The Markets

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt on Wednesday approved a deal settling a land dispute pitting the government against a group of international investors who owned a stake in a company controlled by one of the country’s richest men, a senior government official directly involved in the talks said. Investors including American businessman Sam Zell sued the government in an international arbitration court over the failure to fully honor a 2006 contract with Orascom Housing Communities. OHC is…

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…