This emerged a two-day J-SUMIT conference held in Japan. Japan organised the conference in an effort to prove the attractiveness of the long-term investment tactic characteristic of Japanese firms.

This money will be used over the next five years in direct loans, underwriting of debt offerings and equity stakes in crude oil, natural gas, coal and minerals, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

The business newspaper reported that Japan is in serious need to secure long-term dependable base for natural materials.

Japan is also prepared to give its technologies to build roads, railways and utilities, giving a viable alternative to the Chinese state-owned firms, it said.

“This conference has put in place the building blocks to encourage investment from Japanese companies and to help create Africa’s sustainable growth,” WSJ quoted Toshimitsu Motegi, minister of economy, trade and industry in Japan, as saying.

It is understood that many African states have started to protest over the heavy-handed style of China’s investments.

The post Japan To Invest $2 Billion In Africa’s Energy Projects appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

According to Kenya’s Business Daily, filings with the Capital Markets Authority in that country show that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s mother holds 2.2 million shares in the firm or a 0.11 percent interest.

Not much is known about Mama Ngina but her Kenya Power interest is now worth Sh37.7 million.

The past first lady received a dividend of Sh1.1 million. Kenya Power announced a final dividend of Sh0.50 for the year to June 2012.

Mama Ngina controls a business empire that is connected to famous and profitable products and blue chip firms.

These involve Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), which is Kenya’s biggest non-listed bank with assets worth Sh100 billion. Last year, the bank reported a net profit of Sh2.6 billion.

According to the report, the bank ranks as Kenya’s ninth largest with a market size index of 4.08 percent.

The post Mama Kenyatta Becomes Kenya Power’s Fourth Largest Investor appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

It was speculated on Friday that these JSE-listed companies were at an advanced stage to take over the company.

A well-placed source told Ventures Africa: “Things look positive and the deal is definitely possible.”

Neotel holds great value for Vodacom and MTN partly because of its well-established fibre network and its valuable frequency spectrum.

Neotel’s current shareholders are Tata Communications (68.5 percent), Nexus Connection (19 percent) and Communitel (12.5 percent).

Introduced in South Africa in August 2006, as the second national operator (SNO), Neotel had Eskom (15 percent), Transtel (15 percent) , Nexus Connection (19 percent) and SEPCO (51 percent) as shareholders.

SEPCO was made up of the Tata Group of India, which held a 51 percent stake in SEPCO, and two private consortia, Communitel and Two Consortium.

Eskom, Transtel, and Two Consortium sold their stakes to Tata Communications, giving the Indian company a 68.5 percent stake in Neotel.

Neotel was evasive when asked for comment on the rumour. “Neotel is experiencing good growth and will soon be announcing its results as well as the company direction for the next financial year,” it said.

However, Ventures Africa has it on good authority that a strict non disclosures agreement prevents the companies from disclosing the takeover deal.

Richard Boorman, Vodacom spokesperson, said Neotel said that it is not company policy to comment on market rumour and speculation.

Boorman said: “We explore investment opportunities on a regular basis, but for obvious reasons I have to decline to comment on any specific companies”.

Nik Kershaw, executive for investor relations at MTN Group, could not comment further than only say: “MTN does not comment on market speculation”.

The post South Africa’s Telecoms Giants Prepare Neotel’s Hostile Takeover appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

“All conditions precedent have been met to conclude the acquisition… and the effective date of the transaction is 17 May 2013,” Sanlam said.

The deal is driven by Sanlam Emerging Markets (SEM), the business unit which is driving Sanlam Group’s global expansion.

The deal is in keeping with Sanlam’s stated plan to go after profitable growth opportunities in chosen emerging markets.

This is also Sanlam’s initial step into the lucrative South East Asia markets.

Sanlam Emerging Markets CEO, Heinie Werth, said Sanlam is looking forward to a great and lengthy working relationship with the POI team.

“We are also looking at other opportunities in the region, but the immediate focus is on bedding down this investment,” Werth said.

