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Gas Flaring Law Error Cost Nigeria Billions of Dollars, Says Finance Minister

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa’s top oil producer plans to make gas flaring more costly for companies that have escaped the payment of billions of dollars despite being fined, Nigerian Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said. In the “legal framework for the gas-flaring penalty, it was drafted as a charge. A charge is tax deductible,” Adeosun said in a January 23 interview. “So, what do the international oil companies do? They flare, they pay the charge…

South African Steinhoff Unit Mulls Early Redemption of Bonds

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Steinhoff International Holdings NV said one of its South African units is considering an early redemption of all notes in issue as the global retailer struggles to stay afloat amid an accounting scandal. Steinhoff Services Ltd.’s redemption of securities issued under a 15 billion-rand ($1.2 billion) bond program will require pricing supplements to be amended and restated, the Frankfurt- and Johannesburg-listed company said in a statement after the market closed on Thursday….

IBM, Comcast Ventures Back Fund for Blockchain Business Startups

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – International Business Machines Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s venture arm will become the largest supporters of an investment fund for startups that help corporations use blockchain, the digital ledger that’s become a hot technology. The startup accelerator, called MState, plans to invest $25,000 to $50,000 apiece in five or six companies over the next six months, co-founder Rob Bailey said in a phone interview. MState, with locations in New York and…

Nigeria Loses Almost Half Its Power Output After Pipeline Fire

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A fire at a Nigerian pipeline interrupted gas supplies to companies generating more than 3,000 megawatts in Africa’s most populous nation, the government said. The fire at the Escravos-Lagos pipeline owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. in the southern Edo state required a shutdown of the pipeline supplying gas to the 1,320-megawatt Egbin power plant, the nation’s biggest, and five others, according to an emailed statement by the Power,…

South African Regulator Probes Trades in Gupta-Linked Oakbay

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – A South African financial regulator is investigating trades in Oakbay Resources and Energy Ltd., a company linked to the politically connected Gupta family, to determine whether share prices were manipulated over a five-month period. The Financial Services Board will probe share moves from when Oakbay listed in November 2014 through April 2015, the Pretoria-based institution said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. The stock rose almost 11 percent over that…

Egyptian Stocks Leap; EFG-Hermes Predicts 20% Upside in 2018

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CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt’s main stock benchmark, the EGX 30, gains 2.2% to 14,534.67 as of 12:30pm in Cairo, the steepest intraday advance since March 2. EFG-Hermes sees local market as being in the middle of “a multi-year rally“ supported by broad reforms with multiple catalysts ahead. EGX 30 has 20% upside through the end of 2018, strategist Mohamad Al Hajj writes in a note. Index rises to the highest level in dollar terms since…

Macron Tells African Crowd He Aims to Leave Colonial Past Behind

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OUAGADOUGOU (Capital Markets in Africa) – French President Emmanuel Macron used a speech to African students to put economic development, culture and education on the same level of importance as the terrorism and migration challenges that dominated his predecessors’ relations with the continent. In a speech of almost two hours to a boisterous crowd of students at Ouagadougou University in Burkina Faso, the 39-year-old president laid out his African policy, insisting that France’s colonial past should no…

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