The Markets | - Part 179

Traders Snap Up Assets of Nation Where Default Is New Normal

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – For a country that has missed several debt payments this year, Mozambique’s assets are performing remarkably well. The southern African nation’s currency has posted the world’s biggest gain in 2017, while the price of its overseas bonds, which the government defaulted on in January, has soared about 30 percent, making them among the best-performing sovereign notes in emerging markets. The rally — after last year’s rout — suggests investors may be…

Alexander Forbes Targets 12% Profit Growth Over Next Five Years

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Alexander Forbes Group Holding Ltd., a South African provider of retirement, investment and insurance services, plans to as much as double the pace of profit growth over the next five years. The company is targeting an increase in operating profit of 10 percent to 12 percent until 2022, compared with average growth of 6 percent between 2013 and 2017, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Darfoor said in a presentation in Johannesburg on Wednesday….

Don’t Fear the Fed, EM Currencies Can Do Well, Societe Generale

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Emerging-market currencies should comfortably ride out coming Federal Reserve monetary tightening, according to Societe Generale SA. The Fed’s slow and steady approach — expectations for hikes beyond Wednesday’s widely expected 25-basis-point move seem “extraordinarily subdued” — ensures that emerging market currencies will feel little impact, and carry trades will remain a viable strategy over the coming quarter, said Jason Daw, SocGen’s head of emerging-market foreign-exchange strategy in Singapore. “EM currencies…

`Battle-Hardened’ Investors May Need to Go Easy on African Bonds

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Such is the demand for African Eurobonds these days that not even army mutinies are scaring investors. That may not be the case for much longer. Investors have become “battle-hardened” in their quest for yield, according to Union Bancaire Privee Ubp SA, with issuance from the continent reaching $12.7 billion in 2017, already a full-year record. Less than a month after soldiers rebelled in Ivory Coast, the West African nation attracted $10…

Ivory Coast Said to Attract Almost $10 Billion in Eurobond Bids

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ivory Coast attracted almost $10 billion in bids for its Eurobond auction on Thursday in a sale that came less than a month after a four-day mutiny by soldiers, according to a person familiar with the matter. The West African nation received about $4.8 billion in orders for the dollar portion of its debt sale and a further 4.4 billion euros ($4.9 billion) for the second tranche by the…

NTT Said to Mull Sale of African Business Worth $800 Million

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. is considering the sale of African operations it acquired with the takeover of Dimension Data Holdings Ltd. and is open to approaches from interested buyers, according to three people familiar with the situation. The assets are valued by Japan’s former phone monopoly at about $800 million, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter hasn’t been made public….

Parallel Market Emerges in Nigeria’s Currency-Trading World

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A kind of parallel universe is taking shape in Nigeria’s foreign-exchange market. The African country’s traditional forwards market is facing competition from an upstart based on the new exchange-rate window policy makers opened six weeks ago. Bond investors and speculators are switching away from non-deliverable forwards that are linked to the main interbank exchange rate, which is tightly controlled by the central bank, and embracing the more liberal pricing…

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