South Africa

South Africa is already bearing the fruits of Cyril Ramaphosa’s two month tenure as president. Renewed buoyancy is fuelling business confidence, driving down asset prices, and supporting a strong pipeline of capital markets activity in both debt and equity, write Virginia Furness and Sam Kerr.

Barclays Africa Group made full use of the positive momentum that followed fellow South African bank FirstRand’s dollar tier two to price its own deal with a lower yield this week, despite investors initially asking for a pick up over FirstRand.

Barclays Africa Group made full use of the positive momentum that followed fellow South African bank FirstRand’s dollar tier two to price its own deal with a lower yield, despite investors initially asking for a pick up over FirstRand.

Barclays Africa was on track to make it two South African tier two bonds in a week on Wednesday, and began pricing by offering a pick-up to rival FirstRand.

The CEEMEA bond market has proved resilient to the asset price crippling effects of the latest US sanctions against Russia with little evidence contagion. A steady stream of new issues this week confirmed that it is business as usual in the bond markets.

Consol, the glass bottle maker, moved ahead with its IPO on Monday by setting a price range. It is hoping to return to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) at a positive moment for South Africa.

South Africa’s FirstRand Bank issued the first Basel III compliant tier two bond from the country on Monday, as South Africa’s banks look to capitalise on improving sentiment towards the country to diversify away from a ready domestic market.

FirstRand Bank was on track to open the market for South African tier two issuance ahead of Barclays Africa, which is lining up a trade for later this week.

Growthpoint, the Johannesburg-listed property company, is returning to the market after its deal was derailed last December by the fall of retail giant Steinhoff.

The South African equity market got the trade it had been waiting for this week when Steinhoff International, the embattled retail conglomerate, sold a portion of its stake in Steinhoff Africa Retail, the African subsidiary it span off last year, to raise funds to reduce its debt.

Seven new banks have joined Stanbic Kenya's loan, which will be signed on Thursday, leading to a heavy oversubscription, but the borrower declined to take any more money than the $100m it had set out to raise.

FirstRand Bank has announced plans for a three day global roadshow ahead of a planned inaugural dollar-denominated tier two issue.