South Africa | - Part 27

Dangote Cement Approaches South Africa’s PPC About Takeover

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Dangote Cement Plc has approached PPC Ltd. about a takeover deal, signalling the start of a possible bidding war for South Africa’s biggest cement maker after an earlier offer led by Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Dangote has told PPC’s board that it’s interested in buying “the entire share capital,” the Lagos-based company said late Wednesday in a statement to the Nigerian Stock Exchange. “This communication is still at the preliminary…

Zuma’s Fight to Avoid Trial Goes to South Africa’s Appeals Court

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal will consider a case Thursday that may determine whether President Jacob Zuma should stand trial on graft charges that were dropped by the prosecutors eight years ago. Prosecutors probed allegations that Zuma took 4.07 million rand ($310,000) in bribes from arms dealers and brought 783 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering against him. They scrapped the case a month before he became president in May…

South Africa Current-Account Gap Widens as Customs Payouts Rise

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s current-account deficit widened in the second quarter as the amount paid to the nation’s customs union partners increased. The shortfall on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, increased to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product in the three months through June from a revised 2 percent in the previous quarter, the Reserve Bank said in its Quarterly Bulletin released on Thursday in the…

Old Mutual Wealth to Absorb Some MiFID-Related Costs

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Old Mutual Wealth, a unit of Old Mutual Plc, said it will absorb some additional expenses when Europe’s MiFID II takes effect next year, though it hasn’t yet announced whether it will pass onto its clients the cost of external research for funds. “Absorbing costs is something we have to do and we already are,” Paul Feeney, chief executive officer of Old Mutual Wealth, said in an interview in Johannesburg on…

South Africa Central Bank Says Graft Ombudsman Met Zuma Lawyers

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The country’s graft ombudsman used a probe into an apartheid-era bailout of a lender to attack the South African Reserve Bank and didn’t disclose a meeting with lawyers in President Jacob Zuma’s office to discuss the investigation before its findings were released, the central bank said. Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane instructed lawmakers in a June 19 report to amend the constitution to make the bank focus on the “socioeconomic well-being of the citizens”…

PPC’s Biggest Shareholder Is Said to Back Fairfax-AfriSam Offer

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – PPC Ltd.’s largest shareholder is supporting a joint offer for South Africa’s biggest cement maker from domestic rival AfriSam Group Pty Ltd. and Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. as the tie-up would create a national champion, according to people familiar with the matter. The Public Investment Corp., Africa’s biggest money manager, sees the three-way deal as a way for an enlarged cement maker to expand more effectively on the continent,…

South Africa’s High Court Annuls Election of Zuma’s Allies

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s High Court overturned the election of African National Congress leaders allied to President Jacob Zuma in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, a decision that could sway the outcome of the race to become leader of the party and the nation. The decisions taken at the ANC provincial elective conference in 2015 “are declared null and void,” Judge Jerome Mnguni said Tuesday at a hearing in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal’s capital. The conference…

« 1 … 25 26 27 28 29 … 95 »