Suitors in bidding war for Maroc Telecom
Leading state telecoms companies from Abu Dhabi and Qatar are bidding head-to-head for Maroc Telecom, in a welcome lift to a high-profile sector where Gulf multinationals had suffered a series…
Banks to swap debt for Irish media stake
A consortium of banks has agreed to write off €138m of debt owed by Independent News & Media in a financial restructuring that would give the lenders a sizeable stake…
Opinion: Africa leads the charge
Thursday is World Malaria Day. Each year on April 25, local, national and global events, speeches and other advocacy actions remind the world of the suffering and loss, caused by…
Nigeria’s Dangote Cement lifts revenues 24%
Dangote Cement, Nigeria’s largest company, increased its revenues and profits by 24 per cent in 2012 after opening two new plants in Africa’s most populous country. The company – which…
Cartoonist taps fears over Mandela legacy
©AP Nelson Mandela’s daughter, Makaziwe, left, and granddaughter Tukwini with House of Mandela wines A satirical cartoon titled “Squabble” by Zapiro, South Africa’s most prominent cartoonist, was typically cutting. It…
Tea with the FT: Mohamed Hashem
©Getty Revolutionary credentials: Merit’s Mohammed Hashem Mohamed Hashem, the founder of Merit, an independent publisher with a history of defying the censors, was on his way out to a protest…
‘Agent’ tried to destroy contracts, says FBI
©Shaun Curry Guinea has levelled corruption allegations against BSGR, the conglomerate managed on behalf of the family of Beny Steinmetz, above At Jacksonville airport in Florida on Sunday April 14,…
Contracts link BSGR to alleged bribes
The resources arm of Beny Steinmetz Group agreed to pay $2m to the wife of an African president to help it secure rights to one of the world’s richest untapped…
Distell buys Scottish whisky distiller
©Alamy South African drinks group Distell is to buy Burn Stewart Distillers from Trinidad and Tobago-based CL Financial for $244m, in a deal that highlights international interest in Scotch producers…
Israeli tycoon sues former UK minister
©Shaun Curry Israeli diamond tycoon Beny Steinmetz The battle for one of Africa’s richest untapped mineral deposits has reached into the heart of the global elite after the Israeli diamond…
Repsol in large gas discovery in Algeria
Spanish oil company Repsol has made a big natural gas discovery in Algeria, close to the site of January’s bloody hostage-taking terrorist attack on a gas plant that left more…
Mugabe in the money with gems lifeline
©AP For years, President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe has faced opprobrium for its human rights abuses, farm seizures and political repression. International sanctions have targeted the president’s inner circle and the…
Nigerian dealmakers open up oilfields
©AFP Nigeria’s oil industry is increasingly a tale of two cities. Behind the high walls of their compounds in Port Harcourt, the centre of production, executives from international oil companies…
Heritage Oil plays down partial defeat
Heritage Oil played down the impact of a partial defeat in arbitration proceedings in London over the tax treatment of an asset sale in Uganda, which prompted its shares to…
Lonmin: in a deep hole
It takes a brave man to steer a company in an industry on bumpy ground. Take Lonmin, which this week announced that Ben Magara will become the new chief executive…