How low can the oil price go?

The last global recession the world had was in 2001. Nymex crude oil prices, which had gone above $35 a barrel in September and October 2000, fell briefly below $20 a barrel in late 2001 before recovering in April 2002 to above $26 a barrel.

The oil price required for a marginal cost player to return its cost of capital is $65-75 per barrel.

Economic necessity is often cited as important in the price level. The lowest breakeven oil price that would bring the 2008- 2009 budget into balance in Saudi Arabia is $30 per barrel. The level in the UAE is $40 and in Qatar it is $55. The average breakeven for GCC is $50 per barrel.

Harmony Gold turns into profit

Africa's third largest gold miner managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat by delivering third quarter net income of 490 million rand (USD 40.3 million), recovering from a loss the preceding quarter.

At first blush, the results look respectable after production increased and disposed of assets in Papua New Guinea. This disposal obscures the key take away from the results. The company is shifting its focus from exploration to buying producing assets. This strategy is less risky. That said, it shifts the focus to costs, such as labour and power, which are rising in double digits. In short, it shifts the focus from ‘promise tomorrow’ to ‘predictable cash flow and unpredictable costs’.

Danfonds model performance update

Performance is stated before net positive contribution of hedgeing. Shown relative to EM.

Heritage Oil to drill in Kurdistan

Heritage Oil Limited, an independent upstream exploration and production company in our portfolio, announced that it plans to drill an exploration well in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

They have secured a rig to commence drilling the Miran West-1 exploration well. Obviously, this is high risk but it looks to us like a high-impact exploration with the potential for billions of barrels of oil from the licence.

Slowdown in global trade shipments on the way

The collapse in the price of dry containers is a direct result of (1) the ability of frontier and emerging trade partners to get letters of credit and (2) the sharpe reduction in consumer confidence and resulting squeeze on inventories.

It is easy to understand why a banker will not extend a letter of credit for a shipment of natural rubber from the ivory coast when they find it difficult to get credit themselves. Unfortunatley, this is extremely bad news for frontier economies.

NASDAQ OMX Group Conference in Dubai

The first NASDAQ investor conference in Middle East will be held in Dubai on November 20. The conference to be held jointly with the Dubai International Financial Exchange, (DIFX), will also feature a discussion of the DIFX's new equity derivatives initiative and the regional potential for exchange traded funds.

The Bell Ceremony will take place at the Dubai International Financial Centre and will be broadcast live in New York's Times Square.

CFAO Ghana Limited posts 398% growth

CFAO Ghana Limited is into a bit of everything, distribution and servicing of automobiles, the installation of Otis elevators. The company has leading brands including Renault, Mitsubishi and Bridgestone tyres. CFAO Ghana Limited also undertakes car rentals and other related activities. The company company has just delivered an impressive 398% growth in net profit.

The company has adoption measures resulting in improved efficiency with expenses falling by 15%

There is, however, some slippage since the first two quarters. The even less inspiring performance of the company’s stock is due to retail selling in a thin market. The parent company of CFAO Ghana Limited, CFAO S.A. France holds about 82% of the issued shares .

Nigeria removes 1% trading limits

The NSE removed the 1% maximum daily downward limit on individual stocks, reverting to the previous limits of 5% maximum daily price movements. The suspension had led to a significant fall in liquidity on the exchange from US$100m per day to less than US$15m per day. Following the announcement, equity prices fell immediately by about 5% across the board.

FNB Namibia acquired by First Rand Holding Ltd

Great news - fundamental value wins out. Actually, this ws one of our portfolio companies!!! FirstRand Bank Holdings Limited has just purchased FNB Namibia Holdings Limited shares (1 389 953) held by TransNamib Holdings Limited for a consideration of N$11.55 per share. As can see, the stock price is bucking the globl trend.

Frontier market index update

Zimbabwe up 187% in a week

Time for some good news (or light relief). In these turbulent times its always good to look at the Zimbabwe stock market, bacause it almost always goes up thanks to its high inflation rate. The Industrials closed the index was up 187% last week led by gains in Old Mutual, KMAL, Pelhams, and ABCH.

