The Markets

JOHANNESBURGH (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sygnia Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Magda Wierzycka is questioning fees paid by South Africa’s state-owned money manager, citing an unverified document she says details a “sad litany of plunder” at the Public Investment Corp. The overseer of 2.1 trillion rand ($157 billion) of mostly civil-servant pension funds spent 960 million rand on advisory and transactional costs between 2014 and 2018, Wierzycka said in an opinion piece published Wednesday by Business Day. By…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Gerald Cotten, the Canadian behind cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga CX, filed a will 12 days before his death listing substantial assets, according to court documents. Cotten, whose sudden death left C$190 million ($145 million) in Bitcoin and other digital assets protected by his passwords unretrievable, signed his last will and testament on Nov. 27, 2018. He left all his assets to his wife, Jennifer Robertson, and made her the executor to…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s stock market is witnessing a paradox: foreign investors are selling in the local market but buying a U.S. exchange-traded fund that invests in the shares at the fastest pace in 11 years. On the Johannesburg exchange, foreigners sold a net 14.6 billion rand ($1.1 billion) of shares in January with 19 of the 22 trading days seeing outflows, according to JSE Ltd. During the same period, investors in NYSE…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – There’s been enough bad news about South Africa’s state-owned electricity company in recent months to rattle the hardiest bond investor. Or so you’d think. Even before President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday the nation won’t allow Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to fail, the company’s bonds were trading as if its troubles were over. The premium investors demand to hold the company’s 10-year dollar bonds rather than U.S. Treasuries dropped this week to the lowest…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Shorting the rand against the lira is a popular trade that doesn’t always pay off. But this time is different, a technical signal suggests. UBS Group AG on Wednesday recommended the trade, which Wall Street heavyweights including Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have tried in the past without success. The rand has been the best performing currency in the world this year with a 7 percent gain against…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Don’t be fooled into believing that the emerging-market rally fueled by a “patient” Federal Reserve will last throughout 2019. Satoru Matsumoto, a fund manager at Japan’s Asset Management One Co., which oversees the equivalent of about $490 billion, said the economic slowdown in China followed by the U.S. amid trade tensions will weigh on assets. While developing-nation stocks just completed their best month since March 2016, and currencies scored the biggest…