Atlantico Weekly

Archive for the ‘Stock exchange’ Category

Angola Business News

In Angola, Brazil, Economy, Oil, Real estate, Stock exchange, Travel on August 27, 2010 at 8:34 am

ECONOMY

Angola has suspended efforts to get more foreign loans, so that the government can assess their benefit to the country’s development (Bloomberg).

Angola said it had paid $1.28 billion of a government-estimated $6.8 billion in overdue bills to local and foreign builders in the southern African nation as it tries to restore investor credibility (Reuters).

A proposed stock market in Angola, which vies with Nigeria to be Africa’s top oil producer, will rank “at least third” in sub-Saharan African market capitalization (Bloomberg).

OIL

Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, said it’s investigating an oil spill in Angola (Bloomberg).

Angolan state-run oil firm Sonangol will start building a long-delayed $8 billion refinery this year in a bid to cut back on imports of refined products, which have weighed on the economy, its oil minister said (Reuters).

AVIATION

Brazilian regional airline Puma Air has been authorised to provide four flights per week between Brazil and Angola, the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) said (Macauhub).

EDUCATION

The Angolan minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Maria Cândida Teixeira, appealed to managers of Higher Institutes of Education Sciences (ISCED) to create of centres of excellence in their academic regions (AllAfrica).

BUSINESS

The South African Shoprite Group is investing USD 13 million in the construction of a supermarket, in Huambo city, whose works started in the first quarter of this year (AllAfrica).

REAL ESTATE

The Angolan subsidiary of the Brazilian group Build Brasil has changed its name to Build Angola and plans to launch on Monday a housing project budgeted at US$50 million (Macauhub).

Cape Verde Business & Economy

In Agriculture, Cape Verde, Economy, Ports, Real estate, Security, Stock exchange, Tourism, Travel on May 16, 2010 at 10:14 am

ECONOMY

Bank of Cape Verde governor Carlos Burgo has confirmed forecasts predicting a slight recovery for the nation’s economy, which is expected to grow between 4% and 5% this year, with a “significant” reduction of the risks predicted in initial forecasts. Burgo also forecasts growth in Cape Verde’s GDP and slight improvement in public revenues, but alerted to “existing risks and uncertainties” (A Semana).

A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrived in Cape Verde Thursday as part of the evaluation of the Policy Support Instrument (PSI) (Macauhub).

TOURISM

Portuguese travel agency Entremares is promoting its “Cape Verdean Triangle” program, which offers tourists three nights on the island of Sal, two nights on São Vicente and two nights on Santiago, with prices starting at 949 euros per person in double rooms (A Semana).

FINANCE

Sal will be the first municipality in Cape Verde to issue future bonds on the Stock Exchange to obtain financing. The Sal municipal assembly has approved the technical details of the public offer totaling 200 million escudos. Praia is likely to follow close on Sal’s heels, with a 450 million-escudo bond issue (A Semana).

PORTS

The scanners purchased by port management company Enapor from Chinese firm Nuctech to heighten shipping container traffic security at Praia, Mindelo and Palmeira sea ports are expected to be operational starting next month (A Semana).

Angola news update, April 25th

In Agriculture, Angola, Economy, Hotels, Investments, Oil, Stock exchange on April 24, 2010 at 11:08 am

ECONOMY

Angola’s stock exchange, expected to start operating later this year, may be Africa’s third-biggest in market-capitalization terms (Bloomberg).

The Angolan economy is expected to see a string recovery this year with growth of 7.1 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its World Economic Outlook (Macauhub).

OIL & GAS

Angola’s oil minister, said the price of oil is currently too high (Bloomberg).

Angola is considering joining the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF),Angola’s Oil Minister said during a meeting of the organisation in Algeria (Macauhub).

BUSINESS

South Africa’s second-largest food retailer, plans to open two stores in Mauritius next year and is exploring opportunities in Angola (Bloomberg).

Halliburton, the world’s second-largest oilfield contractorannounced a $1.3 billion contract for a project off the coast of Angola (Bloomberg).

HOTELS

Portuguese company Amorim Turismo plans to start its internationalisation process in Angola, where it will invest 90 million euros over the next four years (Macauhub).

AGRICULTURE

Spanish company África Sementes and Angola’s Mundo Verde are investing in the construction of a cotton processing factory in the municipality of Sumbe, in Angola’s Kwanza Sul province (Macauhub).

Brazil news update, December 6th

In Agriculture, Biofuels, Brazil, Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade, Investments, Mining, Oil, Stock exchange on December 6, 2009 at 5:02 pm

ECONOMY

Investors have piled back into Brazilian assets in the wake of the global financial crisis, sending the stock market soaring 83 percent and the currency up 37 percent this year. Are Brazil’s asset markets overvalued? Read the analysis at Reuters.

