Features | - Part 171

Guptas Accuse Regulator of Urging Banks to Shut Their Accounts

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – A group of companies linked to South Africa’s politically connected Gupta family said the country’s banking regulator encouraged lenders to shut their accounts, broadening a battle to retain the last of their banking services. The 20 businesses, which are suing Bank of Baroda’s local unit to keep their accounts open, have now included Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyagoand the Registrar of Banks Kuben Naidoo, whose office sits in the central…

Surviving on $3 an Ounce Has Lonmin in Race Against Time

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Every day, Lonmin Plc sends thousands of miners hundreds of meters below ground, where they use drills, diggers and explosives to extract about 40,000 metric tons of rock laden with precious metals. The ore is milled, crushed, concentrated, smelted and refined in a month-long process that eventually yields about 4,100 ounces of platinum-group metals each day. Yet for all its trouble, Lonmin’s revenue in the most recent quarter was barely $3 an ounce…

Truecaller Phone App Maker in Talks With Airtel About Africa

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Swedish phone-app developer True Software Scandinavia AB is in talks with wireless operators including Bharti Airtel Limited to expand its fast-growing Truecaller spam-filtering service in Africa. Truecaller is seeking to roll out a version of the app that works with 2G phones, Chief Commercial Officer Ted Nelson said in an interview in Cape Town on Wednesday. About 70 percent of cell users in Africa use so-called service phones — devices that…

The Internet of Tomatoes Is Coming, Starting With Boston Salads

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Intrigued by how blockchain was changing finance, an ex-banker at Wells Fargo & Co. and a former executive at Nasdaq Inc. began looking for other opportunities. They looked at applying the technology to insurance, law, even music. Then they hit on farming. Raja Ramachandran and Phil Harris met when they were both working on Wall Street, in 2005 after Citigroup Inc. acquired electronic trading company Lava Trading. The pair remained friends for more than a…

Ramaphosa’s Announcement of ANC Leadership Ticket Riles Backers

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOPHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) Leaders of the ruling African National Congress in South Africa’s richest province said they oppose Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to announce a ticket of running mates in his bid to become the ANC’s next president, saying it has the potential to deepen divisions in the party. While ANC leaders in Gauteng province back Ramaphosa to replace President Jacob Zuma as ANC leader, they don’t support his announcement on Sunday of a…

Kenya’s Western Allies Urge Talks to Break Elections Impasse

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s key western trading partners and political allies urged talks to resolve a deadlock over the country’s presidential elections, as the nation’s top court began considering petitions challenging the outcome of last month’s vote rerun. The Oct. 26 rerun of an annulled vote two months earlier has polarized the East African nation and exposed “deep tribal and ethnic rifts” that have characterized Kenyan politics in the past, the Atlanta-based…

Congo Opposition Parties Reject Plan for Presidential Vote

Posted on by The Editorial Team

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Opposition parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo presented a united front to reject plans for elections in December 2018 and insisted that President Joseph Kabila step down before the end of the year. Three large opposition groups issued identical statements on Tuesday denouncing a schedule published Nov. 5 by the Independent Electoral Commission that sets presidential and parliamentary polls for Dec. 23, 2018. The Rassemblement, an opposition coalition, along with…

« 1 … 169 170 171 172 173 … 259 »