Features | - Part 239

Angolan Party Rejects President’s Daughter as Oil Company Head

Luanda, Angola, Capital Markets in Africa: Angola’s main opposition party rejected President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s decision to name his billionaire daughter Isabel as chairwoman of the state oil company and said it would ask parliament to debate the appointment. “The measure confirms once more the practice of nepotism by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos,” the National Union for Total Independence of Angola, known as Unita, said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement. “Angolans should not accept…

South Africa’s S&P Rating Respite Strengthens Gordhan’s Hand

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan emerged in a stronger position in his tug of war with President Jacob Zuma after S&P Global Ratings decided not to cut the nation’s credit rating to junk. “This means that Gordhan will not be going anywhere for the time being, unless he takes a personal decision to go,” said Susan Booysen, a politics professor at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Governance. “This is another…

Old Mutual Confident Most Investors Will Support CEO Pay Plans

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: Old Mutual Plc, the London-based insurer splitting its business into four units, said it’s confident most shareholders will support a plan to offer Chief Executive Officer Bruce Hemphill a bonus equal to 10 times his base pay for the break up. Company representatives spent three days in Cape Town and Johannesburg to canvass investors on the payout, meeting with more than 20 shareholders across South Africa and the U.K., Danuta Gray,…

Investment | Gas May Transform Mozambique Even as Debt Darkens Confidence

Posted on by The Editorial Team

MAPUTO, Mozambique, Capital Markets in Africa: About 30 minutes down a pot-holed road from Vilanculos, where dhows ferry tourists to luxury resorts on Bazaruto island, Sasol Limited is ramping up output of a fuel that could transform the world’s 13th poorest nation. Vast gas discoveries hold the potential to boost Mozambique’s economy, more than three decades after the apartheid regime of neighboring South Africa backed rebels in a civil war that laid waste to the former Portuguese…

Angola Leader Secures Economic Grip Naming Daughter as Oil Boss

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Luanda, Angola, Capital Markets in Africa: Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos tightened his family’s grip on sub-Saharan Africa’s third-biggest economy two years before he has indicated he’ll leave office by naming his billionaire daughter Isabel as chairwoman of the state oil company. The appointment “shows that President dos Santos doesn’t trust anyone else and moreover that he’s looking to have a dynastic succession,” Markus Weimer, an analyst for Horizon Client Access Inc., an energy investment advisory group, said…

Zuma, Gordhan’s Conflicting Orders Frustrate SAA’s Acting CEO

Posted on by The Editorial Team

Johannesburg, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa: South African Airways is having to deal with conflicting orders from the country’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and President Jacob Zumaand that’s hindering the unprofitable state-owned airline from making a full recovery, acting Chief Executive Officer Musa Zwane said. The carrier needs firm decisions on whether SAA should be privatized, how it should be capitalized, the make-up of a new board and a new CEO, Zwane said in an interview. The former head of the…

WorldRemit Marks Africa for Share of $36 Billion Cash Transfers

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: WorldRemit is seeking transactions in every African country by October as the company seeks a bigger share of the continent’s money transfers which are forecast to reach $36 billion this year. WorldRemit is currently operating in 34 of Africa’s 54 states and is using partnerships with cellular operators such as MTN Group Ltd. and Vodafone Group Plc to grow the number of money transfers through mobile technology, the London-based, closely held…

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