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Moody’s: South African gold and platinum miners’ restructuring supports their credit profiles

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The credit profiles of South African gold and platinum group metals (PGM) miners are benefitting from restructuring programmes that aim to protect the sustainability and profitability of their South African mines, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report today. The report, “Metals & Mining — South Africa, Restructuring of South African operations is credit positive for gold, PGM miners”, is now available on www.moodys.com. Moody’s subscribers can access this…

Zimbabwe stock market hits new highs as currency, cash problems worsen

Posted on by The Editorial Team

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe’s stock market hit a record high on Monday, propelled by local investors seeking a safe haven in an economy suffering acute shortages of foreign exchange. The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange’s (ZSE) main industrial index touched 301.03 points, the highest since it was rebased in 2009 when Zimbabwe dumped its hyperinflation-hit currency in favor of the US dollar. Market capitalization reached $8.5 billion. It has more than doubled since January…

Why Africa Is Set to Backstop Britain’s Post-Brexit Health Care?

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The South African companies that dominate the U.K.’s growing private hospital industry are counting on more people like Katie Corrie. A children’s party entertainer, Corrie opted to use 13,000 pounds ($17,000) of her savings and inheritance to get a hip replacement rather than spend months on a National Health Service waiting list. Britons like her are forking out almost 1 billion pounds a year to cover their own medical…

Diamonds Fund Zimbabwe’s Secret Police, Global Witness Says

Posted on by The Editorial Team

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe’s government is using money earned from diamond exports to fund its Central Intelligence Organisation, blamed for a raft of human-rights abuses as it’s helped to keep President Robert Mugabe in power since 1980, Global Witness said. Diamonds dug from the Marange fields in eastern Zimbabwe are channelled through Dubai, India, the Netherlands and South Africa by a complicated web of cross-owned companies based in places as diverse as Mauritius, Hong…

Bell Pottinger Booted From PR Body Over South Africa Conduct

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bell Pottinger LLP, the public-relations firm started by an adviser to Margaret Thatcher, has been thrown out of the U.K. industry body in an unprecedented ruling after an investigation found its work on behalf of the Gupta family in South Africa had stoked racial tensions. Bell Pottinger ran a potentially divisive social-media campaign aimed at highlighting economic inequality in South Africa along racial grounds and targeted wealthy white individuals…

Zuma Has Broken Businesses’ Trust, South African Lobby Says

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – President Jacob Zuma and his ruling African National Congress have broken the business community’s trust after he recalled a finance minister from an investment roadshow in the U.K. and then fired him in a cabinet shuffle, the head of Business Leadership South Africa said. The exit of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister prompted two of the three main credit ratings agencies to cut the assessment on South Africa’s foreign-currency debt to junk, thwarting…

Ramaphosa Targeted as S. Africa’s Succession Race Turns Ugly

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The race to lead South Africa’s ruling party is turning increasingly nasty. Allegations that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a front-runner for the post, had extra-marital affairs with at least eight women and paid expenses for some of them were splashed across the front page of the Sunday Independent, which cited Ramaphosa’s private emails to back up the story. It didn’t say how it obtained them. Ramaphosa called the report part…

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