Southern Africa |

Winter Downpours Help Ease Risk of Cape Town Running Dry

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Fears that Cape Town, South Africa’s second-biggest city and most popular tourist attraction, would run out of water have abated as good winter rains help top up dam levels and ease the worst drought on record. The six main dams supplying the city are at 38.1 percent of capacity, compared with 31.8 percent a week earlier and just 23 percent a year ago, the city said on its website on Monday. Cape…

Liberty Refused to Pay Ransom After Computer Systems Hacked

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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…

Zimbabwe Opposition Party Denied Access to Voters Roll

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HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) Zimbabwean opposition party Movement for Democratic Change hasn’t been given an electronic copy of the voters roll despite repeated requests, a party official said. The MDC has been trying to obtain an electronic copy for two weeks, but has been rebuffed on a daily basis, Senator David Coltart told Bloomberg News in a telephone interview from Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, on Monday. “I’m apoplectic. How come the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission…

South Africa’s New Mining Charter to Credit Past Black Deals

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa will give mining companies credit for past black-empowerment deals even when the investors later sold their shares to whites or foreigners, removing a major concern for the industry. The country’s new Mining Charter, which is aimed at distributing South Africa’s mineral wealth more widely, will apply the “once empowered, always empowered” principle as long they met the previous 26 percent black-ownership requirement. The minimum percentage will also…

Namibia Plans Bond Exchange to Lure Debt Sales From South Africa

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WINDHOEK (Capital Markets in Africa) – Namibia plans to start a bond exchange to lure issuance by local companies that currently favour raising debt in its much larger neighbour, South Africa. The southern African country’s corporate debt market of 5.8 billion Namibian dollars ($437 million) is dwarfed by South Africa’s 500 billion rand ($38 billion) of non-government bonds. The Namibian dollar is pegged at 1 South African rand. Corporate bonds in Namibia trade over-the-counter, with…

Angola’s banking system is stable despite weak economic activity

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LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The International Monetary Fund indicated that Angola’s banking system is stable despite weak economic activity that has weighed on the banks’ capital metrics and asset quality in the previous three years. The sector’s risk-weighted capital adequacy ratio reached 18.9% at the end of 2017 relative to 19.2% at end-2016, but was well above the regulatory minimum of 10%. The IMF noted that Banco Nacional de Angola (BNA) introduced a new liquidity requirement that limits…

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…

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