The Founder of the South African asset management company, Allan WB Gray, has established a new foundation to hold the family’s controlling interests in the Allan Gray and Orbis groups.
Tumbling commodity prices, indications of a slowdown in Chinese growth and a risk-off sentiment inspired by the first rise in US interest rates since 2006 were among the major themes driving African indices in 2015.
The return of veteran finance minister Pravin Gordhan will help to stabilize markets in South Africa, but the damage will be longer-lasting, according to David Kohl, Chief Currency Strategist and Head Economist Germany at Julius Baer.
South Africa has moved one step closer to a junk bond status after Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s (S&P;) both releasing their sovereign credit rating reviews on the country on Friday, December 4.
The South African Mergence High Impact Debt Fund has received a “Gold 4-Star” rating from the Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS).
The markets in Nigeria and Kenya are creating the building blocks for future growth, especially after a difficult few months in 2015, according to Standard Bank. An increase in capital requirements for the public sector and the need for more sophisticated products by financial institutions have been major drivers of debt capital markets across key regions in Africa. The total size of bonds outstanding in Nigeria, excluding federal government issuance and Eurobonds, stands at approximately $24bn, (N4.8trn), with financial institutions as the main issuers of bonds among the country’s corporate institutions.
Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly sensitive to the combination of weak commodity prices and rising US interest rates, Tom Elliott, deVere Group’s International Investment Strategist, has warned.
Dual currency funding structures can bring stability and robustness to real estate deals in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Adeniyi Adeleye, Head of Real Estate Finance for West Africa at Stanbic IBTC.
Investec Asset Management and Growthpoint Properties in partnership with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, will seek to establish and grow a significant diversified pan-African real estate investment business.
The South African equities market has experienced a volatile first half of the year, but active fund managers have failed to take advantage of the discrepancies in the market, according to S&P; Dow Jones Indices (S&P; DJI).
The global market for Islamic financial services topped $2trn at the end of 2014, up 12% on the previous year, a new Islamic report published by TheCityUK has revealed.
South African active asset managers should be changing their asset allocation calls to offer a measure of protection against market volatility, according to Rob Spanjaard, Director at Rezco Asset Management.
With stressed valuations and currencies, markets in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya offer numerous attractive investment opportunities, according to portfolio managers at Africa Capital Group LLC.
African countries could borrow money internationally from the issuance of treasury bills and other instruments to fund agricultural transformation, Ministers of Finance have affirmed.
