Features | - Part 213

Billionaire Agarwal Says His Anglo American Approach Made Sense

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Anil Agarwal, the Indian billionaire owner of Vedanta Resources Plc, said a proposed tie up between his Hindustan Zinc Ltd. unit and rival miner Anglo American Plc would have been a good match. Anglo rebuffed informal approaches from Agarwal in the first half of last year when he contacted it to discuss potential ideas including a combination with the Indian zinc miner he controls through Vedanta, people familiar with the…

Nigeria Plan to Link Mines to Steel Mill Seen as Buhari Test

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s plan to build a railway to supply iron ore to its idle Ajaokuta steel plant could be the biggest sign yet that President Muhammadu Buhari is implementing his policy to diversify away from oil. The project began in 1979 with what the World Bank in 2002 called obsoleteSoviet technology, and has never been finished. Authorities want to revive it as part of Buhari’s efforts to lessen the economy’s dependence on crude, which accounts for…

Gambia’s Jammeh Imposes State of Emergency, Defying Region

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BANJUL (Capital Markets in Africa) – Gambian President Yahya Jammeh declared a 90-day state of emergency two days before he’s supposed to hand over power to the winner of last month’s election, as West African nations prepared to send a military force to remove him from power. In a speech on state TV late Tuesday, Jammeh said the measure was necessary because of the “unprecedented and extraordinary amount of interference” in the Dec. 1 ballot. He also…

Africa’s Most Valuable Business Worth Less Than What It Owns

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Fifteen years ago, a South African media company invested $34 million in an obscure Chinese Internet developer. Today that stake is worth $88 billion. All Naspers Limited, now Africa’s most valuable company, has to do is figure out how to make money from its other properties: The whole company is worth only $72 billion, less than its stake in Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings Limited. Investors aren’t impressed with Naspers’s operations in pay-TV, newspapers and e-commerce…

South Africa Scrambles as $10.3 Billion in Welfare Threatened

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s government, set to miss a deadline to appoint a new distributor of welfare grants worth about $10.3 billion a year to more than 17 million people, asked aspirant bidders to an information session as the end of a contract with Net 1 UEPS Technologies Inc. looms. The South African Social Security Agency, which oversees the monthly payment system, took the first step toward appointing a new distributor at the session…

Kenya’s economy to grow at a slower pace this year, IMF Rep Says

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s economic growth rate will slow in 2017, from about 6 percent last year, due to sluggish credit growth and as investors take a wait-and-see attitude before a presidential election in August, a senior IMF official said on Monday. Armando Morales, the International Monetary Fund’s representative in Kenya, said growth is likely to remain within the 5-6 percent range of the past five years, despite the slowdown. “We expect a…

Dangote, China’s Sinotruck set up $100 million Truck Plant in Nigeria

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has partnered with China’s heavy duty truck group Sinotruck to set up a $100 million plant to assemble trucks and cars in Nigeria for local use and export, the executive director of Dangote group said. The joint venture, which is 65 percent owned by Dangote and 35 percent by Sinotruck will assemble components and knocked down parts imported from Sinotruck to the Nigerian plant….

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