Kenya’s CIC Insurance ready to expand in region

Apr 22, 2013 3:10pm by Nizar Manek

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Less than two years after independence, South Sudan is attracting the attention of insurance companies in east Africa. And it’s not the region’s only new frontier. CIC Insurance Group of Kenya is ready to expand in the country and into neighbouring Uganda.

Next year, CIC has its sights on Tanzania and Malawi, Joel Gatune, the insurer’s finance and investments manager, tells beyondbrics. “For us, we believe sustained growth is in micro-insurance,” he says. “We’ve come up with a micro-insurance blueprint.” Continue reading »

Europe: less important to Africa than you might think

Nov 2, 2012 5:38pm by Rob Minto

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When it comes to trade, sub-Sarahan Africa is highly exposed to the eurozone, isn’t it? You would think so, given the warnings from the IMF to that effect.

But park your assumptions for one minute. Yes, any eurozone slowdown hurts African trade. But not by as much as a slowdown from other parts of the world, and the eurozone dependency is falling. Continue reading »

Tags: Africa-US, China-Africa, exports, sub-Saharan Africa, trade Posted in Africa, Angola, Nigeria, South Sudan | Permalink

South Sudan: investors undeterred

Sep 27, 2012 2:56pm by Adam Green

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South Sudan’s secession just over a year ago was one of promise: The country had plently of oil, and boasted an on-paper GDP per capita double that of Kenya. But disputes over oil transit fees through Sudan, including a brief military occupation of a contested region, culminated in a decision by South Sudan’s government to shut down its production, estimated at around 350,000 barrels a day.

Donors and external advisers predicted calamity. However, investor interest in the country is undeterred, according to a government adviser. Cooler heads are prevailing. Continue reading »

Tags: FDI, ThisisAfrica Posted in Africa, South Sudan | Permalink

Daewoo lands $1.9bn African oil platform order; but who is the client?

Aug 20, 2012 5:18pm by Ruona Agbroko

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Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, the world’s third-biggest shipbuilder by sales kicked off the week with a $1.9bn order to build five production platforms for an unidentified African-based customer.

This is almost a quarter of its revenue from offshore platform deals last year. The news of the contract, which ends in 2016, on Monday sent DSME’s share price up 1.8 per cent and left observers puzzling who might be the client. Continue reading »

Tags: joint ventures, oil & gas Posted in Africa, Angola, Ghana, Global, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan | Permalink

S Sudan: new skyscraper, bad timing

May 16, 2012 1:48pm by Katrina Manson

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Just as South Sudan’s finances are running out and investors are thinking about packing up and leaving, an “ultra-modern” office block might seem the least viable investment going.

But try telling that to the developers behind the $17m project, UAP Holdings. The 12-storey Equatoria Tower is set to be the tallest building in Juba, the southern capital more famed for dust and containers that double as homes than high rises, or anything approaching modern. Continue reading »

Tags: construction, South Sudan economy, UAP Holdings Posted in Africa, South Sudan | Permalink

South Sudan: a tricky sell in NY

Mar 12, 2012 3:47pm by Barney Jopson

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It’s not easy convincing investors that your brand-new country is worth backing. Last July, Riek Machar, South Sudan’s vice president, was in New York to mark his newly-independent country’s admission to the United Nations. As he did so as the oil wealth that provides 98 per cent of state revenue was flowing fast.

Today that oil flow is frozen due to a dispute with its neighbours in Sudan. So to reduce its vulnerability to such troubles Machar has been back to New York to fire up South Sudan’s search for American investment. But did anyone bite? Continue reading »

Tags: CNPC, FDI, investment, oil & gas Posted in Africa, South Sudan | Permalink

PE in Kenya: more deals please

Mar 6, 2012 2:42pm by Katrina Manson

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Private equity in east Africa is punching below is weight. The region attracted nearly a third of the 66 private equity deals done in sub-Saharan Africa in 2011 – but their value was just $188m out of a total $3bn, or 6 per cent. Deals worth six times as much were done in west Africa. Continue reading »

Posted in Africa, Congo, Ethiopia, Global, Kenya, South Sudan | Permalink

Sudan looks to electronic bourse and commodity trading for cash

Dec 14, 2011 7:45pm by David Keohane

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Sudan, which has gone through years of war and the break-away of oil-rich South Sudan, has decided to expand its tiny stock market in an effort to compensate for the loss of its all important oil revenues. Sudan is also going to, finally, turn the exchange electronic. Continue reading »

Tags: exchanges Posted in Africa, South Sudan, Sudan | Permalink

South African rates: cuts in prospect?

Sep 20, 2011 2:00pm by Andrew England

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To cut or not to cut will be the crucial decision as South Africa’s monetary policy committee holds the first of its fourth quarter meetings this week in an environment of gloomy growth prospects and inflationary pressure.

The Reserve Bank, which is generally credited for its prudence, has left interest rates unchanged at 5.5 per cent this year. Continue reading »

Tags: monetary policy Posted in Africa, South Sudan | Permalink

South African vehicle sales: read between the lines

Sep 2, 2011 2:44pm by Alexandra Stevenson

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Emerging markets have been good to carmakers and South Africa is no exception. At first glance August vehicle sales figures published on Friday support the story of an ongoing boom – with overall sales up 11.1 per cent year-on-year in August, from 10.5 per cent in July. But parsing the numbers, it’s not all positive news.

Specifically, passenger vehicle sales are beginning to slow, a reflection of increasingly cautious consumer confidence. Continue reading »

Tags: autos Posted in Africa, South Sudan | Permalink

South Sudan’s awkward guest

Jul 8, 2011 1:36pm by Katrina Manson

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With South Sudan celebrating independence on Saturday, who is to blame for the flight of more than 200,000 people from border fighting – including aerial bombardments and reports of door-to-door killings that amount to attempted ethnic cleansing – and for failure to reach agreement on a string of issues from oil rights to borders?

Many southern Sudanese have no doubt: Omar al-Bashir, president of Sudan and indicted war criminal sitting up north in Khartoum. So it is perhaps surprising, as South Sudan emerges – poor, fragile but nevertheless triumphant – that among the guests of honour will be none other than the man himself. Continue reading »

Posted in Africa, South Sudan | Permalink

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