Africa Equity

Choppies Enterprises, a Botswanan groceries retailer, has kicked off roadshows for a secondary listing worth about R1.4bn ($117m) on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Kevin Latter has been appointed head of investment banking in South Africa at Bank of American Merrill Lynch.

Two block trades have gone well tonight, as GlaxoSmithKline has sold half its 12.4% stake in Johannesburg-listed Aspen Pharmacare, while private equity funds have sold the last chunk of ISS, the Danish cleaning firm.

Curro, the Johannesburg-listed operator of private schools, plans to raise R740m ($64m) through a fully underwritten rights offer, less than a year after its last such transaction.

Bancassurer FirstRand on Tuesday sold 102m of its shares and 23.8m shares of its affiliate, the insurer MMI, in an oversubscribed accelerated bookbuild.

FirstRand, the South African bank, today launched an accelerated bookbuild for 102m of its shares and 23.8m shares of its affiliate, the insurer MMI. The blocks are worth about R4.93bn ($424m) and R700m ($60m) respectively.

Virgin Active, the UK gyms business part-owned by CVC Capital Partners, is reportedly considering an IPO in Johannesburg that could value it at up to £1.5bn.

Virgin Active, the UK gyms business part-owned by CVC Capital Partners, is reportedly considering an IPO in Johannesburg that could value it at up to £1.5bn.

European stockmarkets began the first full week of the year in pitiful shape. Shares plummeted on Monday, as political concerns surrounding Greece and the falling price of oil further spooked investors.

Mota-Engil, the Portuguese construction company, has floated a small stake in its African subsidiary on Euronext Amsterdam, through a spin-off without selling any stock.

Don’t switch off. Ebola may not have hit your P&L yet, but it’s going to, soon, and hard, whatever your job is. And look at the charts. The logic is inexorable: the longer we take to overcome the disease, the worse the cost will be – for the global economy and in human life. This is not about a few percentage points of GDP. Modern civilisation itself is at risk.

South African retailer Woolworths completed a 10bn ($937m) rights issue on Monday that will fund its purchase of an Australian peer.