Africa

Steinhoff International Holdings NV’s legal woes deepened as a Frankfurt court received 10 suits to be included in a mass German investor case against the embattled global retailer, Bloomberg News reported. That’s on top of 6.2 billion euros ($6.9 billion) of claims highlighted by Steinhoff in its annual report earlier this month. The owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the U.S. has called for potential claimants to come forward, seemingly opening the door for negotiated settlements with those who lost money from the company’s late 2017 share-price crash.

Zambia will carry out regular audits at all mines to avoid any repeat of the situation at Vedanta unit Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), which has breached the terms of its license, the mining ministry said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Zambian President Edgar Lungu said on Monday the government planned to strip KCM of its mining license and bring in a new investor. His spokesman said the move followed a number of breaches of the terms of the license, without giving details.

Advisers to Congo Republic’s government have warned it that there is a “major risk” the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will reject its bid for a long-sought bailout, according to a letter obtained by Reuters. Negotiations for an IMF programme have dragged on since 2017, with the IMF’s executive board demanding the central African oil producer ensure the sustainability of its debt, most of which is owed to China and oil traders, Reuters reported. At the end of its most recent mission to Congo this month, an IMF team said it was finally ready to support a three-year credit facility.

The assets of Kenya’s ARM Cement have been sold to the National Cement Company for $50 million, its administrator said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. ARM Cement was put under administration last August by some of its creditors over a $190 million debt and its shares were suspended from the Nairobi bourse. It has debts with a range of creditors, including local commercial banks. The transaction, which applies to ARM Cement’s Kenyan assets only, is subject to regulatory approvals, the statement from the administrator said.

Mining company Vedanta and its Zambian unit Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) said they were seeking urgent talks with the Zambian president following a high court order on Tuesday to appoint a provisional liquidator, Reuters reported. The news has rattled foreign investors already nervous governments in central African countries are seeking a much bigger share of resource revenues, which they say will discourage investment the region desperately needs.

Congo Republic’s senate on Monday voted to restructure some of its debt with China, a move that the International Monetary Fund has said was necessary to unlock financial support, the finance ministry said. Negotiations over a bailout for the oil-dependant economy have dragged on since 2017, as Congolese authorities failed to convince the IMF they were doing enough to control the national debt or tackle corruption, Reuters reported.

Mozambique’s restructuring discussions with Russian lender VTB over a loan to the state-owned Mozambique Asset Management (MAM) are in the final stretch, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its latest country report, Reuters reported. The fund also said the devastation from Cyclone Idai which killed more than 1,000 people across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi in March, had severely hit agricultural production and disrupted transport, slashing growth projections by half for this year.

Zimbabwe’s central bank has secured a $500 million loan from unspecified international banks to support interbank currency trading from Monday and ease a dollar crunch that has brought fuel and medicine shortages, Governor John Mangudya said, Reuters reported. The central bank introduced a new local currency in February, the RTGS dollar, and launched an interbank trading platform where businesses and individuals could buy and sell U.S. dollars. But dollars have been scarce on the official market, where a U.S. dollar fetches 3.4 RTGS dollars compared to 6.3 RTGS dollars on the black market.

Yields on Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s dollar bonds traded near one-year lows while those on government debt jumped amid renewed speculation that the South African government may take over the cash-strapped electricity company’s debt, Bloomberg News reported. Moody’s Investors Service now includes the power producer’s government-guaranteed debt in its assessment of the nation’s fiscal situation because the utility can’t service its obligations without the state’s backing, it said in an emailed report Wednesday.

South Africa’s Public Investment Corp., whose 30% stake in Lonmin Plc is enough to block the miner’s planned takeover by Sibanye Gold Ltd., is concerned that the value of the all-share deal has been eroded, according to a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. The state-owned PIC is troubled by the drop in Sibanye’s stock since the deal was announced in December 2017 as the company battled to cut debt, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the deliberations are private.