The Markets

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The January 2021 launch of fallbacks for derivatives contracts that reference Libor will still make it challenging for the industry to adopt new term rates referencing the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) before Libor ceases to be quoted at end-2021, Fitch Ratings says. Development of a SOFR term reference rate relies on sufficient liquidity in the SOFR-based USD derivatives market, which remains thin compared to traded notionals for USD…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria’s first industrial gold project is on course to enter production next year, and its success will be crucial for boosting mining in Africa’s biggest oil producer, the country’s mines minister said. Thor Explorations Ltd. is spending $98 million to develop the project, which will have an annual average output of 80,000 ounces. The Canada-based company’s Segilola mine in the southwest should yield gold by the end of the first…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Nigerian Stock Exchange will start clearing and settlement of exchange-traded derivative products in the second quarter of next year as it seeks to deepen the financial market of Africa’s biggest crude producer. The Lagos-based bourse has obtained approval in principle from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate NG Clearing Ltd., a central counterparty clearing house, it said in an emailed response to questions on Tuesday. The company…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) — Kenya Airways Plc needs at least $500 million to ride out the coronavirus crisis after first-half revenue plunged almost 50%, Chief Executive Officer Allan Kilavuka said in an interview. The carrier, which is 49% state owned, must also be fully nationalized alongside Kenya Airports Authority, which runs the Nairobi hub, under a holding structure similar to that of regional leader Ethiopian Airlines Group, he said. “If we don’t restructure the airline,…

LAGOS(Capital Markets in Africa) — Chinese and Spanish developers that want to build Africa’s biggest hydropower plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo agreed to form a single consortium in an accord the country says is a key step to realizing the plan. The $14 billion dams is part of a long-delayed project known as Grand Inga that’s eventually intended to harness as much as 40,000 megawatts of power from the Congo River. Inga III…

HARARE(Capital Markets in Africa) — Zimbabwe shut down its stock market and then ejected the continent’s oldest insurer from the bourse. Now it’s hoping to entice investors to a new exchange with a plan to package equity purchases with political-risk cover. Justin Bgoni, who is setting up the foreign-currency-only market at the iconic Victoria Falls near the Zambian border, knows it’s a tough sell. As chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, he had to…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Federal Reserve and other central banks are heading for a collision with shadow lenders — the firms with a sinister nickname that are increasingly dominating global finance. Even as policymakers struggle to reopen their economies in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, they’ve launched a review of what went wrong with markets in March, when a worldwide dash for cash by investors nearly crashed the financial system and…