AFRICAN BUSINESS ROUND-UP Africa and the World: Nigeria and Singapore are to establish a Trade and Investment Council. Japan International Cooperation Agency is creating centres for the development of SMEs in Cameroon. Kenyas debt to Beijing rose by 50% to about US$ 750 million in the year ended June 2013. Dubai-based investor firm Abraaj Group, a leading investor operating in growth markets, has acquired a majority stake in Ghana Home Loans. Ethiopia has signed a preliminary agreement with a U.S.-Icelandic firm for a US$ 4 billion private sector investment intended to tap its vast geothermal power resources and help it become a major exporter of energy. French engineering group Alstom plans to increase its investment into African markets. The US has invested US$ 50 million in Nigerias economy so far in 2013. Angolan bank Banco BIC plans to expand to some African countries and to China, after acquiring from the Portuguese State Brazilian bank BPN Brasil and Cape Verdean bank BPN Cabo Verde. South Africa cancelled its bilateral investment treaty with Germany. As you read on, remember that the full company news releases and summaries associated with all these items are available on the MBendi website. Mining: Governance: Zambia will restore a 10% export tax for unprocessed metals less than a month after the government removed the levy; President Michael Sata ordered the government to repeal the law that removed the tax. Mozambiques Mining Resources Ministry has launched a website to publish information about the countrys mining cadastre with the aim of increasing transparency and promoting investments in the sector. Corporate / M&A: PMI Gold released its annual report for the year ended June 30, 2013 and made a disclosure concerning CEO remuneration. Tembo Gold has entered into a subscription agreement with NAMF II (Mauritius) Limited and NAMF II South African Partnership. Asankos Esaase Ghana gold project was fully funded with a US$ 150 million debt facility. Energizer Resources acquired 100% of the Molo graphite project in Madagascar. Endeavour Mining closed the main portion of sale of its non-core 40% interest in the Finkolo Joint Venture in Mali. Gold One received Chinese regulatory approvals regarding acquisitions. Wescoal secured R 79 million funding for the MacPhail acquisition and other property acquisitions in South Africa. B2Gold has agreed to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Volta Resources. Afferro amended the outside date & intention to delist from AIM and TSX-V. Kenmare Resources has raised almost US$ 106 million to pay off short term debts. Sundance signed an agreement to raise A$ 40 million for the Mbalam-Nabeba iron ore project in DRC. Pelangio Exploration made a private placement of US$ 520,000 for continued exploration of its Ghana properties. Resource Generation raised US$ 52.2 million towards the Boikarabelo mine in South African. Tanzania Minerals Corporation is to acquire a 50% undivided interest in the Ikungu project. Other: AEL Mining Services announced a programme up-skilling the next generation of professional engineers in South Africa. Great Western Minerals has selected three firms to complete the feasibility study on the Steenkampskraal Project in South Africa. Railway companies from Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola will meet to discuss linkages that would allow Congos mine operators to ship copper to the port of Lobito. Forbes Coal has reached agreement on wages for this year with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union for employees in categories 4 to 8. Petmin has seen the end of industrial action at the Somkhele anthracite mine in KwaZulu-Natal. Reference: Tanzania gold exports have risen from around US$ 500 million to US$ 1.5 billion in the last five years. MBendis Mining News provides recent press releases for the following companies as well as an archive of more than 100,000 other news items and releases: African Gold (gold. Kobada, Mali) Allana Potash (potash. Ethiopia) Blackthorn (copper. Kitumba, Zambia) Coal of Africa (coal. South Africa) DRDGold (gold. South Africa) Energizer Resources (graphite. Molo, Magagascar) Firestone Diamonds (diamonds. Liqhobong, Lesotho) Gold One (gold. South Africa) Helio (gold. Kenge, SMP, Tanzania) Implats (platinum. South Africa) Volta Resources (gold. Kiaka, Burkina Faso) MDI (gold. Reo, Burkina Faso) Mkango Resources (rare earth. Songwe Hill, Malawi) Nevsun (copper/gold. Bisha, Eritrea) Palabora Mining (platinum. South Africa) Paladin Energy (uranium. Langer Heinrich, Namibia) Pangolin Diamonds (Malatswae, Tsabong North, Botswana) Platinum Group Metals (platinum. Waterberg Extension, South Africa) Randgold Resources (gold. Cote dIvoire) Reservoir Minerals (gold. Bibemi, Cameroon) Robex Resources (gold. Willi-Willi, Mali) Rockgate