Car manufacturing in Brazil will climb in 2010, along with sales and export revenue, the national automakers’ association Anfavea said, with expectations for strong economic growth set to stoke domestic demand. Brazilian automobile production in 2010 could grow 5.4 percent, the group said, with sales to jump 9.3 percent (Reuters).

Brazil’s central bank said that dollar inflows into the country totaled $3.558 billion last month through Nov. 27 (Reuters).

BUSINESS

Since the start of the year the price of sugar futures has almost doubled. For Brazil’s big sugar companies the timing is perfect: the credit crunch set off a wave of consolidation in an industry that had been resistant to it. The firms that have survived now have more scale and lots of cash. Read the full story in The Economist.

Sao Martinho, one of Brazil’s main sugar and ethanol companies, will sell a 40 percent stake in its Boa Vista mill for 140 million reais ($81.9 million) to U.S-based Amyris (Reuters).

Brazil’s largest sugar and ethanol group, has closed a deal to buy the local Petrosul chain of filling stations based in Sao Paulo (Reuters).

Brazilian retail group Pao de Acucar reached an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in rival Casas Bahia in a noncash deal, gaining a commanding grip over the South American country’s booming home appliances market (Reuters).

Votorantim Group has signed a deal to join Trinidad and Tobago’s government-owned Alutrint in a project to build a 125,000 tonnes-per-year aluminum smelter in the Caribbean nation (Reuters).

Brazil’s crude steel output is forecast to rise to 33.1 million tonnes next year, up 24 percent from an estimated 26.7 million tonnes this year, the Brazilian Steel Institute said (Reuters).

Brazilian mining company Vale plans to invest 1 billion reais ($573 million) in a steel rolling mill in Rio de Janeiro state (Reuters).

Mirabela Nickel Ltd., an Australian miner, may build a smelter to process nickel ore from its Santa Rita mine in Brazil’s northeastern Bahia state and start underground mining (Bloomberg).

China’s Wuhan Iron and Steel Co agreed to pay $400 million for a 21.52 percent stake in Brazilian miner MMX, according to a regulatory filing (Reuters).

OIL

Brazilian oil upstart OGX said it had found a 50 meter column of hydrocarbons with net pay of 15 meters from a well it is drilling in the BM-C-41 block in the Campos basin (Reuters).

Earlier OGX had said it had made a promising discovery of hydrocarbons in the Albiano field in the Campos basin off the coast of Rio de Janeiro (Reuters).

The Abreu Lima refinery in Brazil, a joint venture between state-run oil companies Petrobras and Venezuela’s PDVSA, will cost roughly 23 billion reais ($13.3 bln), more than triple its previous estimate (Reuters).

Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer, plans to expand its $174.4 billion investment program as it develops offshore fields in the so-called pre-salt region (Bloomberg).

ATLANTICO

Trade between Brazil and Africa is incipient and needs to be worked on. African countries imported around US$500 billion, of which less than US$10 billion or 2% was from Brazil (Macauhub).

Brazil news update, August 24th

In Banking, Biofuels, Brazil, Economy, Elections, Energy, Investments, Mining, Oil, Politics, Stock exchange on August 24, 2009 at 2:52 pm

MERGERS & TALKS

Itau Unibanco, Brazil’s biggest private sector bank by assets, agreed on Monday to merge its automobile and residential insurance business with local insurer Porto Seguro (Reuters).

Brenco, a Brazilian ethanol producer backed by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and AOL founder Steve Case, is in talks with three separate groups to sell a stake in a bid to raise cash and restructure its debt, Valor Economico newspaper said (Reuters).

Braskem, Latin America’s largest petrochemical company, said it was in talks with controlling shareholders of rival Quattor to spot opportunities for a strategic alliance (Reuters).

OIL

The governor of Rio de Janeiro state, where most of Brazil’s oil production is located, said he opposed changes to regulations that would reduce the state’s tax revenue, a newspaper reported on Sunday, days before the country’s revamped oil rules are unveiled (Reuters).

State-run oil giant Petrobras said it found light crude in reserves situated off the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro (Reuters).

ECONOMY

Unemployment in Brazil unexpectedly fell in July and was down for a fourth straight month, the latest sign that a recovery in Latin America’s largest economy is gaining traction (Reuters).

ELECTIONS

Brazil’s former environment minister, Marina Silva, said on Wednesday she is leaving the ruling Workers’ Party, paving the way for an expected presidential run in the October 2010 election (Reuters).

Brazil will hold a presidential election in October 2010 to choose the successor to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is barred by law from seeking a third consecutive term. Parties will formally nominate their candidates late this year. Here are some frequently asked questions about the race.