Gulf Bank suspended

The Kuwait Central Bank stepped in to rescue the country's second largest lender. The bank had incurred significant losses from trading in derivatives and its shares were suspended on Saturday. A Central Bank order said trading in Gulf Bank shares is suspended pending an investigation into the derivatives deals that caused the losses.

The Central Bank and Gulf Bank say the measures were merely preventive and were misinterpreted. Despite the government guarantee, hundreds of depositors led a run on the bank.

The bank's losses are estimated at up to KD 200 million ($749 million). Derivatives customers were unwilling or unable to fulfill their obligations to cover their losses.

Nigeria's view on OPEC production cut

http://www.ft.com/cms/885d7916-e3aa-11dc-8799-0000779fd2ac.html?_i_referralObject=902922582&fromSearch=n

Kengen falls another 7%

Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited (KenGen), the leading electric power generation company in Kenya, is still in free fall despite having a great cash generating ability. It produces 80 percent of electricity consumed in the country. Its not even a cost of production issue as it is largely in hydro, geothermal, thermal and wind.

The death of the carry trade...

Kuwait rushes to aid of Investment firms

Kuwait's banks are considering proposals to support investment firms in a bid to stabilize them during the financial crisis. The proposal will be forwarded to the Central Bank of the State of Kuwait this week.

The global financial crisis has impacted the Kuwait Stock Exchange as hot money and speculators rushed for the exit. Investment firms have overextended themselves by providing facilities to investors.

Zambia shrugs of copper decline

Zambia, Africa's biggest copper producer, obviously gets impacted by the dramatic 60%decline in the copper price. Indeed, the government has just cut its forecast for economic growth to 6 percent. Previous forecasts indicated growth of 7 percent this year, up from 5.4 percent in 2007. No forcast was made for 2009 but the country will struggle to achieve the same number as 2007.

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates economy is said to maintain growth despite the global crisis, a report issued by Morgan Stanely optimistically predicted.

According to Morgan stanley, the UAE economy is expected to grow by 6% in 2009, while the inflation rates will drop from 12% currently to 9.7% by next year. The basis of the optimism is that the country has surpluses in its internal and external accounts.

We, however, are extremely concerned about the UAE property market and would suggest that Morgan Stanley are behind the curve on this one...

Why isn’t the price of gold surging?

Gold is an important part of some frontier market economies (e.g. Tanzania). Gold is stubbonly at $800 an ounce, down 22% since its high of $1,030 on March 17. The weakness might be that inflation might be the next big scare. After all, every central bank is flooding the credit markets with liquidity. Printing money in this way always leads to inflation in either goods and services and/or assets.

Inflation: The price we pay will have to pay avoid deflation and a liquidity trap? Worth thinking about.

Tabreed Bahrain (Bahrain District Cooling Company)

Tabreed Bahrain, the GCC regional district cooling technology providerannounced it will seek a capital increase to finance its rapid expansion.

Tabreed Bahrain has signed a series of contracts with some of the biggest commercial projects in Bahrain. It has just won the Lavalin Gulf Contractors contract to construct a district cooling plant for Bahrain Financial Harbour. This will prove particulaly challenging as any one who has been there know that the buildings are constructed very close together, meaning cooling will be distributed via a pipe network radiating out from a centrally located plant.

Reuters believes remittances will fall

Reuters reports that it believes remittances which total some $40 billion per year (or even $50bn), could become a victim of a spiralling crisis in global financial markets. There are an estimated 30 million Africans living abroad. For remittances, the fear is that when the recession hits Europe and the United States traditionally resilient flows could "ebb as migrants’ purse strings are pulled tighter and tighter".

Ivory coast sees 60% slump in cocoa shipments

Not sure if this is due to failure to get letters of credit, the success of Ghana in stopping illegal smuggling or a crop failure. Bloomberg reports that Cocoa deliveries to Ivory Coast's ports for shipment fell about 60 percent in the last week from the same period a year earlier.

Arrivals at the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro from farms in the country, were estimated at 16,000 metric tons in the week ended Oct. 12, compared with about 40,000 tons a year earlier. Data is reliable as it comes from the state-run Bourse du Café et du Cacao which we visited earlier in the year.

