Randgold warns on resource nationalism as governments ask for more

Feb 5, 2013 4:02pm by Andrew Bowman

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Randgold chief executive Mark Bristow has criticised a “disturbing” tendency among African governments to increase taxes and regulations on mining investors, as the company disputes its tax bill with the Malian government.

The chief executive of the FTSE 100 gold mining company, which has operations in Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast made his statement at the Mining Indaba conference currently taking place in Cape Town. He claimed that revisions to mining laws risked deterring investment on the continent. Continue reading »

Tags: gold, mining, Randgold, resource nationalism Posted in Africa, Congo, Ivory Coast, Mali | Permalink

Africa: set for a sovereign debt rush?

Oct 15, 2012 3:45pm by Rob Minto

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With emerging market debt markets booming, is now time for African nations to join in? If Zambia’s recent bond is anything to go by, the answer would be a firm ‘yes’ – as many analysts are fond of pointing out, Zambia’s yield on its 10-year bond is lower than that of Spain.

So what’s stopping African countries jumping in and issing international bonds? Continue reading »

Tags: Africa bonds, bonds, Eurobond, sovereign debt, sub-Saharan Africa Posted in Africa, Angola, Ivory Coast, Zambia | Permalink

Net profits: Abidjan football academy branches out

Aug 7, 2012 3:55pm by Peter Vanham

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In a sport where making profits has taken a back seat to on-pitch results, former French football international Jean-Marc Guillou is bucking the trend.

Players trained at his JMG Academy have contracts at top clubs like Manchester City and Arsenal. And his investors are averaging nominal returns of over €15m – over 200 per cent over a ten year period. And Guillou himself, of course, does well too. But it’s a model that is not without critics. Continue reading »

Tags: Africa-Europe, Brics sport, football, JMG Academy, sub-Saharan Africa Posted in Africa, Ivory Coast | Permalink

Ivory Coast winds heat up cocoa market

Jan 10, 2012 5:50pm by Keyur Patel

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Chocolate lovers, brace yourselves.

Dry and windy weather across the Ivory Coast is sending the price of cocoa, the main ingredient of chocolate, soaring in New York and London. Cocoa to be settled in March has jumped as much as 14 per cent already this week on the ICE Futures US exchange – and sector watchers reckon this could just be the beginning. Continue reading »

Tags: commodities, food & drink Posted in Africa, Ivory Coast | Permalink

Regus’ EM office space play

Sep 22, 2011 8:30am by David Keohane

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Everyone, everywhere is piling into emerging markets and Regus (RGU:LSE), the ready-to-use office space company, knows it.

The company is expanding rapidly to take advantage of the new footloose, flexible, working practices it says are the way forward. Since the only way to do that is to have a presence in as many countries as possible, the UK company intends to “get there first” and is “running through a list of countries”, chief executive Mark Dixon told beyondbrics. Continue reading »

Posted in Croatia, Global, Ivory Coast | Permalink

Ivory Coast debt: serial default?

Jul 13, 2011 5:30pm by Alexandra Stevenson

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Frontier markets aspiring to emerging market status should take a cue from the Ivory Coast on what not to do. The country announced this week that it would not make any more payments to holders of its $2.3bn of Eurobonds until 2012, citing months of post-election violence which began in November last year as a ”shock to the economy”.

For investors however, the government’s own forecast of $2.7bn in revenues for 2011 makes the total Eurobond coupon payments due this year ($101.1m) look like small change, and raises the question of whether there is more to its decision to delay payment. Continue reading »

Tags: bonds, GDP Posted in Ivory Coast | Permalink

Ivory Coast: Place your bets

May 5, 2011 7:35pm by Katrina Manson

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Crisis and killing on the streets of Ivory Coast not only ultimately forced out Laurent Gbagbo, the country’s recalcitrant former president; they also all-but closed down the stock exchange serving the whole of west Africa.

But with Alassane Ouattara, the new president, now in place, the exchange is due to re-open on May 16 in the country’s business capital, Abidjan, giving investors a chance to place their bets on the country’s prospects. Continue reading »

Tags: investment, stock exchanges Posted in Ivory Coast | Permalink

Soc Gen: counting the cost of Egypt

May 5, 2011 9:19am by Stefan Wagstyl

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It’s one thing to measure political risk in terms of swings in currencies, stock markets and CDS spreads. It’s another to count the costs in your P&L which is what Societe Generale has had to for its operations in Egypt, Tunisia and the Ivory Coast.

