News | - Part 12

Och-Ziff Plea Halts Rise of Hedge-Fund Billionaire’s Protege

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – At the turn of the century, hedge-fund billionaire Daniel Ochsent protege Michael Cohen, still in his twenties, to spearhead Och-Ziff’s expansion into Europe. Cohen’s team bet so successfully on equities and corporate deals that less than a decade later he was able to buy a 900-acre estate in the English countryside. A relentless investor with little patience for small talk, he was always looking for his next score, say people who know him. That led…

KCB in Talks With Facebook, Apple on Kenya Digital Payments

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – KCB Group Ltd., Kenya’s biggest bank by assets, is in talks with companies including Facebook Inc., Apple Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. about collaborating on digital payments through its new financial-technology unit, Chief Executive Officer Joshua Oigara said. The discussions, which are also being held with Alphabet Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., form part of the lender’s efforts to double the number of customers on its mobile-phone platform to 20…

Congo Election Body Proposes Two-Year Wait for Presidential Vote

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KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral authority said presidential elections will be delayed until 2018, angering opposition leaders who are demanding President Joseph Kabila step down this year. The commission “hasn’t called elections in 2016 because the number of voters isn’t known,” Norbert Basengezi Katintima, vice president of the Independent National Electoral Commission, known by its French acronym CENI, told reporters Thursday in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria. Voter registration has started…

South Africa Posts 8.6 Billion-Rand Trade Deficit in August

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s trade balance swung to a deficit in August after three months of surpluses as shipments of precious metals and stones, which include gold and diamonds slumped. The 8.6 billion-rand ($619 million) deficit compares with a revised surplus of 5 billion rand in July, the Pretoria-based South African Revenue Service said in an e-mailed statement on Friday. The median of 10 economist estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for a surplus of 1.6…

Nigeria Can Sue Chevron, Total Over Illegal Exports, Judge Says

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) Nigeria’s government can take the local units of Chevron Corporation and Total SA to trial for illegally exporting oil, a judge said. Justice Cecilia Olatoregun dismissed claims from the companies that they had no cases to answer at a hearing in the Federal High Court in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, on Friday. The trials will begin on Oct. 26, she said. “The government is seeking revenues that it lost due to under-declarations” of…

Och-Ziff Unit Said to Plan to Plead Guilty Over Bribes

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Och-Ziff Capital Management LP, the largest publicly traded hedge fund firm in the U.S., has agreed to enter into a deferred-prosecution agreement and have a subsidiary plead guilty in a federal probe into millions of dollars of bribes funneled to African officials, according to a person familiar with the matter. The admission of guilt is part of a settlement with the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission after a complex five-year…

Ivory Coast Raises Cocoa Price for Farmers 10% From 2015

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa producer, will boost the minimum price paid to farmers for their beans 10 percent from last year. Growers will get a minimum 1,100 CFA francs ($1.86) a kilogram (2.2 pounds) for beans for the main crop starting in October, according to Abdourahmane Cisse, the country’s budget minister. That’s up from 1,000 CFA francs last season. The main crop runs from October to March. “My own view…

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