Archive for the 'Namibia' Category
November 16th, 2011 by Tom Minney
2012 could be an active year for African bonds and particularly eurobonds, judging by the 5.5 times oversubscription for the “Namibia 21″, the country’s debut $500 million, 10-year Eurobond. According to a recent story on Reuters, Florian von Hartig, head of debt capital markets at Standard Bank which was one of the lead arrangers,said it demonstrated the appetite for liquid African paper. He added that 2012 was likely to be active if the markets bear up: “I think Namibia is just another sign of how much African credits are in demand. The economy in Africa has been doing very well at times when the so-called developed world (has experienced) zero growth or even recession. Naturally, investors want to get exposure to an area where growth is steady so it ticks all the boxes.”
Zambia is among countries also considering a 10-year $500m Eurobond. Reuters quotes Stuart Culverhouse, chief economist at London-based broker Exotix as saying finding the best moment in turbulent markets will be key: “The external environment is driving a lot of considerations at the moment and therefore finding a window of opportunity in the market so the issuer can get the best possible terms will be a crucial factor.” He added that Zambia’s strong fundamentals, including increasing copper production, single-digit inflation and relatively low debt, made it an attractive issuer. “I think the underlying strengths are there to elicit investor interest, but the new government has to build on that and consolidate on that rather than reverse direction,” he said.
Kevin Daly, emerging market debt portfolio manager at Aberdeen Asset Management, which bought the Namibian Eurobond, said it depends on the terms of the issue: “There’s enough African names in the market to use as a pricing reference. When you look at current yields on Senegal 10-year bond it’s around 8.3/8.4%, so that’s a good starting point for them.”
Namibia’s Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, said in an interview yesterday (15 Nov) on ABN digital; “We think that this does not only enable us to raise the funding that we need to finance our deficit, but it has enabled us also to realize the objective of providing a benchmark for future raising of funds by Namibia’s private sector, which is very important for the Namibian economy going forward.”
November 16th, 2011 by Tom Minney
The Namibian government issued a debut US$500 million, 10-year Eurobond on 27 October and got a price of 5.75%, taking advantage of a lull in the capital markets turmoil. It was oversubscribed five and a half times.
Namibia’s 144A/RegS benchmark sovereign bond (“Namibia 21”) carries a coupon of 5.5% and is rated Baa3 by Moody’s and BBB- by Fitch, according to a Standard Bank announcement. Standard Bank Group (www.standardbank.com) and Barclays Capital (www.barcap.com) served as joint book-runners.
Since the issue, “Namibia 21s” have outperformed other emerging market (EM) bonds as there were several would-be buyers in the October issue who did not get what they wanted and so they took advantage of price dips to buy. According to Standard Bank last week: “Having started at a spread of 175 bps (1.75 percentage points) over an interpolated SA curve, Nam 21s are now only 122 bps over. Although part of the narrowing is the poor SA performance, which we believe is probably not justified, we still believe the spread will narrow further. We are very constructive on Namibia’s long-term structural transformation into an oil producer. Meanwhile, GDP growth was a robust 5.6% year on year in Q1 2011, fostering something of an upward revision in full-year estimates.”
Speculation on oil finds may still be premature, although exploration interest has grown strongly in the last year, with many companies moving closer to drilling. However, big new uranium mines are expected to add to Namibia’s exports from 2014.
Marketing the Namibian bond began on 27 September 2011 with a 5-day international road show of 2 teams of senior officials. Namibia’s Minister of Finance, Sara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, and the Governor of the Bank of Namibia, Ipumbu Shiimi, led the delegations on investor meetings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, New York, Zurich, Geneva, Frankfurt, Munich and London. The roadshow highlighted economic fundamentals, such as a low government-debt-to-GDP ratio of 17% (at 1 September 2011) and real GDP growth rates of 6.6% in 2010 and forecasted at 5.8% for 2011.
