South Africa

South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will struggle to keep government debt under control even as he pledges to stick to spending targets, Bloomberg reported. Gross debt will climb to 48 percent of gross domestic product in the year through March 2017 from an estimated 43 percent last year, the National Treasury said in its mid-term budget report released in Cape Town today. That’s mainly due to rising debt costs and tax receipts falling short of targets.

South Africa's Investec, Nedbank and Sanlam said on Thursday they had exposure to a failing building supply company First Strut, whose chairman was shot dead in June, Reuters reported. Trade in First Strut's 925 million rand ($95 million) worth of bonds was suspended last week following an application to place the firm in liquidation, according to a stock exchange filing. Its chairman, Jeff Wiggill, was found dead with a bullet wound to his head next to a luxury Bentley automobile in the early hours of June 20 in the Soweto township that borders Johannesburg.

Cement producer AfriSam on Tuesday successfully completed a years-long restructuring programme that reduced its overall debt by more than R15-billion, Engineering News reported. The group, which faced a significant debt burden and almost defaulted on billions of rand of debt over a year ago, now had a sustainable long-term debt solution to the overgearing that resulted from the acquisition transaction that created AfriSam. The total debt remaining on the balance sheet could not be confirmed, but previous reports had indicated that it could be about R6.5-billion.

A surge in personal loans, credit-card debt and overdrafts in South Africa has regulators sounding the alarm, and many of the country's banks are beginning to dial back lending amid fears that Africa's largest economy is nearing a dangerous credit bubble, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Unsecured lending has nearly tripled in South Africa in the past four years to $44 billion, or 10.5 percent of total credit, according to the central bank.

One of South Africa's two satellite networks last week filed for "business rescue," a new legal mechanism designed to save and rehabilitate distressed companies rather than liquidate them, The Deal Pipeline reported. That goal may be worthwhile. But the limitations of the concept were manifest over the weekend when domestic carrier 1time Airline abandoned a similar attempted business rescue and said it will file for provisional liquidation. Both cases cast popular light on South Africa's attempts at a Chapter 11-like approach to insolvency.

Indebted miner Great Basin Gold on Thursday said it was to acquire a $35-million loan by order of the British Columbia Supreme Court, following its Companies Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) filing made on Wednesday, MiningWeekly.com reported.

Great Basin Gold Ltd said its South African unit Southgold Exploration filed for creditor protection a week after it suspended operations at its Burnstone mine, Reuters reported. Great Basin suspended production at the mine in the Witwatersrand Goldfields last week due to its inability to continue funding operations at the mine. The mine, which started production in February last year, was producing about 5,000-6,000 tons of ore per day. The company is trying to negotiate a debtor-in-possession working capital loan with certain lenders to pursue an orderly shutdown of the mine.

Three international banks that backed out of $10 billion debt restructuring talks with an investment company controlled by Dubai's ruler said Thursday they are now pursuing legal action against the firm, dashing hopes of a consensual deal, The Seattle Times reported on an Associated Press story. The move by Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland, Commerzbank of Germany and South African lender Standard Bank will likely further complicate Dubai Group's efforts to move beyond its debt troubles after more than a year and a half of negotiations with creditors.

Platinum Australia (PLA), the ASX-listed platinum miner with all its operations in SA, has now sought refuge from its creditors in voluntary administration. That means there could be some assets up for grabs for mining companies still in the ring, the Financial Mail reported. One of those is African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), Patrice Motsepe's diversified mining company, which is PLA's partner in the advanced Kalplats exploration project, 330km west of Johannesburg.

China intends to extend renminbi loans to other Brics nations, in another step towards the internationalisation of its currency, the Financial Times reported. The China Development Bank will sign a memorandum of understanding in New Delhi with its Brazilian, Russian, Indian and South African counterparts on March 29, say people familiar with their talks. Under the agreement CDB, which lends mainly in dollars overseas, will make renminbi loans available, while the other Brics nations’ development banks will also extend loans denominated in their respective currencies.