7 Up bottling Company Ltd

The 7 Up bottling company, well known in the Nigerian food beverages and tobacco sector, posted a profit after tax of N1.608 billion versus N1.219 last year. In effect, an increase in profit of 32 percent. Profit before tax grew by 26.53 percent

Outlook for iraq deteriorates dramatically

A drastic deterioration has occured in the Iraqi government's fiscal outlook for 2009. The fiscal deficit for 2009 is now forcst at 14.0% of GDP. This compares with a 5.7% surplus in 2008. Oil sales account for over 80% of Baghdad's income and so revenues are declining sharply.

Bahrain's commercial banks are well capitalized

Bahrain's commercial banks are well capitalized based on the fact that they have not used the central bank's repo facility

The central bank's Web site says 'These reports indicate that liquidity conditions remain normal.' Commercial banks have been urged to report earnings as soon as possible to reassure markets of their financial position.

Something for the technically minded

The beta used in financial modelling in frontier markets presents us with one of the biggest challanges. It is also difficult to explain the issue. Take a look at this chart used to determine the beta for Nigeria. The best fit line is almost arbitary, meaning we can't trust the resulting beta.

Barclays Kenya

Probably a good time to focus on well run banks. Barclays Kenya is one we like based on the company management. That said, it is priced at 2.9x book, which following the global banking sell off is just absurdly high. Still, unlike other banks in the world, it still has earnings growth potential of 25% CAGR over the medium term.

Lebanon fails to find a president

Lebanon's BLOM stock index fell 4.2% on Tuesday due to concern's over the presidential elections. Elections were postponed for the eighth time to December 17 to give rival leaders more time to reach a deal (to make the army chief president?).

Sri Lanka to tap markets

Jason Wulterkens, a frontier markets commentator, reports that Sri Lanka’s government will start its first overseas bond sale. http://frontiermarkets.wordpress.com

The issue will be difficult to get off the ground. Fitch Ratings gave Sri Lanka a negative outlook due to its political situation way back in 2006. Obviously, things have changed. Yields on the government 7.6 percent local-currency bond due in August 2009 are 16.2 percent. Still, there is a price for everything... That said, the issue will be especially difficult in view of the credit crisis and the fact that fighting has escalated in recent months.

Iceland plunges 77% in one day - A new frontier market!

Iceland's benchmark stock index plunged 77 percent, the biggest decline on record. Trading resumed rfollowing a three-day suspension and the nationalization of the country's largest banks.

Kaupthing Bank hf, Glitnir Bank hf and Landsbanki Islands were nationalised with debts equivalent to as much as 12 times Iceland's GDP.

We welcome Iceland to the frontier markets club....

Sonatel

One would have expected that Sonatel's earnings would benefit from the sales increase of 12.8% y-o-y. This was less than the 18.6% achieved in H107 and there has been a considerable increase in amortisation expenses. As a result, the company's net income (on a consolidated basis) decreased by 30.4%.

Sonatel's partnership with Orange and France Telecom mean that the company will keep it in good stead as the expected weakening in the regional growth outlook drag on its earnings.

Nigeria delists dormant companies

As part of measures to protect investors and shareholders from dormant companies, the Nigerian Stock Exchange has delisted nine moribund companies from the stock exchange.

The companies were delisted because of low liquidity and a failure to update shareholders with corporate information on a regular basis.

The following companie were delisted: Intra Motors, ADC Plc, Grommac, Onwuka Hi-Tek and Nigerian Lamps, Nigerian Yeast & Alcohol company, Security Assurance Plc, Sun Insurance Plc and Nigerian Textile Mills Plc.

IMF says major global economic slowdown coming

Not surprisingly the IMF chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, has predicted a major global economic slowdown. That said, he believes emerging and frontier economies are still expected to provide a source of resilience, since they were benefiting from strong productivity growth and improved policy frameworks before the credit crisis started. The latest IMF World Economic Outlook observes that the world economy is rapidly decelerating due to the high energy and food prices, so the slowdown is already here.

Is Rwanda about to invade the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Tension and military activity continued to build up in eastern Congo. DRC authorities had seen concentrations of Rwandan troops gathering at the border.
give tacit justification to Nkunda's activities during the week.