According to the bank: “However, global market uncertainty and volatility caused primarily by the Eurozone debt crisis prompted Namibia to postpone a transaction until market volatility subsided and a potential resolution to the Eurozone crisis became more apparent.” It moved fast as sentiment changed: “A global market rally in risk assets following the conclusion of the EU leaders’ summit on 26 October provided strong market support and enabled the joint book-runners to announce the debut transaction. The joint book-runners released price guidance to the market on the morning of Thursday 27 October of a reoffer yield of between 5.75% and 6.00%. Investor interest built quickly across Europe, Asia and the US over the course of the morning and early afternoon. The investor response allowed the joint book-runners to launch the transaction at the tight end of price guidance by mid-afternoon on Thursday with a reoffer yield of 5.75%.”
Over 160 leading US, European and Asian institutional investors were on the order book. Fund managers and asset managers were over 50% of orders and the biggest proporation of the investors. UK accounts represented roughly 40% of orders, US 25%, continental Europe 30% and Asia about 5%.
Namibia’s is only the sixth benchmark sovereign bond to come to market from Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) in the past few years, says the bank. Gabon and Ghana were first to issue sub-Saharan Africa Eurobonds in late 2007, followed by Senegal in 2009 and Nigeria in early 2011. In May this year, Senegal issued its second sovereign bond, but broke new ground by successfully concluding a joint bond issue and exchange. Standard Bank Group also facilitated a $250m 7-year loan to the Tanzanian government in June 2011, raised through regional and international financiers.
Peter Baillargeon of Standard Bank Group’s Debt Capital Markets Africa desk in London commented: “African economies urgently need to address the gaps in their infrastructure, especially in the areas such as energy and transport. This is where long-term sovereign bonds can play an integral role. Our involvement with a number of sovereign transactions demonstrates Standard Bank’s capabilities to successfully facilitate complicated transactions of this nature.
“We are proving that we have the required expertise and capacity to help African sovereigns as well as corporate entities to raise debt in international capital markets.”
Carl Piccolo, Head of International Debt Syndicate at Standard Bank in London, said: “Namibia’s debut Eurobond has been well received by international investors. This transaction provides Namibia with a very broad international investor base consisting of a number of the leading emerging market investors and is expected to serve as a liquid market benchmark to support international funding requirements for the government as well as the corporate sector going forward.”
February 15th, 2011 by Tom Minney
The main trading platform of the London Stock Exchange (www.londonstockexchange.com) was successfully switched from the previous system yesterday (14 Feb) to the Millennium Exchange computer system. Technology solutions provider Millennium IT’s systems are widely installed in African stock exchanges.
Africa’s biggest exchange, the JSE Ltd (www.jse.co.za), announced on 3 Feb that it had concluded a licensing agreement with MillenniumIT to move its equity market trading activity onto Millennium Exchange, with the move planned for the first half of 2012. The JSE said the move will make trading 400 times faster. The Namibian Stock Exchange (www.nsx.com.na) also uses the JSE’s systems and both had been using the LSE’s TradElect system.
LSE swaps to compete
The 14 Feb LSE swap is the largest part of the exchange’s IT project. The London bourse bought Sri Lanka’s Millennium IT company for $30 million in 2009, instead of spending on a software package.
According to the a report in Financial Times, this is part of moves by the LSE to regain its position as a leading global exchange. It will adopt a faster trading system to take on rivals, expand into derivatives and streamline its clearing business. Antoine Shagoury, chief information officer of LSE Group, told the FT: “This migration is a crucial step forward in our drive to offer best in class trading services and marks a key milestone in the introduction of tightly integrated transaction technology across our markets,” said
LSE chief executive Xavier Rolet said the Millennium Exchange system is one of the fastest in the world, and can execute trades in 124 microseconds. Speed is a key criterion for luring high-frequency traders. Proprietary traders had been taking market share for trading in UK equities to exchanges such as Chi-X Europe and BATS Europe, operated by US-based BATS Global Markets but the Millennium Exchange is said to be double the average of the fastest speeds on BATS Global system. It is also faster than Nasdaq OMX.