Capital (uranium, silver, copper. Falea, Mali) Roxgold (gold. Yaramoko, Burkina Faso) Sundance (iron ore. Mbalam-Nabeba, Cameroon) Sunergy (gold. Pampana River, Sierra Leone) Tawana Resources (iron ore. Mofe Creek, Liberia) Tembo Gold (gold. Tanzania) Trans Hex (diamonds. South Africa) True Gold (gold. Karma, Burkina Faso) Village Main Reef (gold. Tau, South Africa) Waterberg Coal Company (coal. Waterberg, South Africa) Wescoal (coal. South Africa) Oil and Chemicals: Governance: Libya has blocked efforts by U.S. company Marathon Oil to sell its stake in one of the countrys top oil ventures. Angola is to tax oil companies up to 10% of their spending on services. South Africas government aims to take a 20% stake without payment in new gas and oil exploration and production ventures under proposed legislation. Upstream: Chad has allowed China National Petroleum Corp to resume operations suspended in August. Japans state oil company signed an agreement with Seychelles to survey offshore. Benins government hopes to restart oil production in 2014. Gabon has awarded 13 oil and gas blocks to 11 companies as part of a major deepwater licensing round. Angola has delayed bidding for new licences to the first quarter of 2014. Downstream: Cameroons government and COTCO, the company that owns and manages the pipeline shipping oil from Chad to Cameroons coast, have agreed that the transit fee paid to the government will be more than tripled. The SAIT has called for papers for their GEARS seminar in February 2014 Reference: Libyas oil production is stable at around 600,000 barrels per day; however Libyan crude oil exports have fallen to around 90,000 barrels per day. MBendis Oil and Energy News provides recent press releases for the following companies as well as an archive of more than 100,000 other news items and releases: BP (In Amenas and In Salah, Algeria) Cairn Energy (offshore Morocco) Candax Energy (Block 1101, Madagascar) Cobalt International Energy (Lontra and Mavinga, offshore Angola) EMGS / Maersk (Angola) Energi Mega Persada (Buzi Block, Mozambique) Gasol (West African LNG Import Project, Benin) Gulfsands Petroleum (Al Krima 1, Morocco) Hydrocarb / Netherland Sewell (Namibia) Kinetiko Energy (Amersfoort, South Africa) Kosmos / Cairn (Cap Boujdour, Morocco) Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (Nigeria) Lekoil (Ogo-1 well, offshore Nigeria) Longreach / Cairn (Foum Draa, Morocco) LUKOIL (offshore Sierra Leone) Magnum Gas & Power (Botswana) Newcross Petroleum (OPL 283, Nigeria) Ophir Energy (Blocks 1, 3 and 4, Tanzania) Oyster Oil and Gas (Madagascar) Petrofac / Bonatti (Algeria) Repsol (Murzuq basin, Libya) San Leon Energy (FD-1 exploration well, Morocco) Sonatrach (Tamguid Messaoud, Algeria) Sonde Resources (Tunisia / Libya) Sterling Energy (Cameroon, Madagascar, Mauritania and Odewayne Block, Somaliland) Technip / Tullow (TEN Project, offshore Ghana) Total (Lake Albert, Uganda) Tullow Oil (Blocks 10BB and 13T, Northern Kenya) Tullow / Pancontinental (EL 0037, Namibia) Victoria Oil & Gas (Cameroon) WHL Energy (Seychelles) Electrical Power / Renewables / Telecoms: Electricity: South Africa and the DRC signed a treaty on the Grand Inga hydropower project. Ethiopia and Kenya secured funds for a US$ 1.26 billion power line. Aggreko is to provide 20 MW of HFO Power to Chad. The Mainstream Renewable Power Consortium was awarded 360 MW of Wind Projects in South Africa. The Zimbabwe Power Company has secured a US$ 40 million loan from an Egyptian company for the construction of an electricity line. The Hendrina power station has become the first of South Africas Eskoms plants to run on fuel oil blended with waste oil from refineries. On the Business Opportunities section of MBendi, interested parties can find opportunities in the energy and mining sectors: NamPower invites competent contractors to submit offers for an Air Quality Monitoring Study for the proposed Kudu Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Power Station at Uubvleithe. Telecoms: A report by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has revealed mobile payments jumped 21.8% year-on-year to Sh 1.2 trillion (US$ 14.2 billion) at the end of August. U2opia Mobile launched Facebook without Internet with MTN. The Rwandan government has signed South Koreas KT Corporation to build a 4G network over 95% of the country. Investment and Projects: A new World Bank Group report finds that Sub-Saharan Africa continues to record a large number of reforms aimed at easing the regulatory burden on local entrepreneurs, with 66 reforms adopted in the past year. Nigerias Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone has recorded additional investment of US$ 200 million. Zambias Bond and Derivatives Exchange plans to start trading currency futures after it appointed