Africa

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office will charge two former executives of collapsed oil company Afren on Wednesday with alleged fraud over payments they received via secret companies relating to business deals in Nigeria, Reuters reported. The SFO said in a statement former Afren Chief Executive Osman Shahenshah and former Chief Operating Officer Shahid Ullah would appear at Westminster Magistrates Court charged with two counts of fraud and two counts of money laundering.

A Bloomberg News report that South Africa’s National Treasury is seeking as much as 100 billion rand ($7.5 billion) from the government workers’ pension fund to finance struggling state companies is untrue, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said. The Public Investment Corp., which manages the fund and has about 1.86 trillion rand in assets, has been asked by the Treasury to buy its entire 12 billion-rand stake in Telkom SA SOC Ltd. to pay for a bailout of South African Airways, two people with direct knowledge of the situation told Bloomberg News last week.

Debt and corruption scandals at Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. make the utility the biggest risk to South Africa’s economy and the government needs to replace its management, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said. Eskom plans to raise almost 340 billion rand ($26 billion) in the next five years, while meeting 413 billion rand of interest and debt repayments, which amount to 8 percent of South Africa’s gross domestic product, Bloomberg News reported.

The boards of West Africa-focused Avocet Mining and its Societe des Mines de Belahouro (SMB) subsidiary will resume talks on Friday aimed at saving the struggling gold operation from insolvency, Reuters reported. SMB, which operates the Inata gold mine in Burkina Faso, is is struggling to keep the mine operating after former workers seized a shipment of gold last year and faces possible insolvency after the expiry of a freeze on loan repayments. The boards of SMB and Avocet, which owns 90 percent of the Inata mine, were to meet on Sept. 8 to consider “all available options”, Avocet had said.

Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. is prepared to inject as much as 5 billion rand ($386 million) to pay off bank debt owed by AfriSam Group Pty Ltd. and help South Africa’s second-biggest cement producer clinch a tie-up with larger rival PPC Ltd., according to two people familiar with the matter. The money from the African unit of the Canadian insurer will be used to repay bank loans and allow AfriSam to push through a new offer to PPC, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private, Bloomberg News reported.

Gold miner Avocet Mining Plc said on Monday it will consider filing for insolvency of its subsidiary Societe des Mines de Belahouro (SMB), which operates the Inata gold mine in Burkina Faso, after the unit’s standstill agreement with its creditors expired, Reuters reported. The boards of SMB and Avocet will meet on Sept. 8 to consider “all available options, including the potential filing of an insolvency petition by SMB”, Avocet said in a statement. SMB’s financial and trade creditors could not agree among themselves on an extension of the agreement, the company said.

Nigeria’s Access Bank said on Wednesday it had booked a 4 billion naira ($13 million) impairment on its loan to troubled telecoms firm 9mobile, formerly known as Etisalat Nigeria. Access Chief Executive Herbert Wigwe said the bank had a direct exposure of 11 billion naira to 9mobile, as well as an exposure of 35-39 billion naira to the telecoms firm’s suppliers, Reuters reported. Wigwe told an analysts’ call that Access hoped to recover the debt once 9mobile was sold to new investors.

Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa (UBA) said it had made a provision on loans made to 9mobile, the mobile operator formerly known as Etisalat Nigeria. The lender did not give details of the provision but said it had a 38 billion naira ($125 million) exposure to 9mobile. UBA said the exposure was secured, and part of a syndicated loan with 12 other banks extended to Etisalat Nigeria four years ago. Nigerian banks have agreed an extension to a $1.2 billion loan made to 9mobile, pending the mobile operator finding new investors, Reuters reported.

The Gupta business family at the centre of a political scandal in South Africa has sold its main mining company to a little-known Swiss-based group — the second sale of a prime asset this week, the Financial Times reported. Oakbay, the Guptas’ holding company, said it had agreed to sell Tegeta Exploration and Resources to Charles King for R2.97bn ($225m).

Nigeria's Zenith Bank has made a provision on 30 percent of its loan to 9mobile, the country's fourth largest telecoms group formerly known as Etisalat Nigeria, the bank's chief executive said on Monday. "We have taken about 30 percent ... as a provision which we believe is very prudent as the company is undergoing restructuring ... to prepare for a new investor," CEO Peter Amangbo told a conference call.