billion deal. Benin’s amortizing notes, with a final maturity of 2026 and average life of six years, yield 6 percent, lower than the initial price talk of around 6.375 percent. Investors placed more than 1 billion euros for the offering, according to a person familiar…

DAR ES SALAAM (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mark Bristow taking over the leadership of Barrick Gold Corp.facilitated negotiations with Tanzania about a multibillion-dollar tax dispute that could be resolved by May, the country’s attorney general said. Barrick unit Acacia Mining Plc has been at odds with Tanzania’s government since July 2017, when the state handed it a $190-billion tax bill, saying the gold producer falsely declared bullion exports. Bristow was named Barrick chief executive officer in…

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…