Finance

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Steinhoff International Holdings NV is gauging takeover interest in businesses including clothing chain Pepco as the scandal-hit retailer prepares for the next phase of a recovery plan, according to two people familiar with the matter. The South African company has informally sounded out potential buyers for Pepco including private equity firms, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the plans aren’t public. The profitable chain, with more…

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo suspended a hearing about a lawsuit brought by a former shareholder of a Glencore Plc-owned cobalt and copper mine. The case was put on hold pending a decision by the country’s Court of Appeal on whether the High Court should have jurisdiction over the case, Judge Roger Songambele said at the court Monday in the capital, Kinshasa. Congolese-American businessman Charles Brown, a…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – ARM Cement Ltd., a Kenyan manufacturer of the building material, said Wednesday it began restructuring its balance sheet and needs to cut its debt further after its cash flow was “crippled” by the poor performance of its unit in Tanga, Tanzania. “The Tanga plant has not performed as expected since 2015 due to issue beyond our control,” the Nairobi-based company said in a statement in the Standard newspaper. “For…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt is considering tapping the international sukuk market in the coming fiscal year, as it looks to diversify funding sources to drive forward its economic revival efforts. The Sharia-compliant issuance, either in dollar or euro-denominated sukuk, which Finance Minister Mohamed Maait hopes will happen in fiscal 2018-19, would mark a revival of a plan shelved since 2013 when the government under then-Islamist President Mohamed Mursi issued the law to pave the way for…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Glencore Plc has set its ambitions on expanding in South Africa, the homeland of its chief Ivan Glasenberg. As the company’s former business partner and new President Cyril Ramaphosa promises an economic recovery, Glencore is reaping profits from coal and chrome assets as prices rise. The company announced in October a $1 billion deal to buy Chevron Corp.’s oil refining and fuel service stations in South Africa and considered a bid for the Optimum coal…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s pledge to switch to digital TV by the end of next year may free up spectrum for wireless operators such as Vodacom Group Ltd. And MTN Group Ltd., while also allowing smaller companies to enter the telecommunications market. Vodacom and MTN, South Africa’s top two mobile-phone companies, have long bemoaned the lack of available spectrum for broadband as they struggle to grow their businesses in Africa’s most industrialized economy….