The Markets

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt has appointed banks including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to sell dollar bonds in the first quarter of the year to help reduce the budget deficit. The country also picked HSBC Holdings Plc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for the deal and hired BNP Paribas SA, Natixis SA, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Standard Chartered Plc for the issuance of euro-denominated debt, according to a statement from the…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Naspers Ltd. will focus on streamlining technologies and harnessing artificial intelligence across its e-commerce and classifieds businesses after taking full control of Russia’s Avito BB in a $1.1 billion deal. Africa’s biggest company by market value on Friday bought out minority shareholders in Avito through its OLX Group, increasing exposure to Russia’s e-commerce market and strengthening its global reach in the sector. Naspers plans to consolidate different local online technologies into a…

— As we start 2019, it is an opportune time to reflect on the year that was and forge the way forward. The cryptoeconomy celebrated its 10th  birthday in 2018, reaching a total market capitalization of approximately $138.6 billion (KSh 14.2 trillion). In spite of a fluctuating market, a leading global peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace, Paxful (www.Paxful.com), saw an upswing in activity, driven by African consumers in which servicing the underbanked resulted in significant gains. Africa conducted 6.5 million trades…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – BCS Americas (BCSA) a division of BCS Global Markets (BCS GM) has announced the launch of a new trading platform that will provide global equity execution and settlement capabilities to institutional investors with access to a suite of algorithmic trading tools accessible 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. BCS GM first unlocked Russian markets for US investors with the launch of BCS Americas in 2016. BCS Americas…

JOHANESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African government bonds that offer protection against price increases are outperforming nominal debt so far this year — but that may prove to be a false start. Demand for inflation-linked bonds increased as inflation in Africa’s most-industrialized economy accelerated in 2018, reaching an 18-month high of 5.2 percent in November. But the rate probably plunged to 4.5 percent in December, data will show Wednesday, according to the median estimate of 19 economists…