May 2016 |

Is there Room for Exchange Traded Funds in the African Context?

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: In the third quarter of 2015, financial commentators were abuzz when industry research group ETFGI announced that the global Exchange Traded Fund (“ETF”) market has surpassed the Hedge Fund industry in terms of size for the first time ever. With assets under management of $2.971 trillion as at the end of Q2 2015, its quarterly growth of $45 billion during the same quarter made it surpass the Hedge Fund…

Developing an Appropriate Benchmark Index for African Equity Fund

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Although most investors have adopted a preferred benchmark or index to measure or track the performance of developed markets, agreeing on benchmarks for emerging and frontier markets still needs to be established. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) coined the terms emerging markets and frontier markets and was the pioneer in creating equity indices in these markets. S&P Dow Jones Indices (SPDJI) acquired Africa Indices from the IFC in 2000…

Morocco’s Macroeconomic Prospects unfavourable but positive momentum

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Casablanca, Morocco, Capital Markets in Africa: Prospects for the Morocco economy in 2016 are mixed with very weak economic growth on the one hand and, on the other, an on-going contraction in the twin deficits, which will help restore the long-term health of the country’s public finances and balance of payments. As far as the growth outlook is concerned, expectations of weak GDP growth in 2016 should once again highlight the economy’s sensitivity to the…

Unleashing African Equities — Fund Manager Perspective

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Confident in the positive prospects embedded into Africa’s long term development, our team has been working on the best way to access the latter for almost a decade. In this purpose, one should be aware that intrinsic risks related to the region’s political and economic situation make the definition of an investment strategy relatively complex, especially when taking into account the features of the continent’s capital markets such as…

Investing in Africa’s Equity: Balancing Risk, Return and Regret

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Broad-based performance of African equities in 2015 was something many investors like to forget, if they do not regret their investment decision in the first place. Investors following the herd and buying into the asset class for the first time in the heydays of 2013 can be regularly found in the latter category. Others, who remained on the sidelines so far, can now buy great African businesses at much…