POI, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pacific & Orient Group, was launched in 1972.

Pacific & Orient Group is quoted on the Main Board of the Bursa Malaysian Securities Berhad.

POI is active in motorcycle insurance and has a sizeable share of the market in this segment. In actual fact, it is the largest motorcycle insurer in Malaysia.

“We believe there is a good cultural fit between POI and Sanlam which will facilitate our focus on strengthening our relationship to drive business growth and establish a mutually beneficial and sustainable partnership,” Werth said.

The post Sanlam Set To Acquire 49% Of Malaysian Insurance Company appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Joseph Mathunjwa, head of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), accused the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party of paying “lip-service” to the goings-on at mines notably the Anglo- American Platinum mine.

He told Ventures Africa on Friday: “The president didn’t respond to our first letter, and it’s now imperative for us to write another second letter. Our issues are clear: ‘We want the President to deal with the killing of our members.

“We said we are going to bring the economy to a standstill.”

Lonmin operations were also disrupted on Tuesday morning as workers went on a wildcat strike, demanding the shutdown of the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) office at the mine.

The ruling party Africa National Congress (ANC) seems to be not taken aback with the turns and twists at the mines. The tumultuous developments at the mines are the least things the party would want considering the election next year.

In an interview with the public broadcaster, SABC on Friday the ANC deputy president and NUM founder Cyril Ramaphosa said: “It’s very difficult to decipher properly what is going on.

“There’s union rivalry, fighting for turf, and there are obviously other elements coming into the space. We keep hearing about the socialist workers party or whatever and that seems also to be fanning the flames.”

Marikana made international headlines on August 16 when police shot dead 34 striking Lonmin miners while trying to disperse them. Ten people were killed the week before in strike-related violence.

After the news of the impending strike at Anglo American Platinum, the rand fall to a four-year low against the dollar on Thursday. The currency fell as low as R9.4334/$1, its’ lowest since April 2009 when South Africa was still reeling from the effects of the US sub-prime crisis.

The post Anglo-American Platinum Workers Demand Audience With President Zuma appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Nairobi-listed investment holding company disclosed this information in its latest annual report.

It said Civicon will spend the money to acquire heavy duty equipment for building works in East African mining and oil gas industries.

TransCentury said it is diversifying into mining, oil and gas exploration and infrastructure developments in an effort to figure out its future growth.

“Engineering division invested over Sh1 billion, which went towards heavy equipment to support new projects predominately in Kenya and DRC,” TransCentury said in the annual report.

It looks like this is the right time to invest in sectors that TransCentury has selected as venture capitalists are investing billions of shillings in oil exploration across East Africa.

Additionally, governments are also ramping up and refurbishing power, road and their water networks, preparing for opportunities that companies like Civicon will capitalise on.

According to TransCentury, the company acquired 63 percent stake in Civicon for exactly the above-mentioned reasons.

The post TransCentury Invests $12m In Engineering Firm Civicon appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The auto firm last held its annual general meeting a little more than two years ago as shareholder disputes dragged on, leading to the resignation of many directors on the company’s board. This has resulted in the suspension of the company’s listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

The firm should have held the AGM before June 4 last year. This would have been in keeping with the Kenyan law which forces listed firms to organise the AGM less than 15 months before the previous meeting.

According to Business Daily, however, boardroom struggles and protracted court cases connected to shareholder squabbles incited the company to look for an alternative from the 15 month rule.

“The AGM will not happen on May 24 since we are still in discussion with the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and we have also not issued the 21-day notice to shareholders,” Business Daily quoted Nelly Matheka, the firm’s secretary, as saying.

It is understood that the gathering will take place next month. She did not disclose the actual date of the next meeting.

It is also believed that capital markets regulator has stretched the suspension of the firm’s shares from trading to another date. According to Business Daily, June 14 is the actual date.

This is aimed at giving the company’s board of directors time to release the auto dealer’s future prospects before revoking the suspension.

