The Markets

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, along with a fellow Republican and two Democratic lawmakers, introduced legislation in the Senate that’s aimed at allowing the government to bring lawsuits against OPEC members for antitrust violations. Lawmakers in the other chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, already introduced a version of the “No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act,” or NOPEC, bill in May. Congress has discussed various forms of NOPEC legislation…

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – It takes some brazenness for a nation rated six steps into junk territory and with the world’s worst-performing currency to issue a Eurobond in this market. But Angola did just that on Monday, selling $500 million of 30-year debt in only the third dollar-denominated deal from an emerging-market government since May. The sale suggests that even with sentiment toward emerging markets turning much more bearish in the past three months, some investors still…

TRIPOLI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Libya is ramping up oil output at its eastern fields, offsetting thousands of barrels in production lost from the partial shutdown of the country’s biggest deposit after gunmen kidnapped workers there. The North African nation’s overall production rose to 650,000 to 700,000 barrels a day and is expected to rise further after shipments resume at eastern ports that re-opened after a political standoff last week, according to a person familiar…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – OPEC expects supplies from its rivals to increase by the most in five years in 2019, with extra oil from the U.S. alone sufficient to meet the growth in global demand. In its first detailed outlook for 2019, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries indicated that the North American oil boom means OPEC members are already producing enough crude to cover what will be needed from them. That could still change,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – It’s the question commodity investors dread: what happens if China slows and prices crash? S&P Global Ratings crunched the numbers for just that scenario and found the world’s five top miners including Glencore Plcand BHP Billiton Ltd. would be able to get by without a ratings cut. As prices will “run out of steam” sooner or later, S&P modelled a one-year collapse caused by a sudden shock to Chinese demand “as that’s…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – MTN Group Ltd.’s Nigerian wireless unit hasn’t yet submitted an application for an initial share sale, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Sunday in a statement. MTN also has yet to announce how much it aims to raise from the listing, which MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter initially planned for the middle of this year, before pushing the deadline to the end of the year. Earlier this week, Lagos-based BusinessDay reported that the company plans…

TRIPOLI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Libya’s oil output will keep dropping day by day if major ports remain closed after clashes last month led to a political deadlock, the head of the country’s state energy producer said. “Today, production is 527,000 barrels a day, tomorrow it will be lower, and after tomorrow it will be even lower and everyday it will keep falling,” Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of the Tripoli-based National Oil Corp., said in a…