South Africa

After a turbulent summer, South Africa swept in for its biggest ever bond issue on Thursday, taking $3bn with a dual tranche 12 and 30 year bond. The deal was a yield hunters dream and proved that investors are willing to put aside concerns of an impending downgrade, and political infighting, for a decent return.

GlaxoSmithKline disposed of its remaining 6.2% stake in Aspen Pharmacare, one of Africa’s largest pharmaceuticals companies, through an accelerated book build launched on Wednesday evening in a deal that was said to be comfortably oversubscribed after a wall-crossing process.

South Africa has opened books on a dual tranche 2028 and 2046 dollar bond after a turbulent summer and while the generous starting price is likely to generate momentum in the book, fears of a downgrade overhang the transaction with one investor telling GlobalCapital he saw better value elsewhere.

Steinhoff, the South African retail group, has completed a €2.45bn capital increase supported by one of South Africa’s richest men, Christoffel Wiese, and the Public Investment corp, of which €556m was raised through an accelerated bookbuild which ended up being nearly four times oversubscribed.

The cheerful and businesslike mood in European equity capital markets, despite clear risks of volatility in the offing, was highlighted again today by the launch of a €2.5bn capital raising by Steinhoff, the South African retail group.

PPC, the largest listed South African cement producer, has completed its fully underwritten 16-for-10 rights issue in Johannesburg, raising R4bn ($280m) to clear its debts in the wake of a downgrade by Standard & Poor’s.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has made a key hire for its South African investment banking business.

PPC, the largest listed South African cement producer, has completed its fully underwritten rights issue in Johannesburg, raising R4bn ($280m) to clear its debts in the wake of a downgrade by Standard & Poor's.

Gold One Group, which produces low-cost gold in South Africa and is part of the Citic Group, is laying the groundwork for a Hong Kong listing with a preliminary filing.

Stanbic Bank Uganda this week decreased the size of its loan refinancing to $55m. Weaker appetite for dollars from Ugandan corporates and a prospective US rate hike were reasons for the smaller deal, the bank's CFO told GlobalCapital.

South African telecoms company MTN will start meeting investors this week ahead of a potential dollar bond market return.

Steinhoff completed syndication of $4bn of acquisition loans this week with the deal going “better than expected", according to bankers. The loan market has not shown signs of fatigue for the South African-based furniture retailer, even though the borrower has already asked a lot of the market this year.