The Markets

LONDON (Capital Markets in Afrioca) – A U.S. activist investor wants to push Britain’s biggest theme park owner off the stock market, saying it would be worth more in private hands. Shareholders in Legoland and Alton Towers operator Merlin Entertainments Plc have had a rocky ride since the Danish family that owns the Lego toy brand listed the company in 2013. Terrorist attacks and Brexit have clouded prospects for a business that relies on steady growth in…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Afrioca) – The pound is on a record losing streak and there aren’t many investors ready to stand in the way of further losses. Investec Asset Management, Aberdeen Standard Investments and Pictet Asset Management SA are cutting sterling positions or staying on the sidelines as Britain’s political turmoil reignites uncertainty around the nation’s exit from the European Union. With a senior minister resigning to add pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May to abandon…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Saudi Arabia isn’t seeing as much demand for oil as expected from Iran’s customers, as a lot of crude has been leaving the Persian nation without being accounted for since the U.S. imposed sanctions on Tehran. Nobody knows how much oil Iran is producing or exporting, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said after the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee of OPEC and its allies met in the western Saudi city of…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The embattled South African state power utility’s debt burden, described by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as the biggest threat to the nation’s economy, has burgeoned, compounding the difficulty the government faces in formulating a turnaround plan. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s debt is approaching 500 billion rand ($35 billion), according to data compiled by Bloomberg from public records, including bonds and issued loans, up from about 370 billion rand a…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – MTN Group Ltd. has been promising to list its Nigerian business on the Lagos stock exchange for almost three years, yet it took just 16 minutes for the mobile-phone giant to cause a sensation. After a lengthy ceremony of speeches, congratulations and rounds of applause delayed the start of trading for more than half an hour, it looked as though MTN Nigeria Communications Plc may not trade at all with the market…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – That’s the advice from fund managers and strategists opting to reduce exposure to the U.K. amid a lack of Brexit clarity and escalating trade tensions. BlueBay Asset Management LLP is shorting the pound and gilts, while UBS Wealth Management is avoiding U.K. government debt and long-term pound bullNomura International Plc has ended its buy recommendation on sterling. Prime Minister Theresa May has now set the week of June 3 to bring…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – MTN Group Ltd. will list its Nigeria unit in Lagos on Thursday in a move that will value the pan-African wireless carrier’s largest business at 1.8 trillion naira ($5 billion). The move is a step toward a partial sell down of the carrier’s majority 79% stake, and was agreed to as part of the settlement of a $1 billion regulatory fine three years ago. MTN Nigeria is the market leader…