Private Equity funds raise $95bn in third quarter of 2017

Private Equity funds raise $95bn in third quarter of 2017

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Research provider Preqin indicated that 181 private equity (PE) funds raised a total of $95.2bn in capital commitments worldwide in the third quarter of 2017, compared to 256 PE funds that raised $137.7bn in the preceding quarter and 232 PE funds that secured $66.6bn in the third quarter of 2016. It pointed out that 45 buyout funds secured $65.9bn during the third quarter of the year, or 69.2% of…

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Ryanair Pilots Step Up Pressure With Demand to Double Pay Rise

Ryanair Pilots Step Up Pressure With Demand to Double Pay Rise

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ryanair Holdings Plc’s pilot uprising shows little signs of abating, with an ad-hoc group demanding that a wage increase turned down by London Stansted crews be doubled and extended across the budget airline’s European bases. The unofficial European Employee Representative Council made the proposal to pilots after cockpit crews at Ryanair’s biggest base rejected the existing offer, according to a document sent to pilots on Sunday and seen by Bloomberg….

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Diamonds Fund Zimbabwe’s Secret Police, Global Witness Says

Diamonds Fund Zimbabwe’s Secret Police, Global Witness Says

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe’s government is using money earned from diamond exports to fund its Central Intelligence Organisation, blamed for a raft of human-rights abuses as it’s helped to keep President Robert Mugabe in power since 1980, Global Witness said. Diamonds dug from the Marange fields in eastern Zimbabwe are channelled through Dubai, India, the Netherlands and South Africa by a complicated web of cross-owned companies based in places as diverse as Mauritius, Hong…

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AfriSam Is Said to Be Talking to Partner to Secure PPC Deal

AfriSam Is Said to Be Talking to Partner to Secure PPC Deal

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – AfriSam Group Pty Ltd. is in negotiations with an equity partner to recapitalize the company and enable South Africa’s second-biggest cement maker to push through a merger with larger rival PPC Ltd., according to two people familiar with the matter. Closely held AfriSam has a letter of intent from an investment company based in the Americas that’s willing to put up new funding, said the people, who asked not to…

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Burkina Faso Gets Solar Plant After Energy Policy Change

Burkina Faso Gets Solar Plant After Energy Policy Change

OUAGADOUGOU (Capital Markets in Africa) – Burkina Faso signed an agreement to build a solar plant in the first such deal after the West African nation adopted legislation that authorizes private investment in the energy sector. Windiga Energy Inc. of Canada will install 85,000 photovoltaic panels to generate about 20 megawatts in the north-western outskirts of the capital, Ouagadougou, the country’s energy minister, Alfa Omar Dissa, told reporters after the signing ceremony on Tuesday. The project…

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Record Egypt-Tied Note Issuance Highlights IMF Loan Cheer

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Investors are rushing back to structured notes tied to Egypt following a currency float and an International Monetary Fund loan last quarter, six years after a revolution that had scared them off. Citigroup Inc. issued all four of the recorded credit-linked notes this month raising a total of 2.3 billion Egyptian pounds ($121 million), the most for a single month on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The biggest was…

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Egypt Mulls Highest Borrowing Cost in 16 Years for Bond Sale

Egypt Mulls Highest Borrowing Cost in 16 Years for Bond Sale

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt is tapping investors in a sale of dollar-denominated bonds, offering to pay them the highest coupon since 2001 and its first venture into international capital markets since a currency devaluation in November.  Africa’s third-biggest economy is offering three maturities of debt, with an initial yield target between 7.625 percent and 7.875 percent on 10-year bonds, according to a person familiar with the matter who isn’t permitted to speak publicly…

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