two banks to handle the clearing and trading. Shoprite said it will open 46 new supermarkets, most outside of South Africa. Standard & Poors revised down its credit outlook for Zambia to negative from stable while leaving the sovereign credit rating at B-plus. The Nigerian government is investing US$ 870 million in airport infrastructure, which includes the building of five new terminals and provision of equipment to improve the nations airspace. South Africa is to channel additional public funding into a number of priority infrastructure projects in the transport, communications and energy sectors. The Nigerian Stock Exchange has recorded a US$ 213.5 million rise in its market capitalisation. AECOM was awarded a US$ 30 million contract for up to 15 South Africa infrastructure projects. The IFC announced an agreement to advise Portucel in strengthening the sustainability of the companys forestry operations in Mozambique, where it has invested heavily to develop eucalyptus plantations. IFC will reinforce its partnership with banks in Benin in order to increase access to finance for small and medium enterprises. The Ethiopian Investment Agency plans over 1,000 new investment projects with an estimated combined investment capital of Br 129.6 billion. Angola has approved laws to regulate stock and debt markets that it plans to open. Nigeria has sold US$ 343.96 million in bonds with maturities of three and 20 years. South Africas The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa has issued R 1.5 billion in public bonds and plans to launch more in the future. Mozambique has set aside 350,000 hectares for a game park in the Tete province, where 60% of the land has been allocated to coal mining. The Egyptian Exchange Monthly Statistical Report for September showed the total number of listed companies on the main market numbered 209. Trade and Transport: Ethiopian Airlines will take delivery of the first of its four Boeing 777-300ERs on 7 November. Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Rwanda have launched a single customs territory. Traffic at the port of Maputo rose 275% between 2003 and 2012 to 15 million tons of cargo per year. A SACU trade facilitation initiative has been funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Indias trade with West Africa, which was worth US$ 25 billion during the 2012-13 financial year, is progressing towards the target of US$ 40 billion by 2015. South Africa will invest over R 50 billion in passenger rail infrastructure and services over the next few years. Zambia Railways Lusaka-Beira route has reopened after twenty five years of no operations. BRICS-Africa trade reached US$ 301 billion, up 3.8%, in 2012. South Africa remains Namibias leading trading partner, particularly on the imports front, during the second quarter of 2013. Mauritius trade deficit narrowed 20.7% in August to US$ 199.67 million from a year earlier as higher sales of food and live animals increased the value of exports. Africa has the lowest internal trade volume compared to other trading blocs in Europe, Asia and Latin America according to findings of four different AfDB research studies. Agriculture, Food and Fishing: Some 2.2 million Zimbabweans will need food assistance in the pre-harvest period from January to March next year, a United Nations agency said. African Centre for Research on Banana and Plantains has adopted a 70-page ten year strategic operational plan that will help harness the full potential of banana and plantain production on the continent. Governments from Africas main timber producing countries, together with timber industry representatives and civil society organisations, agreed to combat illegal timber trade jointly in the Congo. Facing a US$ 70 million funding shortfall, the United Nations World Food Programme warned that starting as early as November, the agency and its partners will be forced to scale back. IFC said it will provide advisory services to Diamond Bank to help the lender increase access to finance in Nigeria’s agricultural sector by up to US$ 33 million over two years. Cameroon exported 19,855 tonnes of cocoa beans by the end of September since the start of the season on Aug. 1, down sharply from 30,248 tonnes during the same period last season. Algerian manufacturer of food products Cevital is to invest US$ 6 billion in the food industry in Sudan. Finance: The World Bank approved US$ 200 million to promote transparency and accountability reforms in Morocco. The African Development Bank Group: approved a US$ 20 million equity investment in ARM-Harith Infrastructure Fund (ARMHIF), a new infrastructure private equity fund based in Nigeria with a targeted fund size of US$ 250 million; approved an additional US$ 10 million equity investment in Atlantic Coast Regional Fund (ACRF), a 10-year