The news came a few days after the LSE announced plans to merge with Canada’s TMX Group, subject to shareholders’ and regulators’ approval. Both exchanges would aim to pool their specialist trading platforms and cut IT development costs, and it would create the world’s biggest exchange by number of listings.
The switchover was delayed from last November, after the LSE’s Turquoise “dark pool” trading system for pan-European equities went out of order and was shut down as it switched to Millennium Exchange. The LSE held back moving its bigger UK equities trading platform away from the previous TradElect system until early this year. The LSE admitted last month that the problem had been caused by “human error”.
The LSE will move other parts of its operations onto the Millennium platform in due course.
JSE takes control
The JSE announced it will relocate its trading system from London to Johannesburg, enhancing operational efficiencies and ensuring trading optimization for market participants. Leanne Parsons, JSE Chief Operating Officer and Head of the Equity Market said in a press release: “We are excited about working with MillenniumIT and providing benefits to our market using their technology solutions”.
She is confident that the adoption of the new trading system will increase the equity volumes traded on the JSE and therefore liquidity: “In our experience, whenever we take a step forward with our trading technology, trading volumes also follow. If we want to remain a world-class and relevant exchange in a highly competitive industry, we must remain abreast of technological advances.”
Parsons explained that one reason to relocate the trading engine to Johannesburg was for increased operational stability. Now the JSE will manage and operate the trading engine itself. Parsons adds that operational costs will remain roughly the same: “The handful of incidents that we have had requiring the equity market to be halted, with reputational impacts, have been related to our international connectivity links. By moving the engine to Johannesburg, we eliminate this problem and are able to offer our clients improved service availability and stability.”
The structure of the deal with Millennium IT allows the JSE to grow trading volumes aggressively without incrementally increasing trading software costs. It also offers benefits for the JSE and opens up a new potential revenue stream by offering JSE stockbroking members the option to co-locate their computer servers near an exchange’s matching engine to cut the time it takes for messages to be sent to and from the trading engine and reduce bandwidth required. Many exchanges worldwide currently earn revenue from renting out computer space in co-location centres.
Millennium IT widely used in Africa
MillenniumIT, which has over a decade of experience in building technology solutions for the capital markets, is headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the LSE Group. Millennium Exchange is the company’s flagship product used by 10 exchanges and other execution venues worldwide and is known for speed and scalability.
Tony Weeresinghe, CEO of MillenniumIT and Director of Global Development at the LSE Group said in a press release: “Millennium Exchange is a next-generation trading platform that offers ultra-fast order-processing capabilities, providing users with a trading experience that is amongst the fastest, most reliable and technologically advanced in the world.”
MillenniumIT has also supplied trading systems to the securities exchanges in Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania and Zambia, and central depositories and settlement systems in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, among others.
The dynamic Stock Exchange of Mauritius (www.stockexchangeofmauritius.com), among the continental leaders in IT, has long promoted MillenniumIT trading and central depository systems. In addition to powering its own markets, SEM has also advocated them on other projects in which it has been involved, such as a central African regional exchange (which did not end up using Millennium IT), also Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Botswana, Lusaka and the Bank of Ghana CSD.
In particular, MillenniumIT’s Smart Order Router system could support the hub-and-spoke model that is adopted by the Committee of SADC Stock Exchanges. Preparations are done and this is ready to move fast once funding is approved. The model can allow exchanges to continue to regulate their brokers and other institutions, as orders can be routed through local broking houses.
MillenniumIT also won the project for linking the East African Securities Exchanges and helping solidify the East African common market for capital but this too is awaiting funding.
Jit Seneviratne, Head of Business Development, told AfricanCapitalMarketsNews: “MillenniumIT sees a major role for itself in integrating African capital markets and we will use our technology to facilitate this. It certainly helps that we are already powering several exchanges in Africa… We have already identified the manner in which the links can be done. The only challenge if at all, is not in the trading but the clearing and settlement of pan African securities, but we have a plan for this as well.”
