BUSINESS CIRCLES

THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES France Telecom has been had The telecommunications company France Telecom, which in partnership with the Kuwaiti firm Alcazar Capital Ltd acquired 51% of the national company Telkom Kenya for $ 390 million at the end of 2007, now considers it was misled. (...)  [241 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Phil Edmonds enters medical sector After being a past master at floating mining and oil companies (CAMEC, Central African Gold, White Nile) on the Stock Exchange, the British former cricketer Phil Edmonds has turned his attention to investing in medical companies. (...)  [199 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES The heirs are still in business Already owning stakes in several companies, either as a family or individually, the Mozambican Head of State’s daughter, Valentina da Luz Guebuza has now turned her attention to real-estate transactions. (...)  [293 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES IFC to press ahead at funding Funds The International Finance Corp. (IFC) is to give its green light before the end of the month for a project to provide $ 13 million of funding for the Regional MSME Investment Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa. (...)  [271 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Lobby campaign over land leases In mid-December 2009, the Nairobi-based firm of lawyers Kaplan&Stratton drafted a memo listing its criticisms of certain aspects of the proposed new constitution published in November. (...)  [275 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES IFC to fund digital TV At the end of March the International Finance Corporation (IFC, part of the World Bank) is to decide whether to invest $15 million in the Swedish firm Next Generation Broadcasting Africa (NGB Africa) by acquiring a stake in the firm’s equity or a mezzanine debt. (...)  [210 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES MUA wants to acquire La Prudence If this proposed acquisition is approved by the Financial Services Commission, Félix Maurel, the present director general of La Prudence Mauricienne Assurances Ltée, could take over from Jacques de Navacelle as managing director of the new Mauritius Union Assurance Ltd (MUA). (...)  [216 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Sonapar’s delicate matters A State-owned organisation headed by Hasimboahangy Andrianainarivelo, the Société Nationale de Participation (Sonapar) is currently in tense negotiation with the Fanampy Rice Mill, owned by the former President Marc Ravalomanana, which is having a hard time repaying its loans because of the Madagascan political crisis. (...)  [148 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1279 - 13/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES New banks on the doorstep Two of the new banks being set up in Djibouti, the Dahabshil Bank International SA and the Shoura Bank, will comply with Islamic standards, whereas the third, the Warka Bank of Investment & Finance (Djibouti) will be a conventional commercial bank. (...)  [324 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1279 - 13/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Pateguana riding high Apolinario José Pateguana, who for many years was in partnership with Nyimpine Chissano, the late son of former President Joaquim Chissano, has just created several companies with various partners, via his company AP Capital. (...)  [150 words]  [$5.4]   THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Aviation in a bad way The Arab-owned company Comoro Islands Airline (CIA), launched at the end of September 2009 is already at the end of its tether (ION 1270). (...)  [323 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Al Amoudi's new company President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh has just signed a decree conceding a plot of land in PK12 to a company that the magnate Mohamed Hussein al Amoudi is about to create. (...)  [167 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1281 - 13/03/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Madamobil goes on the offensive In a letter dated 22 February, the Minister for Telecommunications, Augustin Andriamananoro, threatened to revoke the mobile telephone operating licence from the company Madamobil that had been attributed by the Malagasy telecoms regulator Office malgache d’études et de régulation des télécoms (Omert) unless it paid the liquidator of Intercel – whose mobile operating licence it had recovered – the sum of € 870,000 the latter had owed the former national telephone company Telecom Malagasy (Telma). (...)  [360 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Land Bank gets off to a bad start The idea of buying land from individuals so as to build up a portfolio of terrain for the government’s future projects has got off to a bad start. (...)  [218 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Ethnic fight at the Post Bank All the audits agree on this point: there is substantial over-manning in the Kenya Post and Savings Bank (Post Bank), having lost more than half its clients in five years, as well as losing its exclusive status as agent for Western Union money transfers. (...)  [201 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES The Indians want to hunt in packs Like several other Indian companies, Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC), a company owned by the Indian State of Gujarat, has turned its attention to Africa. (...)  [266 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1280 - 27/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Investors from Marseilles in bio-fuel The city of Marseilles (France) is the starting point for several projects to produce bio-fuel in Madagascar. The first, instigated by the firm New Ecologic Oil (NEO) owned by Christian Pretot, Stephane Clair and Claude Harroch has already been cut short due to the political crisis in Madagascar. (...)  [244 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1279 - 13/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Gilgel Gibe II still blacked out As The Indian Ocean Newsletter disclosed last week (see alert sent to subscribers on 05 February 2010), the largest hydro-electric dam in Ethiopia, Gilgel Gibe II, is still out of action and will probably remain so for at least two more months due to a serious problem in the duct taking water from the Gibe I to the Gibe II generating station. (...)  [278 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1279 - 13/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES Nuctech vs Smiths Heimann The British firm Smiths Heimann lodged a complaint for dumping with Brussels against its Chinese competitor Nuctech Company Ltd, and won its case in December 2009. (...)  [194 words]  [$5.4] THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER n°1279 - 13/02/2010 BUSINESS CIRCLES G4S cleans up in Nairobi Adam Miller, who had been advising the London headquarters of the security company G4S on risk management, is now applying his experience to the company’s Nairobi subsidiary. (...)  [160 words]  [$5.4]