Pro-business candidates likely will dominate the race to take over from Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with his handpicked successor and the governor of the nation’s richest state ahead of emerging leftist rivals (Reuters).

MINING

Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista will show in the next two months whether the eight-month rally that made his company the priciest of the world’s biggest energy stocks is justified  (Bloomberg).

Cape Verde news update, August 22nd

In Biofuels, Cape Verde, Energy, Foreign Trade, Investments, Oil, Ports, Stock exchange on August 22, 2009 at 10:43 am

ENERGY

On the 90th anniversary of its presence in Cape Verde, Shell acquired a new ship for the transportation of fuel in the country. The Harpa Doris has a 1,800 m3 capacity and will distribute petroleum, jet fuel and diesel to all of Cape Verde’s islands. The ship was built in Turkey with modern technology and represents an investment of US$ 15 million (A Semana).

The use of renewable energy sources to guarantee one-quarter of Cape Verde’s electricity needs was the solution presented Tuesday in a joint press conference given by the director of the Department of Industry and Energy, Abraão Lopes, and the president of water and electricity utility Electra’s administrative council, Antão Fortes (A Semana).

STOCK EXCHANGE

Construction company Sogei began paying interest on the its first Public Underwriting Offer carried out by the Cape Verde Stock Exchange, in which 1,500,000 future bonds with a nominal value of 1,000 escudos each were sold. The operation earned the company 1,500,000,000 escudos. The interest rate on the first coupon is 6.4%, meaning that Sogei will pay out a total of 48 million escudos (A Semana).

ATLANTICO

The organizers of the 5th Portuguese-Language Business Meeting, which will take place in Fortaleza, Brazil on September 28 and 29, calculate that the volume of trading taking place among the eight participating countries could reach US$ 550 billion (more than € 386 billion) (A Semana).

Cape Verde news update, August 2nd

In Agriculture, Airports, Cape Verde, Economy, Investments, Media, Politics, Ports, Security, Stock exchange, Tourism, Travel on August 2, 2009 at 11:32 am

CLINTON

Hillary Clinton will visit Cape Verde on August 13 and 14, with the main point on her agenda being the insertion of African women into the world market. Another issue to be discussed will be security in Sub-Saharan Africa (A Semana).

STATE OF THE NATION

The debate on the State of the Nation that took place in the National Assembly Wednesday, July 29, began with personal attacks between various different members of parliament and ended with asymmetrical readings on employment, health care, safety and Cape Verde’s macroeconomic indicators (A Semana).

STOCK EXCHANGE

The demand for Cabo Verde Fast Ferry future bonds was slightly greater than the supply, according to Cape Verde Stock Exchange president Veríssimo Pinto (A Semana).

INFLATION

The Consumer Price Index registered a monthly variation rate of -0.3% between May and June of this year, while the homologous variation rate dropped 1.8% in regards to May, standing at 0.1% (A Semana).

AIR TRAVEL

Privately-owned Cape Verdean company Halcyon Airways will begin operating flights to the island of São Nicolau this week, offering three weekly flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays (A Semana).

AGRICULTURE

The embargo that for the past twenty years has prevented agricultural products from leaving the island of Santo Antão appears close to ending (A Semana).

MEDIA

Our friends at A Semana are about to launch a completely revamped interactive website, aimed not only at the country’s resident population, but especially at Cape Verde’s large and widely scattered diaspora.

INVESTMENT

Cape Verde’s prime minister proposed Monday the creation of a network of entities to reduce the waiting time for the resolution of companies’ problems and make it easier to invest in Cape Verde, according to Inforpress ( Macauhub).

The minister for Infrastructures, Transport and Telecommunications in Cape Verde, Manuel Inocêncio, revealed that the government is to invest 50 million Euros in the Porto da Palmeira, on the island of Sal. The first phase of the modernization and expansion work, estimated at 19 million Euros, is being carried out by the Mota-Engil consortium and should be finished by July 2010 (Macauhub).

Cape Verde news update, May 22nd

In Banking, Biofuels, Brazil, Cape Verde, Economy, Energy, Investments, Security, Stock exchange, Tourism, Travel on May 22, 2009 at 5:54 pm

BIOFUELS & ENERGY

The Ministry of the Environment, Rural Development and Marine Resources signed a memorandumwith Macau based company Geocapital for the creation of an international scientific investigation and technological development center dedicated to bio-fuels (A Semana).

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is “very interested” in taking part in the renewable energies project Cape Verde is carrying out, the bank’s vice president, Plutharcos Sakellaris said (Macauhub).

