Finance

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Almost from the day he started his wealth-management firm in 2014, Russ Charvonia would get unsolicited emails offering to buy the company. He’d send them directly to his trash folder. But like hundreds of other managers this year, Charvonia eventually took the plunge. Last month, his Ventura, California-based Channel Islands Group and its $277 million in client assets under advisement officially became part of Mariner Wealth Advisors, for an undisclosedsum.The sale…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Wealth funds in Abu Dhabi are on the prowl in Turkey, scouting for targets for billions of dollars in investments, according to people familiar with the matter. Talks between the funds from the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates and companies in Turkey have been ongoing for months, the people said. The interest preceded a breakthrough phone conversation in August between Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) –  Egypt sold $3 billion in its second Eurobond issuance of the year, joining a rush of emerging-market governments taking advantage of low borrowing costs before the U.S. Federal Reserve starts tapering its pandemic stimulus. The issuance was three times oversubscribed, with total bids of $9 billion by more than 300 investors from U.S., Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa, the Finance Ministry said Friday in a statement. The sale included $1.125…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Neal Froneman expects battery metals to contribute about a third of the world’s biggest platinum miner’s earnings within four years as the transition to a greener economy spurs demand. Since its formation in 2013, after Gold Fields Ltd. spun off its oldest South African gold mines, Froneman has transformed Sibanye through the acquisition of platinum-group metals assets from Montana to Zimbabwe. This year, his focus…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – FirstRand Ltd., Africa’s biggest bank by market value, is ending its funding of new coal-fired power stations immediately and will halt the financing of new projects to mine the fuel over the next five years.The Johannesburg-based lender joins its peer Nedbank Group Ltd. in making such commitments as pressure mounts on banks to shun fossil-fuel lending from investors and activists. While South Africa’s largest banks are reducing their exposure to activities…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africsa) – The head of South Africa’s state power utility needs to substantially reduce its 402 billion rand ($28 billion) of debt to realize his vision of transforming the coal-addicted behemoth into a leading green-energy producer and create as many as 300,000 jobs in the process.  Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. supplies more than 90% of the nation’s electricity, the bulk of it from coal, and emits more than two-fifths of the nation’s…