THE Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) said this week it had completed a $540m collateralised debt obligation (CDO) on the U.S market. RMB said the CDO – debt security backed by a pool of high-yield investments – had a 12-year final maturity, but with an eight year average life as it amortises down towards the end. […]

INSURER Mutual & Federal said this week it would return about R720m to its shareholders by way of a special dividend as part of efforts to trim excess capital. It said the reduction in its reserves was part of an ongoing review of the efficient use of capital and the company’s commitment to deliver shareholder […]

DONORS look set to grant Kenya a debt rescheduling deal to help its economy recover from the effects of a devastating drought, analysts say. President Daniel arap Moi’s government has cut forecasts for growth in the financial year ending June 2001 to just 0.5% from an earlier projection of 2.3%. Finance Minister Chris Okemo will […]

SOUTH Africa’s largest wholesaler Metro Cash and Carry (Metcash) said this week it expected a loss in its first half year results due to unrest and tough trading conditions in Israel. ”This coupled with the write-off of the recent VAT settlement of R128m rand will result in the income statement reflecting an attributable loss for […]

CLAN chiefs of Loango on Congo’s southwest coast have enthroned a new monarch, Moe Tati I, ending a four-year row over the succession in the five-centuries-old kingdom. The 72-year-old king succeeds his uncle, Moe Poaty III, under tribal law awarding the succession to a nephew of a deceased monarch. Trouble erupted when one of Moe […]

AN angry Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo this week ordered the bosses of the troubled state-run electricity company to meet agreed power supply targets, his office said. Output at the state-run National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) collapsed last week from 2300 to around 1200 megawatts after shutdowns at two power plants. The target set earlier this […]

A 19-year-old prisoner was shot dead in the back seat of a police car when he allegedly tried to strangle the driver while being driven to a prison in Johannesburg last week. The Independent Complaints Directorate is investigating the incident, which took place on the N4 highway near Belfast, in Mpumalanga, last week. The prisoner […]

THOUSANDS of pro-democracy protestors in Swaziland dispersed peacefully after crippling the business centres in the kingdom’s two major cities of Mbabane and Manzini for over three-hours at the start of a two-day anti-government strike on Monday. Large police and army squads surrounded the chanting protestors, but no damage or injuries were reported and demonstrators dispersed […]

SIZWE SAMAYENDE, Groblersdal | Tuesday MORE than 50 white children at an Mpumalanga primary school have left the school in the past seven months after their parents protested that black parents were not paying school fees. White parents complained that Laerskool Toitskraal in Groblersdal was struggling to pay its bills after it amalgamated with Tlakanani […]