November 5th, 2010 by Tom Minney
The London Stock Exchange (www.londonstockexchange.com) issued the following press release about its trading halt on Tuesday 2 November: “Investigations into this morning’s trading disruption on London Stock Exchange’s pan-European MTF (multi-lateral trading facility), Turquoise, have revealed that human error was to blame for the disruption that began at 08:23 a.m. this morning (sic). The issue was swiftly isolated, and normal trading resumed at 10:30 a.m. Preliminary investigations indicate that this human error may have occurred in suspicious circumstances. The LSEG take this matter very seriously and a full internal investigation has now begun. The relevant authorities have been informed.
“In light of this incident, coupled with necessary network upgrades to address ultra low latency and high flow inherent in the new platform, the Group has regrettably been forced to postpone its Main Market LSE technology migration for SETS. Given that December is an agreed change freeze period, the London Stock Exchange Group will work in partnership with customers to agree a date as early and practicably as possible in 2011 to reschedule the Main Market migration.”
This may give participants at the African Stock Exchanges Association conference in Livingstone, Zambia (10-12 November) something to talk about. According to reports an announcement was due later on 2 November about the LSE’s migration of its main trading platform, TradElect, to faster systems designed by Millennium IT (www.milleniumit.com), which the LSE acquired in 2009. Millennium IT is also a sponsor of the ASEA conference and has a key position on the agenda to speak on technology links to create more urgently-needed liquidity on African stock exchanges. MillenniumIT’s trading and central depository systems are already in use in many exchanges across Africa (see previous blog) and its influence is likely to grow.
Turquoise had gone live with the MillenniumIT trading system on 4 October and the LSE’s main platform was due to switch early in November 2010.
However, none of the sources quoted in a Financial Times article seem to think there is any problem with the LSE strategy to migrate to MillenniumIT’s modern multi-instrument trading systems. They note that the LSE needs modern high-speed trading systems to stay in competition for market share, including for European equities against competitors Chi-X, BATS Europe and NYSE’s Euronext – several intermediaries switched trades to these on Tuesday when Turquoise went down. Traders will need to be reassured about the LSE’s reliability and there are some questions about such a long delay in implementing the new system. It was also noted that many leading exchanges worldwide have been affected by tech problems and none has suffered lasting damage.
Another UK source reported on 4 November that an IT contractor with access to the LSE data centres has been suspended.
South Africa’s JSE, the Namibian Stock Exchange and Norway’s Oslo Bors are all exchanges which use TradElect because of links to the LSE, and could switch to MillenniumIT trading platforms in 2011.
August 2nd, 2010 by Tom Minney
Australia’s Minemakers Limited on 27 July became the 63rd company to list on the Namibian Stock Exchange (www.nsx.com.na) when it joined the Development Capital Board (DevX).
Minemakers has interests in phosphate mining – for which it says Namibia has the world’s sixth biggest resource. Fertilizers could see high demand as “soft commodities” including food and agriculture, may grow in value. The company is also developing Wonarah rock phosphate project in Australia.
It is an exploration and mining development company and is already listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (www.asx.com.au) and has a market capitalisation of A$54 million (US$49.3 million). According to a report in The Namibian newspaper (www.namibian.com.na), Managing Director Andrew Drummond said at the listing that it intends to list soon on the Toronto Stock Exchange (www.tmx.com).
The exclusive prospecting licences, including the Sandpiper/Meob marine phosphate some 60km offshore Namibia, are held in a joint venture company, Minemakers Tungeni Joint Venture Exploration Pty (Ltd). Minemakers, via 100%-owned Bonaparte Diamond Mines, holds 42.5% of the joint venture, fellow Australians Union Resources Limited also has 42.5% and local black-empowerment partner Tungeni Investments cc has 15%.
