Kenya

In Stanbic Kenya’s latest $155m loan, the bank tightened pricing by 5bp for the two year tranche compared to what it paid last year.

Stanbic Kenya included its first ever three year tranche as it signed a $150m loan in Dubai today (Monday), after increasing the deal from $100m.

Standard Bank is planning a loan for Stanbic Nigeria, its third loan for a subsidiary following deals it completed for Stanbic Kenya and Stanbic Zambia in recent weeks.

Ghana’s Cocobod, Stanbic Kenya and Stanbic Zambia will all sign syndicated loans next week, according to bankers on the deals.

Stanbic Kenya launched a $100m loan on Monday and Stanbic Zambia is marketing a $50m deal, according to bankers.

Kenya Pipeline Co (KPC) has signed its $350m 10 year loan with three new banks joining the syndicate in secondary enquiries.

The rapid growth in renminbi products and services in South Africa shows the country is well positioned to become Africa’s RMB hub. This is despite the growing competition from other countries on the continent, says Standard Bank.

Renminbi usage in South Africa has soared, according to data published this week by Swift. But although the country is still the only official offshore RMB hub in Africa, others are increasingly coming into the focus of Chinese regulators' internationalisation agenda. Kenya could soon see its first RMB clearing services, GlobalRMB understands.

Deals for the Kenya Pipeline Company and the Itare Dam project provided a boost for the Kenyan infrastructure sector, but these types of deals move in slow motion according to bankers.

In this round-up, Macau RMB deposits and cross-border RMB trade settlement fall in February, ICBC launches RMB clearing in Thailand, the Shanghai FTZ expands four-fold, and Kenya hopes to become the RMB hub in Africa.