The Markets | - Part 188

South Sudan Seeks New Oil Investors After Total Talks Collapse

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Sudan’s government opened negotiations on two of its biggest oil blocks to new investors after discussions with Total SA collapsed. Discussions about blocks B1 and B2 with the French oil company over the past two weeks reached an impasse over the proposed exploration period and “cost-recovery limit,” Petroleum Minister Ezekiel Lol Gakuoth said in a statement he forwarded by email on Monday. Total didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for…

South African Inflation Rate Falls to Six-Month Low in March

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Market in Africa) – South Africa’s inflation rate fell to a six-month low in March after food prices climbed at the slowest rate in 13 months. Consumer inflation eased to 6.1 percent from 6.3 percent in February, Statistics South Africa said in a report released Wednesday in the capital, Pretoria. The median estimate of 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for 6.3 percent. Prices climbed 0.6 percent in the month. The central bank’s Monetary Policy…

Aspen Tumbles as Drugmaker Faces Pressure From Pricing Probe

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd. fell the most in more than a month after The Times of London reported that Africa’s biggest maker of generic drugs is in a dispute with Spanish authorities over proposed price increases on some cancer treatments. Employees at the Durban, South Africa-based company discussed destroying a stock of cancer drugs in Spain if a demand to raise prices by as much as 4,000 percent wasn’t met,…

Sibanye to Raise $2 Billion in Equity, Debt for Stillwater Deal

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sibanye Gold Limited plans to raise $1 billion from shareholders and a further $1 billion in debt, most likely bonds, to pay for the acquisition of Colorado-based Stillwater Mining Co. The funds will be raised by the middle of this year and will help repay a $2.65 billion bridge loan from a group of banks, Westonaria, South Africa-based Sibanye said in a statement Tuesday. The remainder of the loan will be repaid…

Foreigners Lapping Up Egypt’s Growing Supply of Cheap Debt

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CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – A flood of new issuance is offsetting foreign-investor demand for Egyptian debt, keeping yields among the highest in emerging markets. Offshore investors boosted holdings of government Treasury bills to 79 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) as of April 4, compared with less than 1 billion pounds before a currency devaluation in November, according to Finance Ministry data. Government borrowing is already 11 percent higher than the target this year, and…

Senegal to issue Eurobond in April, Finance Minister Says

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Senegal will issue a Eurobond this month in order to finance a series of infrastructure and power production projects that it hopes will push economic growth above 7 percent from next year, Finance Minister Amadou Ba said on Friday. Ba declined to give the amount of the issuance or its maturity. The West African nation is rated B1 by Moody’s and B+ by Standard & Poor’s. “I think that the…

South Africa’s Gigaba pledges to stave off third downgrade, meet with Moody’s

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CAPE TOWN (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s new finance minister pledged on Thursday to do what he can to keep the country from a third credit downgrade to junk status, saying he would meet ratings firm Moody’s to persuade it he will stay on the path of fiscal discipline. Malusi Gigaba, who replaced the respected Pravin Gordhan in a cabinet reshuffle that triggered credit downgrades to sub-investment by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch, told…

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