Africa Equity

Savannah Petroleum, the UK oil and gas company focusing on African exploration, has announced a range of 40p to 50p a share for a follow-on share placing to fund its acquisition of the Nigerian oil and gas assets of Seven Energy.

A group of senior managers at Dis-Chem Pharmacies, the South African pharmacy chain, have completed the first equity block trade in the stock since its R4.4bn ($304m) Johannesburg IPO in November 2016. The sale of a 3.7% stake was slightly increased.

Equity investors initially responded positively this week to Steinhoff International’s fresh attempts to shore up its operations, helping the dual-listed retail company's share price rebound, before it dropped again on Thursday amid talk of possible legal action and calls for the board to resign.

The shocking fall from grace this week of Steinhoff International, the South African retail group, is causing pain for many in the equity-linked debt market, where it has issued €2.7bn of bonds. The potentially unsound nature of its earnings caused an 80% collapse in its share price this week, and has triggered a fast transfer of its convertibles into specialist hands.

Steinhoff International, the global retail conglomerate and one of South Africa’s largest companies, has seen its share price collapse in a historic sell-off, which onlookers say is unprecedented for South African equities.

Nasdaq, the exchanges and trading technology company, is launching a blockchain-based product in South Africa, designed to make shareholder voting more efficient.

Anil Agarwal, founder of mining group Vedanta Resources, has managed to surprise the stockmarket with the same trick twice. But as Jon Hay and Aidan Gregory write, his intentions in buying another £1.5bn of shares in Anglo American are anything but clear, and he is paying a high price for influence.

Shares in Steinhoff Africa Retail, the African retail assets of Steinhoff International, rose 5% above their IPO price on Wednesday after the company made its debut on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Sibanye Gold, the South African gold miner, took the final step towards refinancing its acquisition of US platinum miner Stillwater on Tuesday, when it issued a $450m convertible bond.

The IPO of Steinhoff Africa Retail, known as Star, the African discount store assets of Steinhoff International, has been priced at R20.50 a share, the midpoint of the initial R18 to R23 range.

After the US public holiday on Monday restricted trading, the equity block trades market in EMEA reopened spectacularly this week, with a rush of large deals from across the region.

Steinhoff International, the South African conglomerate, has opened the books on the IPO of Steinhoff Africa Retail (Star), a company formed from its African retail assets, which could value the business at up to R79.3bn ($6.1bn) if it is priced at the top of its range.