The post CMC Holdings Again Fails To Hold AGM appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

“Fixed data revenue came in at KSh2.1 billion ($25 million) which is a 54 percent increase from KSh1.37 billion ($16.3 million) last year and mobile date came in at KSh 6.3 billion ($75 million) which is a 21 percent increase from KSh5.22 billion ($62.3 million) last year,” said John Tombleson, Safaricom CFO.

Even in the first term of 2013, Safaricom earned a big cash. For example “For the ended March 31, after-tax profit jumped 39 percent year over year to 17.5 billion Kenyan shillings ($205 million)”, IT World highlighted.

Safaricom is Kenya’s largest mobile services provider, with its 1,500 employees. This company ha created jobs to Kenyans and other workers, since its creation in 1997. His personnel are dispersed in bog cities of the country beginning by Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Westerland.

Competition

With its 12 million subscribers’ base, Safaricom is facing a “stiff competition in the voice market from Orange, Yu and Airtel”, IT World stated.

Other companies like Access Kenya leads in terms of enterprise customers, and this is saddening Safaricom, which is on the way to change it.

Kenya business in terms of telecoms is attracting more operators and the investments may follow. In fact, “Dimension Data, part of NTT DoCoMo recently announced its intention to acquire Access Kenya, the largest corporate ISP in Kenya, threatening Safaricom’s position in the data market”, as the IT World witnessed.

Dimension Data has already another office in Kenya offering Integrated IT solutions. Another business is that it owns Internet Solutions, a corporate ISP. The deal will end up by the merger in all operations, as the paper went on.

However, despite the big share of the Kenyan market owned by the Dimension data, Safaricom seems to assure.

“This is not the first time that a big player is coming to the market; we remain very focused in our strategy and our business is not only about enterprise, we will continue to offer other integrated solutions,” said Bob Collymore, Safaricom CEO.

The post Kenya’s Safaricom Revenue Up By 54% In One Fiscal Year appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Revenue increased by 5% to £2.87bn while “cargo had a healthy turnover of £230m and performed well in a global market that showed decline.”

The Group said in an official statement that “Virgin Holidays continues delivering profit and strengthening its distribution position, with a 6% year on year increase in forward sales for 2013/14. It opened its 100^th shop, and created over 135 new jobs and apprenticeships in the past year.”

Last year saw a double dip recession, a continued weak macro economy, and an Olympic Games which, although a fantastic event, severely dented demand for business travel.

Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive Craig Kreeger said: “Virgin Atlantic has a programme of measures going forward which I am confident will improve our financial performance considerably in 2013/14 and put us firmly on the road to a return to profit in spring 2015.

Kreeger, who joined Virgin Atlantic on 1^st February, outlined his programme to transform the business with a focus on network, alliances and reducing operational costs whilst continuing to invest in leading customer experience.

The airline is beginning to witness a lift as it flew 5.5m passengers in 2012, an increase of 188,000 year on year.

The post Virgin Atlantic On The Path Of Recovery appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The firm’s management, in an operational update released this morning, said it is currently paying attention to making sure that its core South African insurance operations are managed within “acceptable sustainable long-term assumption sets.”

The fourth biggest JSE-listed life insurer also wants to gain profitable market share in all its businesses and markets in which the group has operations.

“Liberty’s balance sheet management capability continues to demonstrate the ability to manage the investment market risk exposures within risk appetite,” Liberty said in a statement.

Liberty Africa, its wholly owned subsidiary, has seen its new long-term insurance business surge 6 percent during the period.

The group said Liberty Africa’s short term insurance claims/loss ratios stayed at “good levels.”

In addition, Kenya’s investment climate also stayed stable after the country’s presidential elections.

In the three months to March this year, the group showed an increasing sales push in the Retail SA business and strong money inflows.

“Net customer cash inflows of R6 billion reflecting an improvement on the R5 billion reported for the corresponding 2012 period,” it said.

“Total group assets under management increased to R549 billion from the R528 billion at31 December 2012.”

The post Liberty’s Business Continues To Improve appeared first on Ventures Africa | .