The secondary listing pushed up the overall market capitalisation of the NSX by about N$356 million to nearly N$1.1 trillion (US$148 billion). The DevX now stands at N$18.3 billion (US$2.5billion).
Drummond said preliminary indications are that Namibia has about 1.6 billion tonnes of phosphate, making it the sixth biggest resource in the world. According to the newspaper, Minemakers 2009 annual report says mining could start next year, “subject to a favourable result from the scoping study, and gaining the necessary development funding and government approvals”.
In its regulatory listing advertisements in the local media, Minemakers said it regarded the development of the Sandpiper/Meob project as “one of its top priorities and the natural expansion strategy for establishing two geographic distribution centres – one in Australia and the other in Namibia – to supply growing global demand for phosphate and related fertilizer products”.
Minemakers said the Sandpiper/Meob project is well-placed to develop into a new “phosphate-producing province” in Namibia. The company has another phosphate project at Rocky Point, north of Walvis Bay.
May 31st, 2010 by Tom Minney
Interest in African sovereign debt has been climbing again in recent months. Angola has stil not issued a $1 billion – $2 billion benchmark bond due in May. However, Kenya, Nigeria and Mauritius and many other countries have flourishing debt markets and international interest is good in high-yielding hard-currency bonds such as those issued by the Republic of Congo and Cote d’Ivoire.
In April top bond broker Exotix (www.exotix.co.uk) gave a “buy” recommendation on the REPCON 2.5% bond, redeemable in 2029. Then it was trading at 57.0 and offered a yield of 10.8% and was the highest-performing African sovereign bond.
Trading in $2.4 billion of Cote d’Ivoire debt in US dollars trading under New York law (2.5%, redeemable in 2032) began in mid-April, after the country exchanged it for Brady bonds it had defaulted on nearly a decade ago. Exotix only rates it a “hold” at 64.2 in mid-April, when it yielded 9.6%. The bond was expected to make up 0.75% of the $400bn Emerging Market Bond Index (EMBI), according to a recent article in The Banker, and many were expected to buy it for this reason. Exotix commentary on the bond included detailed assessment of politics and economic developments including current account surpluses and International Monetary Fund assessments.
Governments in some countries are seeking to create longer-term yield curves for domestic investors, in order to provide a framework for longer-term finance and investment. For instance Barclays Kenya is offering 20-year mortgages, compared to a few years ago when the limit was 5 years. Bonds are also being moved into electronic trading and being handled by central depositories.
According to a report on 19 May on Bloomberg, Angola was awarded credit ratings of B+ by Standard &Poors and Fitch, 4 levels below investment grade, and Moody’s assigned an equivalent ranking of B1, putting Angola on par with Nigeria, Lebanon, Belarus and Ghana. The country plans to issue $1billion – $2 billion in bonds this year.
Other high-yield bonds, including in local currencies, can be found in Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana and Kenya. Economic commentators are encouraged, as debt can be a more cost effective way to fuel long-term economic growth than equity.
Better economic management and good investor interest in government debt has paved the way for more corporate bonds, including for power and telecommunications infrastructure. This site has already reported how Kengen and Nampower have issued bonds to fund urgently needed power expansion. Telecommunications giant Safaricom has also been successful.
The successes are tribute to the increasing quality of economic and fiscal management by African governments.
March 5th, 2010 by Tom Minney
Imara Holdings Ltd (www.imaraholdings.com), an investment banking and asset management group with operations in 10 countries mostly in southern Africa, aims to expand in Zimbabwe, according to Zimbabwe’s Herald newspaper. It is currently listed on the Venture Capital Market board of the Botswana Stock Exchange (www.bse.co.bw) and the Herald reports that it wants to buy the rest of the shares in Zimbabwe’s Imara Capital Zimbabwe (Pvt.) Ltd (www.imaracapital.com), which it owns 32%, and also to dual list on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (www.zse.co.zw).