The French bank on Wednesday disclosed, in its first quarter results, €50m provisions for the three countries “undergoing political transition”. With net income of €916m, the group can take the hit. But nobody wants to lose that much in what are still peripheral markets. Continue reading »

Tags: Arab spring, banking Posted in Africa, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Tunisia | Permalink

Ivory Coast: prospects amid strife

Apr 28, 2011 6:45pm by beyondbrics

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By Katrina Manson

Following months of violent unrest in Ivory Coast, the IMF predicts that west Africa’s economic giant will contract 7.5 percent this year, making it not only the worst performer on the continent in 2011, but the only sub-Saharan economy predicted to shrink. It’s a massive drop: even in the depths of its civil war in 2003 , its economy contracted only 1.7. Continue reading »

Tags: GDP Posted in Ivory Coast | Permalink

Ivory Coast eurobond: triumph of hope

Apr 18, 2011 1:44pm by beyondbrics

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By Katrina Manson

It’s an ill wind….The best-performing emerging market bond of 2011 is none other than the war-torn Ivory Coast’s $2.3bn issue.

It is up 25 per cent for the year to date, says JP Morgan, and around 55 per cent above its low on March 15, when investors took fright amid alarming reports of an imminent military attack on Abidjan, of refugees fleeing abroad and of an extension to a cocoa export ban. But what next for the bond, now that it stands at 54.6 cents to the dollar? Continue reading »

Tags: bonds Posted in Ivory Coast | Permalink

[snap] Gbagbo captured and detained

Apr 11, 2011 2:59pm by Stefan Wagstyl

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Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo was captured on Monday at his besieged residence in Abidjan and is in detention after a French military operation, the BBC reports.

Tags: commodities, politics Posted in Ivory Coast | Permalink

[snap] Gbagbo going, says UN

Apr 5, 2011 3:04pm by Stefan Wagstyl

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The UN says three generals loyal to Ivory Coast’s besieged President Laurent Gbagbo are negotiating terms for his surrender, reports the BBC.

Gbagbo is sheltering with his family in the basement bunker of his residence in the main city, Abidjan. Troops loyal to his rival, UN-recognised president Alassane Ouattara, say they have surrounded the compound.

Ivory Coast’s defaulted $2.3 billion bond climbef 3.6 points to a 4-month high of 52.7 cents on the dollar. The yield on the 2032 bond fell 0.86 percent to 12.2 percent, the lowest since early December.

Tags: politics Posted in Ivory Coast | Permalink

Video: final stand for Gbago?

Apr 5, 2011 2:24pm by beyondbrics

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Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast’s internationally recognised president-elect, on Tuesday launched an assault on the presidential palace of Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent who has refused to step down. William Wallis, Africa editor, talks to Daniel Garrahan about what might happen next.

Tags: video Posted in Ivory Coast | Permalink

Cocoa crisis builds in Ivory Coast

Mar 8, 2011 6:39pm by Orla Ryan

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The world’s eyes may be on Libya, Col. Gaddafi’s battle to retain power and the rising oil price.

But further down the African coast, perched on the Gulf of Guinea, lies Ivory Coast, where Laurent Gbagbo is fighting to stay in office after losing elections last year, and the country is on the brink of civil war, forcing up the price of cocoa to near 32-year highs. Continue reading »

Tags: commodities, politics Posted in Africa, Global, Ivory Coast | Permalink

[snap] Cocoa up 3.3% on Ivory Coast export ban

Jan 24, 2011 9:23am by Stefan Wagstyl

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Cocoa prices jumped on Monday after Alassanne Ouattara, the Ivory Coast’s internationally-recognised president imposed a one-month export ban in a bid to oust rival leader Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to quit.

Cocoa for May delivery in London was 3.3 per cent higher at £2184 a tonne in early trading and March cocoa was 6.1 per cent up at £2280 a tonne. Continue reading »

Posted in Ivory Coast | Permalink

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