In a statement published on September 1, South African restaurant chain Famous Brands revealed it has bought the British fast-food chain Gourmet Burger Kitchen for R2.1 billion ($143.3 million). Famous Brands which also owns the Debonnairs Pizza and Steers Burger brands, started negotiations with Gourmet Burger Kitchen earlier this year and was able to save R700 million on the deal due to...

South African e-commerce giant Naspers will invest in the Romanian platform eMAG €500,000, before the end of the year, to test new e-commerce technologies. The solutions will be developed by eMAG Labs, eMAG’s research department. To insure the implementation of the solutions, the company will, within the next two years, add to the 600 IT engineers it currently employs 200 more...

Diamond Mining (Diamcor) has successfully closed a private placement through which it raised C$5.82 million ($4,440,197). To achieve this, the firm issued 4.54 million units at C$1.1 per unit thus making a total of C$5 million. In addition, 746,090 units were issued as part of an over-allotment option for a total of C$820,699. While announcing the placement at the end of August, Diamcor said...

Reports have indicated that the amount of West African crude oil to be shipped to the east in September is expected to reach a five-month high, partially caused by trading houses. According to a Reuters’ survey of shipping fixtures and traders, no less than 60 cargoes, carrying the equivalent of 1.9 million barrels per day, are expected to be shipped, compared to the 1.685 million bpd in...

South African Energy department on Friday, announced that the retail price of petrol will reduce by 1.5% while the price of wholesale diesel will go down by 4.4% from September 7. According to the department, the price of petrol will drop by 18 cents to 12.17 rand per litre, while diesel will reduce by 49 cents to 10.49 rand per litre, Reuters reports. July’s pump price for a litre of petrol...

Telecom Egypt, similarly to mobile telecom operators, is now able to provide 4G services to its users. Indeed, the state-owned firm has acquired the licence after signing the related contract at the Ministry of Information, communication and technology on August 31, 2016. The agreement was signed by ANRT’s CEO, Moustafa Abdel Wahed, and its counterpart from Telecom Egypt, Tamer Gad Allah, in...

Algeria’s Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, addressing the press on August 31, 2016, said the local economy was in no way endangered, despite continued oil price slump. “Some people believe that the Algerian economy will experience turmoil in the coming years but the truth is that we examined the situation and until 2019, Algeria’s foreign exchange reserves won’t fall below $100...

In South Africa, the Deputy Director-General of Petroleum and Petroleum product regulation, Tesliso Maqubela, has announced that the Department of Energy plans to initiate talks with the petroleum industry concerning the deregulation of liquid fuels. According to him, this will allow the market to set prices which would attract investment in upgrading South Africa’s refinery capacity in order...

Ivorian director for rural land, Constant Delbé Zirignon, revealed during a workshop on conflicts prevention in agro-industrial areas held on March 30, 2016 in Abidjan, that around 11,000 hectares of land had been awarded to the Prikro rubber company (CHP in French), subsidiary of the Belgian group SIAT (Société d’Investiseement poir l’agriculture tropicale). This was reported by news...

The Ivorian government approved by a decree of the ministers’ council of August 31, 2016, a $56.7 million (FCFA33.350 billion) loan agreement from the China import-export bank (China Exim Bank) signed on June 6, 2016. The loan will be used to develop a video surveillance protection platform for Abidjan. According to the statement from the council of ministers, “the ICT-based project...