The report says that Imara Holdings has proposed a share deal in which local shareholders and the management will get a shareholding in the parent in return for their shares in the local company. The dual-listing on the bigger exchange could make the shares more liquid and the dollar-based ZSE is attractive to international investors. Imara management reportedly refused to comment, possibly while the transaction is under approval by authorities.
Imara Holdings website does not mention the transaction, although it has been publishing cautionary announcements since 31 July 2009. It describes the group as “medium sized”. It has offices in Botswana, Malawi, South Africa and the UK, and associate offices in Malawi and Zimbabwe as well as working relationships with Stockbrokers Zambia, Namibia Equity Brokers and Mac Capital in Dubai.
According to the Holdings website: “We are independent and privately owned, enabling objective decision-making in the service of our clients. We are active participants in the region’s financial markets and maintain one of the largest research coverage of regional equities. Funds under management exceed US$ 135m and funds under administration exceed US$750m.”
Imara group services fall into three primary operating areas:
• Corporate Finance & Advisory Services
• Institutional and Private Client Asset Management
• Securities Trading
Imara Capital is one of the associates listed in Zimbabwe, others being listed on the website as Imara Edwards Securities (Pvt) Ltd, Imara Asset Management Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd and Imara Corporate Finance Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd. The Herald report says these are wholly owned by Imara Capital.
On 8 January Imara signed a licence agreement to become the 7th member of Global Alliance Partners (www.globalalliancepartners.com), of which Mac Capital Dubai is already a member. Bernard Pouliot, chairman of GAP and of the Quam Group based in Hong Kong, said Imara joins the alliance at a very opportune time when Chinese interest in Africa is growing: “Imara is good for the alliance and for China. Alongside other members of GAP, we are committed to hit the ground running when an umbrella investment scheme by African countries is developed and eventually implemented.”
The other GAP members are Quam Financial Services Group for Hong Kong and China, Capital Partners Securities for Japan, KT ZMICO for Thailand, Thanh Cong Securities Company for Vietnam, and Westminster of Hudson Securities in USA.
In December, Imara Holdings announced it had recently acquired a majority equity stake in the Botswana stockbroking company Capital Securities (Pty) Ltd., one of 4 licensed stockbrokers on the Botswana Stock Exchange, established in March 1999.
“Shareholders are advised that negotiations relating to a further regional acquisition, which was announced in a Cautionary Announcement published on 31 July 2009 and in subsequent renewal announcements, are still ongoing. Shareholders are therefore urged to continue to exercise caution in their dealings in Imara securities,” says the Botswana announcement published in December.
October 11th, 2009 by Tom Minney
Absa Capital (www.absacapital.com), the investment banking arm of Absa Group, plans to work in a range of African debt markets, particularly in countries where its parent, Barclays, is active. Standard Bank has so far been the leader into Africa. The new Chief Executive, Stephen van Coller, who took over from John Vitalo from 1 October, was reported as having told Reuters the group would hope to increase revenues by up to 50%-60% over the next 3 years through more African business.
Van Coller is reported as saying: “We’ve seen debt capital markets starting to open up in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria. There’s actually been quite a lot of interest because the yields are quite good and I think people are seeing emerging markets as handling the recession better.” He said there is growing foreign demand for emerging market sovereign debt, particularly in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania. Botswana has strong demand for debt and other products but analysts say more products are needed on the market before there can be enough liquidity.
Kenya’s Safaricom mobile phone company (www.safaricom.co.ke) on 7 October announced a KSh 5 billion (US$67 mln) bond, pegged to Central Bank of Kenya rates. It is the first tranche of a KSh 12 bln programme approved by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA). The offer, aimed at institutional clients, closes on 29 October.
Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph is reported by local media as saying: “The conditions and pricing are right and we are confident the market will endorse our overall strategy by taking it up. Safaricom will be using the funding for general corporate capital purposes, including the rollout of some critical projects.” He said it would increase capacity, build a better network and expand to other areas that are yet to be accessed especially the north eastern part of the country.
