The Financial Times | WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2013

By Nizar Manek

South Africa’s consumers are reluctant to take the brake off spending even though inflation is at a four-decade low, according to retail trade sales data released on Wednesday by government agency Statistics South Africa.

Retail sales growth softened to 2.8 per cent year-on-year in March from a revised 3.9 per cent in February. Despite the fall, consumption remains robust and was stronger than the 2.4 per cent consensus in a Bloomberg survey of 16 economists.

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The Financial Times | TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2013

By Nizar Manek

Investors in platinum hoping for a sustained bull run may be disappointed this year. Despite the labour unrest that keeps hitting South Africa’s miners, the biggest producers, supply and demand are pretty well balanced, says Johnson Matthey, the refiner in its annual review.

The Financial Times | THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013

By Nizar Manek

Many of South Africa’s economic indicators have lagged recently on Europe’s downturn. And China’s economic slowdown could also take its toll on sub-Saharan exports to China.

But one indicator is up for Africa’s largest economy: tourism. And specifically from the Bric nations. 

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The Financial Times | THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013

By Nizar Manek

Zambia’s second bourse is hoping to kick off trading “in weeks”, giving investors a chance to trade derivative products alongside the bonds and equities available on the main Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE).

Peter Sitamulaho, deputy chief executive of the Bonds and Derivatives Exchange Zambia, or BaDEx, said the bourse is just waiting on getting its first clearing member, which would guarantee trades: “When the first bank signs, we will be able to trade.”

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The Financial Times | TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2013

By Nizar Manek

The Seychelles Securities Exchange, which opened its doors at the end of 2012, has now got its first listing: the biggest insurance provider on the Indian Ocean island nation.

The State Assurance Corporation of Seychelles, known as SACOS Group, confirmed on Monday it will list in July on the Mahé-based bourse, known as Trop-X.

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The Financial Times | MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

By Nizar Manek 

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.”

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The Financial Times | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2013

By Nizar Manek 

Where are the best prospects among emerging nations? Not in the Brics countries, according to data on business optimism in 44 developed and emerging markets collated by Grant Thornton International, a network of business advisory firms. For the first time since it began collecting the data a decade ago, none of the Brics is among its top five countries.

Top of Grant Thornton’s optimism ranking is Peru, followed by the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico and Chile. India, the highest of the Brics in the ranking, is in 6th place. Russia is in 11th, South Africa in 12th, Brazil 14th and mainland China in 23rd place.
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The Financial Times | FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2013

By Nizar Manek 

South Africa’s Sasol, the world’s biggest producer of motor fuels from coal, is pulling out of its five year natural gas exploration project in Papua New Guinea. The southeast Asian country’s potential reserves have attracted other big oil companies but Sasol’s experience has been more like trying to get blood from a stone than tapping gas from a brimming reserve.

Sasol is looking to sell its last remaining license in the country, apparently rattled after its Awapa-1 exploration well drilled in mid-2011 came up empty. A sale would mark the end of the company’s exploration projects in southeast Asia.
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The Financial Times | TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013

By Nizar Manek 

It has been a tumultuous few days for shares in National Bank of Kenya, the country’s ninth biggest lender by market capitalisation. A lack of the price-setting power enjoyed by bigger banks meant it first spooked investors with a profit warning last week – and then sent them scurrying on Monday when it reported a 52.8 per cent fall in pretax profits for 2012.

The bank fell victim to a higher cost of capital – through higher interest rates paid to its depositors – and its inability to pass this on in the form of higher interest rates charged to borrowers.
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The Financial Times | TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2013

By Nizar Manek 

One month doesn’t make a recovery, as South Africa’s manufacturing index showed on Tuesday.

The Kagiso Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) dropped 4.3 points to 49.3 in March, back below the crucial 50 mark, and casting doubt over the next six months.
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