Southern Africa |

South African Inflation Rate Falls to Six-Month Low in March

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Market in Africa) – South Africa’s inflation rate fell to a six-month low in March after food prices climbed at the slowest rate in 13 months. Consumer inflation eased to 6.1 percent from 6.3 percent in February, Statistics South Africa said in a report released Wednesday in the capital, Pretoria. The median estimate of 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for 6.3 percent. Prices climbed 0.6 percent in the month. The central bank’s Monetary Policy…

Aspen Tumbles as Drugmaker Faces Pressure From Pricing Probe

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd. fell the most in more than a month after The Times of London reported that Africa’s biggest maker of generic drugs is in a dispute with Spanish authorities over proposed price increases on some cancer treatments. Employees at the Durban, South Africa-based company discussed destroying a stock of cancer drugs in Spain if a demand to raise prices by as much as 4,000 percent wasn’t met,…

Sibanye to Raise $2 Billion in Equity, Debt for Stillwater Deal

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sibanye Gold Limited plans to raise $1 billion from shareholders and a further $1 billion in debt, most likely bonds, to pay for the acquisition of Colorado-based Stillwater Mining Co. The funds will be raised by the middle of this year and will help repay a $2.65 billion bridge loan from a group of banks, Westonaria, South Africa-based Sibanye said in a statement Tuesday. The remainder of the loan will be repaid…

Zambia Seeks IMF Deal of as Much as $1.6 Billion This Month

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LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, plans to reach an aid deal for as much as $1.6 billion with the International Monetary Fund by the end of April, Finance Minister Felix Mutati said. Bond yields fell. “At the moment we know that we can get up to $1.6 billion — if you ask me, I’d go for the maximum,” he said in an interview Monday in the capital, Lusaka. “Hopefully the program…

South Africa’s Shoprite looks beyond Africa to Eastern Europe

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CAPE TOWN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa’s biggest grocery retailer Shoprite is considering a push into Eastern Europe, where it hopes to use knowledge gleaned from former suitor Steinhoff International, its new CEO told Reuters. The move signals a change in strategy for Shoprite under Chief Executive Pieter Engelbrecht, 47, as sovereign rating downgrades and a weak economy cloud prospects at home. It also leads it down a competitive path crowded with established retail giants…

South Africa’s credit downgrades rule out repo rate cuts

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s debt downgrade to junk status and the finance minister’s recent dismissal mean interest rates will be on hold until 2020 at least, a Reuters poll found on Wednesday. Economists in the poll, taken just a week after Fitch Ratings Agency and Standard & Poor’s downgraded South Africa to “junk”, pushed out rate cuts, ruled them out altogether or considered the possibility of hikes. But the medians from the…

South Africa’s bourse to review trades around Gordhan’s recall

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s bourse will investigate an increase in the trading of certain securities in the hours before former finance minister Pravin Gordhan was recalled from an international investor roadshow, BusinessDay newspaper reported on Monday. On March 27, news broke that President Jacob Zuma had ordered Gordhan to return immediately from a trip to Britain and the United States. Gordhan was later dismissed in a cabinet reshuffle. The newspaper reported…

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