Finance

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Talks are in progress to build a new underwater gas pipeline between Israel and Egypt, part of efforts to transform the eastern Mediterranean into an energy export hub on Europe’s doorstep, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said. Israeli gas stocks rose. Construction could begin as early as next year on the pipe to transport gas from Israel’s offshore Leviathan and Tamar fields to Egypt’s existing liquefied natural gas plants for processing…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Cerba HealthCare SAS, the French owner of a global network of medical laboratories, is expanding in Africa by buying some of Lancet Laboratories’ operations for as much as 12.5 billion Kenyan shillings ($123 million), said a person familiar with the matter. Paris-based Cerba will hold a 51 percent stake in a joint venture with the South African company that will operate in 11 African countries, said the person who…

LAGOS (capital Markets in Africa) – Jaguar Land Rover plans to slash 4,500 jobs worldwide, as the U.K.’s biggest automobile maker responds to the sales slowdown caused by Brexit, flagging demand for diesel-powered vehicles and a downturn in China. The cuts, representing roughly 10 percent the company’s workforce, are part of a 2.5 billion-pound ($3.2 billion) push announced last year to reduce costs and boost cash flow through 2020. They come on top of the 1,500 people…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Barrick Gold Corp.’s new boss intends to push ahead with plans to increase investment in the mineral-rich — but environmentally tricky — deposits straddling the Chile-Argentina border. “If you want to find elephants, go to elephant country,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow, a South African geologist and big-game hunter, said in a phone interview. The Toronto-based company “absolutely” intends to invest more money in the El Indio copper-and gold belt,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – China’s crude oil purchases from the Middle East and West Africa dropped to a four-month low in December, following a buying binge the previous month that saw the Asian country’s stockpiles swell. Observed flows to China from the two regions dropped to 5.04 million barrels a day, the lowest since August, after reaching a 2018-high of 6.45 million barrels daily in November, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Most of the…

LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia’s mining-tax increase could lower government revenues instead of boosting them as copper miners fire workers and curb production, according to JPMorgan Cazenove. Under the higher royalties introduced on Jan. 1, almost one-third of the country’s mine output is unprofitable, JPMorgan said in a note to clients dated Jan. 7. That means the new tax regime could backfire on Africa’s second-biggest copper producer. “These higher-cost operations are also the more labor-intensive…

ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Africa Finance Corp. said that as the sole mandated lead arranger it helped raise a syndicated loan totaling 577 million euros ($662 million) for Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage, an oil and gas company with operations in the Ivory Coast. “AFC’s participation was for 192 million euros,” the African finance institution said in an emailed statement on Monday. “The purpose of the facility is to repay historical obligations on…