Finance

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Trump administration has expressed little concern over climate change as it pursues its goal of American dominance in the energy market. Federal judges say it should be concerned. At least six times since President Donald Trump took office, courts have rebuked the Interior Department for selling drilling rights or advancing oil projects without adequately considering the consequences to a warming planet. The decisions have jeopardized high-stakes oil…

ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Ethiopia is looking to its national carrier to help it navigate economic shocks from the coronavirus pandemic at a time when airlines across the world are approaching governments for bailouts. The Horn of Africa country has relied on the Ethiopian Airlines’ network, connecting Africa to the Middle East, Asia, Europe and North America, to increase its exports by 13% to $2.4 billion in 10 months, according to Prime Minister Abiy…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — Steinhoff International Holdings NV is paying for forensic auditors at PwC to help South African anti-corruption police investigate alleged financial wrongdoing that brought the retailer to the brink of collapse. While PwC completed its own more than the 3,000-page probe on behalf of Steinhoff last year, legal authorities have shown little sign of progress in identifying those responsible for transactions that caused Steinhoff to report accounting regularities in late…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Federal Reserve may have stoked one of the strongest corporate debt market rallies in decades, but it’s too soon to declare an all-clear for credit with the economy facing a potentially rocky road ahead. Sure, U.S. investment-grade borrowing costs have retreated to near all-time lows, and companies have sold $1 trillion of bonds at the fastest pace on record — evidence that merely announcing a plan to pump liquidity…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) — Egypt has formed a multi-donor platform to help boost the North African nation’s economy, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al Mashat said. The program “includes electricity, transportation, the health sector,” Al Mashatsaid in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday. The platform received help and support “through the sovereign, but also through the private sector, through credit lines, through Egyptian banks that are availed through the EBRD and the EIB,”…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — The economic calamity of the coronavirus broke South Africa’s resistance to borrowing from the International Monetary Fund. And now some allies of President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ruling African National Congress worry that the $4.2 billion loan his government is negotiating with the Washington-based agency marks the first step toward a slippery slope of submission. “This is a precursor because Cyril’s government doesn’t have the resources,” said Lumkile Mondi, an economics…

SUDAN (Capital Markets in Africa) — Sudan is seeking its first staff-monitored International Monetary Fund program since 2014 as the one-time pariah works toward reintegrating with the global economy. Agreeing to the non-financial initiative in June talks and persuading the U.S. to drop its long-standing listing of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism are key planks of the transitional government’s plan, Finance Minister Ibrahim El-Badawi said in emailed comments. A new IMF advisory program…