On Tuesday, Rwanda's Foreign Affairs Minister Rosemary Museminali told a meeting of Kigali-based diplomats of an alliance between DRC forces and remnants of Ex-FAR (the Rwanda army of the late president Juvenal Habyarimana) and Interahamwe militiamen who spearheaded the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Nobel prize goes to International trade guru

The Nobel prize for economics has just been awarded to Prof. Krugman. He is well known in academia for his work in trade theory, which provides a model in which firms and countries produce and trade because of economies of scale and for his textbook explanations of currency crises and New Trade Theory, all of which is relevant to Frontier Markets.

Krugman was a critic of the "New Economy" of the late 1990s. Krugman also criticized the fixed exchange rates of the Asia nations and Thailand before the 1997 East Asian financial crisis.

Krugman is optimistic that frontier markets will not suffer a protectionist backlash.

Rwanda auctions telecom license

Zain, LarryCom, MilliCom and Telecel Globe (Orascom Telecom) have all submitted bids for a telecom license in Rwanda. the authorities are said to be disappointed by the response but four bidders are enough to effect an orderly auction.

Nigerian bail out plan

First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and GTBank Plc have agreed to invest N600 billion into the market. Each bank is investing N100 billion

Ugandan shilling continues fall

The fall in coffeee prices (yes, even coffee is collapsing) has hit the Ugandan shilling hard, down, 4,3% yesterday alone,

Iranian market +31.74% YTD

ITs difficult to find any good news, Even Iran's resillinet markte is down 2.95% this week. Still, its up 31.74 this year. Now that's a real uncorrelated country!

Iceland

Icelandic equity trading will be suspended until Oct. 13 after the government seized Kaupthing Bank hf, the country's biggest bank.

Iceland is getting closer to becoming the first nation to go bankrupt as a result of the credit crisis. Fitch Ratings cut Iceland's long-term sovereign default ratings to "BBB-," from "A," putting them firmly in "junk" territory. Moody's has also cut Iceland's sovereign rating to "A1," from "Aa1," and even this is under review.

Once more unto the breach

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close Wall Street with your sub prime debt!
In markets there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility,
But when the blast of panic blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect:
Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like a savvy investor; let the brow o'erwhelm it

(Appologies to Shakespear)

Danfonds performance (excluding positive contribution from hedging)

Though markets. Even so, the long side of our model portfolio is proving 'relatively' resilient. The hedgeing is kicking in quite nicely, as South Africa and Turkey (where we go short the indexes) have had some dramatic falls (which we gain from). The currency side of things, however, is all over the place at the moment. The extreme volatility and uncertainty in international financial markets, combined with slowing global economic growth, continue to weigh heavily on frontier currencies.

FTSE/JSE All Africa Index Series

Another new index! The FTSE/JSE All Africa Index Series was launched yesterday, designed to represent the performance of the top African companies listed on the stock exchanges of qualifying African countries. Each country is capped at a maximum of 40% of the index.

More interesting from our perspective is the sister inex, the FTSE/JSE All Africa ex South Africa 30 Index. This includes just the top 30 largest eligible companies, by market capitalisation, listed on the stock exchanges of qualifying African countries excluding South Africa. It has a maximum of 7 stocks permitted per country.

Commodity prices

Oil, Copper, aluminum and nickel are slumping on speculation that a global economic recession will curtail commodity demand. Crude oil for November delivery fell $4, or 4.5 percent, to $86 a barrel

Platinum and some agricultural commodities have fallen below their production costs. Short term bad news for commodity rich frontier markets.

Egypt falls 18% in two days

The Egyptian market, more an emerging than a frontier market, has collapsed 18% in two days. It is now more than 50% down since May.
The biggest losers were Cairo Oil down 64.16%, EG Development down 57.92%, Nile Cotton 51% and ALX Spin and Weaving 50.98%.

Big seller in LonZim PLC

This is what happens whan you have an illiquid stock and a forced or panic seller. Take a look at the volume (bottom bars) and the impact of the seller on the stock price (line chart).

Kuwait cuts its repo rate by 100bps

Kuwait's central bank cut its repo rate by 100 basis points to 2.5 percent and its its discount rate by 125 basis points to 4.25 percent. Concerns about the credit crunch are particulalry acute in Kuwait right now.

Nigerian Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission discuss stock market bail out

Nigerian Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission meet in crisis talks today on a plan to plan bail out the Nigerian stock market.

