Nigeria | - Part 20

Atlas Mara Sells Stake to Revive Nigerian Ambitions

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Atlas Mara Ltd., which has dropped almost 80 percent since an initial public offering led by co-founder Bob Diamond, plans to raise more than its market value by selling a 35 percent stake to Fairfax Africa Holdings Corp. The firm expects to get $200 million from selling new stock to existing shareholders and Fairfax Africa and will also issue a fresh convertible bond to the Toronto-based investment company, the company said in…

Beware MSCI’s Inertia If You’re Tracking Its Indexes: Macro View

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – MSCI’s decision to delay the return of Argentina to emerging-market status while extending a lifeline to Nigeria means investors may be shut off from the benefits of Mauricio Macri’s reforms, while remaining subject to the impact of policy inaction from Muhammadu Buhari. The Argentina decision could spark a selloff in the country’s stocks, ironically making it more difficult for authorities to maintain capital-market freedoms. Macri has ended a decade-long battle with creditors and embarked on…

Nigeria’s Half-Measures on Currency Are Only Half-Working

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A year after Nigeria scrapped a currency peg that sent foreign investors fleeing, it’s still battling to entice them back. But trying to placate investors by introducing multiple exchange rates isn’t going to work, bond funds and Wall Street lenders including Citigroup Inc. say. To end the dollar shortage that has hamstrung West Africa’s biggest economy and oil producer, President Muhammadu Buhari and central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele will have to weaken the naira’s official rate again,…

Nigeria May End Multiple Naira Rates in Quest for Inflows

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria will end a system of multiple exchange rates that has deterred investment in its stocks and bonds, according to the head of the country’s main currency-trading platform. The central bank and Lagos-based FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange are taking a “phased approach toward a single foreign-exchange market,” according to Bola Onadele. “There is opportunity for convergence and there is no better time for it,” Onadele, also known as Koko, said…

Moody’s assigns first-time ratings to Union Bank of Nigeria Plc

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London (Capital Markets in Africa) – Moody’s Investors Service has today assigned first-time ratings to Union Bank of Nigeria plc (Union Bank): long- and short-term Local and Foreign Currency Deposit and Issuer Ratings of B2/Not Prime, and a b3 Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA). Moody’s also assigned long- and short-term Counterparty Risk (CR) Assessment of B1(cr)/Not Prime(cr), long- and short-term National Scale Local Currency Ratings of Aa3.ng/NG-1, and long- and short-term National Scale Foreign Currency Ratings…

Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Falls to Lowest in a Year in May

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s inflation rate fell for a fourth straight month in May, dropping to the lowest in a year as growth in prices of most goods except food eased. Inflation in Nigeria, which vies with South Africa as the continent’s largest economy, slowed to 16.25 percent from 17.2 percent in April, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said in an emailed report. The median of 15 economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey was for…

`Battle-Hardened’ Investors May Need to Go Easy on African Bonds

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Such is the demand for African Eurobonds these days that not even army mutinies are scaring investors. That may not be the case for much longer. Investors have become “battle-hardened” in their quest for yield, according to Union Bancaire Privee Ubp SA, with issuance from the continent reaching $12.7 billion in 2017, already a full-year record. Less than a month after soldiers rebelled in Ivory Coast, the West African nation attracted $10…

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