Private Equity |

Liberty Refused to Pay Ransom After Computer Systems Hacked

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Liberty Holdings Ltd., the South African insurer midway through an overhaul to improve profit, said it refused a ransom demand after hackers breached its information-technology infrastructure and accessed some emails. The stock fell the most since April 4. “We did engage with the external parties involved to determine their intentions, but we made no concession in the face of this attempted extortion,” Liberty Chief Executive Officer David Munro said Sunday in…

When AI Helps Keep the Lights On

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Azuri’s HomeSmart adjusts power output based on prior solar battery use. In sub-Saharan Africa, home electricity is a 50-50 prospect and bank accounts can be rare, but most people have some kind of cellphone. The phones provide information often tough to come by in rural areas—the latest commodity prices, for example. And even in places where pastoral tribesmen tend livestock in very old-school ways, they may also chat over…

Centum Kenya to Fund-Raise, Exit Investments as Profit Falls

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Centum Investment Co., Kenya’s second-largest publicly traded investment group, plans to raise funds by selling assets and will target third-party funding for projects, after it reported a plunge in full-year profit. The Nairobi-based company will reduce its stakes in investments that aren’t providing “good returns” and part of the proceeds will be used to help repay outstanding debt of 11.4 billion shillings ($113 million), Chief Executive Officer James Mworia said at…

Legae Buys Peregrine Securities to Add Prime Broking Edge

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Legae Securities Pty Ltd., South Africa’s first black-owned and managed securities firm, agreed to buy the stockbroking unit of Peregrine Holdings Ltd., giving it access to one of the country’s largest prime-broking businesses. A consortium of investors including Johannesburg-based Legae, some management from Peregrine Securities and a group of black investors, agreed to pay 760 million rand ($57 million) for Peregrine’s 65 percent stake in the brokerage, the companies…

Nigeria, Morocco Set Stage for Construction of Gas Pipeline

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria and Morocco set the stage for the construction of a pipeline that will connect Nigerian gas to customers elsewhere in Africa and make it available to European buyers. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and King Mohammed VI of Morocco on Sunday signed an agreement in Rabat to start studies and consultations on the project, according to a statement by the Moroccan state agency MAP. The 5,660-kilometer (3,500-mile) conduit, which will follow onshore and…

Nigeria Sovereign Fund to Boost Local Focus After Profit Dip

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority is restructuring its portfolio to focus more on domestic investments after a drop in the currency wiped out foreign-exchange gains last year. “The asset allocation strategy of NSIA has been restructured to reflect an increased focus on domestic infrastructure investments with 50 percent of future contributions to be dedicated to infrastructure,” according to a statement on Monday from the fund. The institution, which last year had…

African Private Equity Funds raise $700mn in first four months of 2018

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Research provider Preqin indicated that 388 private equity (PE) funds raised a total of $114.6bn to invest in emerging markets (EMs) in 2017, compared to 639 EM-focused PE funds that raised $105.3bn in 2016. The aggregate capital raised in 2017 by EM-focused PE funds represented the second highest level since 2008. Also, the number of PE funds with a primary focus on EMs accounted for 32% of total PE funds, while the…

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