Arrangers are Barclays Bank of Kenya (with Absa Capital), CFC Stanbic Bank and CFC Stanbic Financial Services. The joint sponsoring stockbrokers are CFC Stanbic Financial Services and Kestrel Capital (East Africa) Limited. The five year bond has a fixed component offering 12.25%, compared to 9.50% on the 5-year treasury bond, and a floating component offering 1.85 percentage points above the 182-day treasury bill, according to Business Daily (www.businessdailyafrica.com). The minimum subscription is KSh1 million. In 2008, Safaricom’s Initial Public Offer attracted 866,000 applicants, and the minimum share uptake was KSh10,000.
Nampower (www.nampower.com.na), the Namibian Government-owned electricity provider, plans to issue a ZAR 250m bond in November 2009 to raise capital in order to help it bridge the looming gap to supply enough power for growing demand. The company is reported as planning to boost cash reserves and strengthen its generation capacity and transmission network so as to avoid power supply disruptions next year. IN March 2009 ratings agency Fitch gave Nampower a BBB- long-term foreign currency rating and national long-term A- rating as monopoly provider.
Nampower already has a bond (NMP20) listed on the NSX, with a coupon of 9.35% and maturity in 2020.
Power shortages are becoming common in the southern end of Africa, and Namibia faces difficulties to buy sustainable imports from South Africa. However it is building an interconnector through the NorthEast Caprivi Strip to import an agreed 150MW from Zimbabwe, and agreements are also signed with ZESCO of Zambia (100MW), Mozambique (40MW) and it is in discussion with Democratic Republic of Congo’s SNEL to import 50MW. The Southern African Power Pool has led to strategic planning and connections.
In Uganda, the PTA Bank has extended the deadline to 12 October for its UgSh 40 billion ($21 million) bond issue, apparently to meet demand. Kenya Electricity Generating Company (Kengen) is reported on Reuters to have said it has received applications worth over KSh 25.2 bln for its KSh15 bln 10-year bond. However, it has regulatory approval to absorb an extra KSh 10 bln, in what is known as a “greenshoe” option. Earlier Kengen said it had enough projects to use the extra funds.
August 7th, 2009 by Tom Minney
The listing bell rang at the Namibian Stock Exchange (www.nsx.com.na) on 4 August for the listing of West Australian Metals Limited (“WAM”) on the NSX’s Development Capital Board (DevX). It is the sixth uranium producer to be listed on the NSX and is also listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (www.asx.com.au, where it is listed as WME).
WAM is exploring for uranium and in 2006 acquired 80% of Marenica uranium project, with an inferred resource of about 34 million pounds of uranium oxide, just north of the Trekkopje uranium mine in the western desert Erongo Region which is being developed by French giant Areva.
Namibia is the fourth largest producer of uranium in the world, supplying 7%-10% of the total. This could rise driven by increased exploration, in turn caused by rising uranium prices as the world takes keener interest in alternat ive energy sources which do not have global warming impact. WAM is the sixth dual-listed uranium producer on the NSX.
The company has pledged investment of AUD 8 mln ($6.7 mln) and could start production in 2012. Namibia is becoming a major uranium producer and WAM CEO John Young was reported in local press at the listing ceremony to attribute the company’s interest in Namibian uranium to the stable regulatory and political environment, as well as the high prospects of discovering both primary and secondary uranium deposits.
“This is one of the best places to explore, certainly in Africa, if not in the world,” he is reported to have said.
He said the mining project would have only positive effects on the surrounding communities and minimal environmental impacts. The company also intends some Black Economic Empowerment transactions and currently reportedly employs five Namibians.
WAM dual listed 448,740,896 fully paid shares, which closed at N$1.27 on 4 August – adding some N$567 mln ($71 mln) to the total market capitalization – and up 7 cents by the close of trading on 5 August. The listing was sponsored by IJG Securities (Pty.) Ltd.