The Federal Government has been trying to stem the negative trend for two months with a variety of meaures. It now appears they are appealing to the private sector for help. The plan will involve the Central Bank of Nigeria and market operators including banks. The market is down 31 per cent since its high.

Muscat Securities Market hard hit

The Muscat Securities Market benchmark MSM-30 index fell by 7.29 per cent yesterday following a 6.7 per cent fall on Monday.

Names we follow include Oman Telecommunications Co, down 6.54 per cent, Oman Flour Mills down 10 per cent and United Power also down 10 per cent. Turnover was high and breadth poor. The top fallers by volume traded were BankMuscat and Galfar Engineering.

What happens to frontier economies in a depression?

It has become fashionable to cite the Great Depression as a feasible scenario following the credit crisis. The question we get asked is how will this impact frontier markets. The answer is that we can look back to what happened to the Frontier markets of the 1930's. Academic evidence shows that industrialization actually accelerated in many less-developed countries during the Great Depression and subsequent decades. This industrialization resulted from the less-developed countries being delinked from the international economy. This delinking caused countries in parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia to shift production away from exports such as agricultural products and minerals and toward production of manufactured goods.

East African currencies

East African currencies are suffering amid worsening fundamentals and the global financial market turmoil. Risk aversion has manifested itself in the region with severe pressure on the Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan shillings.

Nigerian banks

Nigeria's banks have won approval to restructure margin loans extended to stock market traders. They will now avoid having to recognise the losses suffered in recent stock market declines as non-performing loans. The extension is up to the end of 2009.

The high level of margin lending in Nigeria has hit the banking sector shares hard in recent weeks.

The websites of the 25 Nigerian banks are listed below.

www.accessbankplc.com
www.afribank.com
www.bankphb.com
http://www.ecobank.com/
www.devcom.com.ng
www.diamondbank.com
http://www.fcmb-ltd.com/
www.fidelitybank.com
www.firstbanknigeria.com
www.firstinlandbankplc.net
www.gtbplc.com
www.ibtclagos.com
www.intercontinentalbankltd.com
www.citibank.com/nigeria/
www.oceanicbanknigeria.com
www.skyebankng.com
http://www.springbankplc.com/
www.stanbic.com.ng
www.standardchartered.com/ng/
www.sterlingbankng.com
www.ubagroup.com
www.ubnplc.com
http://www.unitybankng.com/
www.wemabank.com
www.zenithbank.com

I'm from the government and I'm here to help

In these times of crisis what differentiates frontier markets from developed markets? Quite a lot actually. Still, you are unlikely to hear the frightening phrase "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" coming from the frontier market space.

Safaricom - the risks of a fifth license increases

The reports that the Kenyan government is considering scrapping a law requiring foreign telecoms investors to is prompting speculation that a fifth license is close to being awarded. A fifth mobile licence would be a negative for Safaricom. The market is already crowded with four licenses.

Jordanian real estate

The Jordanian real estate sector has been the the driver of Jordanian economy. Indeed, the construction sector accounts for 4.4 % of the GDP. The majority of the activity is occuring in Amman, which accounted for 39.6 % of total building.

The bad news is that it the real estate market is now slowing dramatically. Numbers for 2008 are negative. In 2007, the value of real estate transactions only grew by 7.7 %; this compares to steeper growth rates of 48.6 %, 75.0 % and 53.8 % recorded in the years 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively.

Ecobank delays closing

Ecobanks rights issue has been extended to 31st October in view of current market conditions.

Latvian solution for weak banks - make them weaker???

Latvia's central bank has proposed to cut the mandatory reserve requirement from 5 percent to 2 percent in an effort to free up money for lending. seems to us that this just makes the banks weeker without addressing the problem, which is one of confidence.

Credit spreads excellerate their widening in Africa

Ghana's US$ Global 2017 sovereign bond has seen its spread over 10-year US treasuries widen to 613bps over the past several weeks from 484 on September 1.

Gabon's has also seen a 231 bps jump to 773 bps above US 10-year treasury bonds, between September 30 and October 6.

Kenya Commercial Bank

In view of the stated acquisition objectives of Ecobank, we have been looking around for possible targets. Kenya Commerical Bank would fit the bill but would also be a bit bigger takeover than most in the market are looking for.