US$ 72 million generalist private equity fund whose area of focus includes fragile states and low income countries in Western and Central Africa; approved a US$ 75.5 million (UA 50 million) soft loan for Mali to help the country finance a drinking water supply project in Bamako; granted VoLo US$ 284 500 for a credit bureau initiative in Senegal and The Gambia; supported SMEs in Africa with a US$ 12.5 million equity investment in Kibo Fund II; approved a grant for an assessment study of a water supply and sanitation programme for 11 small and medium-sized towns in South Sudan; approved US$ 16.58 million to consolidate public finances in DRC. A United Nations committee has approved an emergency assistance package of US$ 307,307 for a two-year project to evaluate the state of intangible heritage throughout Mali. The IMF approved Sierra Leone for a US$ 96 million credit facility to support economic development. EU funding of EUR 6.4 billion is expected to support investments that generate growth and job creation for the 300 million citizens of West Africa. African Statistics: South Africa: South Africa slashed growth expectations for this year to 2.1% from the 2.7% forecast in February, as widespread labour strikes and power constraints stifle the economy. Retail trade sales increased by 3,0% year-on-year in August. Wholesale trade sales increased by 5,3% year-on-year in August. Motor trade sales increased by 7,3% year-on-year in August. The headline inflation rate in September was 6,0%. The unemployment rate decreased by 0.9% of a percentage point from 25.6% in quarter two 2013 to 24.7% in quarter three of 2013. Growth was driven by growth in the formal sector, where quarter-to-quarter job gains were 314 000, while the informal sector lost 39 000 jobs. Rest of Africa: Angola may record 5.1% growth of its GDP this year, says the minister of economy, while the government has forecast GDP growth of 8.8% in 2014. Angolas central bank has left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 9.75%. Ghana’s inflation in September rose to 11.9% from 11.5% in August. Ghanas economy is forecast to grow at around 7.2% in 2014, according to the vice-president. Zambias benchmark interest rate remains unchanged at 9.75%. Moroccos economy grew 4.5% in the third quarter of 2013 from a year earlier. MENA’s economic growth in 2013 will average 2.8%, says the World Bank. Burundi has collected almost 10% more in corporate tax in the first nine months of the year. Mozambiques central bank cut its main lending rate by 50 basis points to 8.25%. Botswana cut its economic growth forecast for this year to 4.4% of GDP. Zambia plans to narrow the budget deficit to less than 6.6% of gross domestic product. Ethiopian inflation declined from a peak of 40% in July 2011 to around 7% in June. Zimbabwes economic growth is expected to average 7.3%, while forecast growth in 2018 is 9.9%. Bribery and Corruption: Despite the fact that bribery remains high in East Africa, only one in ten East Africans will report or complain if they encountered bribery according to the East African Bribery Index . Politics: Talks to end a two-year-old insurgency in eastern Congo stalled after the government rejected calls for an amnesty for leaders of the M23 rebel movement. Government forces said they captured the rebel stronghold of Rutshuru in a third day of fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Mozambique’s Renamo opposition movement said it is abandoning a peace accord with the ruling Frelimo party. Mali’s president asked a national congress to draw up plans for increased regional autonomy. President Alpha Condes ruling party won 53 seats in Guineas September 28 legislative election, falling short of securing an outright majority in the 114-seat parliament. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) has unveiled a five-year economic plan. Madagascars first presidential election since a military-backed coup was free and fair, European Union and Southern African observers said. French, U.N., Malian forces launched a joint operation against Islamists across northern Mali. Nigerian troops killed 37 Boko Haram Islamist militants in combined air and ground strikes on one of their bases in the northeast. IFC announced the launch of the African Corporate Governance Network that will encourage best practices in corporate governance among African institutions, and contribute to capacity building. The latest edition of Africa Confidential provides commentary on, amongst other things: Kenya and the ICC; France and CAR; Nigerian banking problems; the Guinean election; Glencores involvement in the Zimbabwean fuel industry; the new Malawian cabinet; and a whole lot more.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:24:42 +0000
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