CABO VERDE INVESTIMENTOS

Rui Cardoso Santos, up to the present the coordinator of the Privatization Office, is the new president of investment and tourism promotion agency Cabo Verde Investimentos. The agency’s new administrative council also includes Carlos Rocha, a Bank of Cape Verde employee, and the young Eileen Barbosa, who has left Cabo Verde Development to embrace this new and challenging function (A Semana).

ECONOMY

The governor of Cape Verde’s central bank admitted today that the country’s economy had cooled somewhat, but even so predicted that growth for 2009 would stand at approximately 5%. Inflation, which has slowed considerably in recent months, is expected to be below 2% (A Semana).

STOCK EXCHANGE

Prime Minister José Maria Neves presided over the launch of the Public Sale Offer of Cape Verde Stock Exchange-listed bonds for Cabo Verde Fast Ferry, a sea transportation company owned by Cape Verdean businessmen residing in the United States and in Cape Verde itself. The 1.5 billion-escudo Public Sale Offer is aimed at raising capital for the purchase of two high-speed passenger transportation vessels to operate in Cape Verde’s Leeward Islands (Santiago, Fogo, Brava and Maio) (A Semana).

INFRASTRUCTURE

The road connecting the villages of Calhau and Norte de Baía on the island of São Vicente will be opened on July 4, according to the director of the Department of Infrastructures, Carlos Dias. Dias expressed satisfaction with the quality of the work carried out so far by construction company Armando Cunha (A Semana).

SECURITY

In the struggle against drugs related crime, the National Police scored several small victories with the arrest of several persons, including a 25-year-old São Vicente native  with five capsules containing 346.872 grams of cocaine in her digestive system. The woman had disembarked from a flight arriving from Fortaleza, Brazil (A Semana).


Surinam news round up – Jan 11 2009

In Economy, Hotels, Infrastructure, Mining, Oil, Security, Stock exchange, Surinam, Tourism, Travel on January 10, 2009 at 6:05 pm

Business and the Economy

Economists fear that the downturn of the Dutch economy may have consequences for the flow of remittances to Surinam by The Netherlands’ 330.000 citizens of Surinam origin. These yearly transmit 125 million Euros to Surinam.

Surinam’s newest and largest hotel, Marriott Courtyard will open in April 2009.

Surinam has applied to host a regional UNDP headquarters, that is to be moved from Trinidad and Tobago. But the UNDP will most likely choose a lesser developed country as host. Surinam is expected to be a UN donor country in about five years, according to the Minister of Planning and Development, Mr van Ravenswaay.

Surinam state owned oil company Staatsolie announced investments of 85 million USD for carrying out new explorations in the 2008-2912 period. CFO Kortram also noted that oil reservies in the country amount to 73,7 million barrels, enough for 12,5 years of production at the present rate of 16.000 barrels a day.

Alumsur, the new state owned bauxite company is to get a 25 % stake in the Paranam refinery, Minister for Natural Resources Rusland announced. Negotiations and studies are nog yet completely concluded however.

The French Republic is to donate 25 million USD for the rehabilitation of the East-West Road, linking Paramaribo with the border of French Guyana.

Parbo beer shares are the most sought after shares at the Surinam Stock Exchange (SEB). Trade is slow on the exchange that lists 11 well run companies.

Security

Surinam Police Chief Delano Braam noted in his Owru Yari (Year’s end) speech that 77 % of the Surinam population now feels secure. For 2008, the Surinam police collected 17 million SRD in fines.

Brazil announced plans to increase security at its borders with several neighbouring countries, among which Surinam. Extra platoons of border guards will be stationed at several locations to increase border control in the thick Amazon rainforests.

The Surinam National Army (NL) will gain new equipment, international training, new recruits and new military posts for the interior in 2009. The NL has international programs with the US, France, China, Brazil, India and the Netherlands. Along the border with Brazil, joint patrols are anticipated with the Brazilian forces. Overall aim is to increase the visibility of the NL.

(De Ware Tijd)

Angola’s Unitel in no hurry to list shares

In Angola, Stock exchange, Telecom on December 12, 2008 at 9:55 am

LUANDA, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Unitel, Angola’s leading telecoms group and biggest private company, is not in a hurry to list its shares on Luanda’s stock exchange, the company’s general manager Amilcar Safeca said late on Thursday.

Read the news feature at Reuters

Big names on Angola’s stock exchange

In Angola, Stock exchange on December 5, 2008 at 9:08 pm

LISBON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Subsidiaries of Angola’s state-run oil and diamond firms will likely be among the firms listed when a new stock exchange is unveiled in Luanda in the first half of 2009, the nation’s Capital Markets Commission said on Thursday.

Read the news feature at Reuters

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