It has a strong balance sheet, a competent and effective mangement team and 145 branches. In addition, it owns subsidiaries in Tanzania, Sudan and Uganda, as well as plans for Rwanda. The bank has experienced declining capital adequacy ratios as a result of the Kenyan specific issues and its own rapid growth. Timing could prove interesting. The bank has a 59% free float, although government approval would be needed as they have a 26% stake.

Deyaar Development PJSC

Its not all doom and gloom (yet) in the Dubai property market. Deyaar Development PJSC has announced the real estate company's financial results for the three months ending on September 30, 2008. Net profit for the third quarter of 2008 reached $84.9 million, an increase of 26 percent compared to $67.2 million in the second quarter of 2008, and up 56 percent compared to $54.5 million in the third quarter of the previous year.

Dubai's $20 billion (Dh73.47bn) roll over

The UAE and particularly Dubai has a large amount of short-term debt to roll over which despite its good rating is an issue with a liquidity crisis going on.
In particular, there is a lot of concern about the state of the real estate market. Dubai Holdings is the name most in the frame. DP World and Nakheel are probably okay because the UAE government would almost certainly come to their rescue if they faced roll over issues.

The Reuters/Jefferies CRB index - Commodities

More bad news for the Frontier Markets that are generally rich in commodities. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB index has fallen dramatically in the past few weeks. Commodity prices are coming off on concerns that there will be a global economic recession. The firmer dollar placed more downward pressure on prices, with the index falling 10% this week. Copper prices are at a 19-month low, crude oil is set for its largest weekly decline in four years, and platinum dropped to its lowest in three years.

Namibia

Namibian GDP is expected to grow at 3,9 per cent on the back of the mining sub-sector, which consists mainly of uranium, zinc, copper, gold, lead and silver. That said, all is not looking up. The diamond industry will see output decline due to reduced onshore mining, and the electricity sub-sector does not look good either due to high import and operational costs.

Namibia's economy had remained resilient during the second quarter of 2008, with agriculture, mining and the services sector keeping the economy steady.

Abu Dhabi banking consolidation on the way?

Speculations that Abu Dhabi's three leading banks may merge has now reached feaver pitcg. In the past couple of days the rumour mill has been working overtime. They say that the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and First Gulf Bank may be merged, while other see a merger happening with National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

The share prices of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank rose 8.62 per cent. The Abu Dhabi based banks have strong balance sheets and have delivered good earnings.

MSCI Frontier Emerging Markets APEX Index

MSCI Barra announced today that it has launched the MSCI Frontier Emerging Markets Index, and a more tradable proxy for this benchmark - the MSCI Frontier Emerging Markets APEX Index.

The MSCI Frontier Emerging Markets Index is designed to serve as a benchmark covering all countries from the MSCI Frontier Markets Index and the lower size spectrum of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

In addition to the countries from the MSCI Frontier Markets Index, the following countries from the MSCI Emerging Markets Index will be included in the new MSCI Frontier Emerging Markets Index: Argentina, Colombia, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, and the Philippines.

Zimbabwe market plummets 50% on one day.

We are getting so used to the Zimbabwe stock exchange being up 50% every day as a result of te hyper inflation, that declines like this come as a double surprise. The 50% fall yesterday was the direct result of the 137% depreciation in the OMIR to 1.367m/USD.

The movement in the OMIR rate was in response to the future make up of the Cabinet, and Mbeki’s resignation.

Telekom Networks Malawi

Yet another Telekon IPO. This time its Telekom Networks Malawi. TNM intends to raise up to MWK 2.5bn. The offer is expected some time this month.

Malawi has one of the lowest penetration levels in Africa at only 7.6%. The penetration levels are expected to increase on the back projected GDP per capita growth of 8.1%.

Press Corporation currently owns 37% of the company. They will get diluted to 35% post IPO but in our opinion the increased liquidity is good news for them as well.

Uganda Clays Ltd

Uganda Clays Ltd is completing its new Shs 25 billion automatic Clay making production plant in in Kamonkoli in Budaka District. It will be the first such factory of the its kind in Africa and will be producing quality tiles, full bricks and half brick.