Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has raised $1.5bn through a syndi- cated loan, its larg- est raise in a single debt issue. There was strong demand for the three-year debt, which was originally in- tended to be $1.3bn. The funds will be used for the general business of the infrastructure finance company.

New lenders into the latest bond include China’s Bank of Communications (BOCOM), Kuwait’s Burgan Bank, Export Development Bank of Egypt, and Hua Nan Bank of Taiwan.

The lenders asked for lower interest rates com- pared to when AFC closed a $1.16bn syndicated term loan facility in 2024. There were a host of arrangers, coordi- nators and others working on the debt issue including: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, Commerzbank AG, and Standard Chartered Bank as global coordinators and initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners.

Other initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners were Bank of China (Lon- don branch), First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, Mashreqbank PSC, MUFG Bank, FirstRand Bank acting through its Rand Mer- chant Bank division (London branch), State Bank of India (DIFC branch), Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, So- ciété Générale and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (London branch).

The Central African Repub- lic was announced as the 46th member state of the AFC on 7 October. Hervé Ndoba, the Minister of Finance of CAR, said: “The Corporation’s ex- pertise in the mining and re- newables sectors is precisely what the country needs, and we are proud to partner on our shared vision of industrial growth and infrastructure-led development.”

AFC has invested over $15bn in 36 African countries since it was established in 2007 as a catalyst for infra- structure and industrial in- vestments across Africa.

International credit rating agency Moody’s Ratings has confirmed AFC’s credit rat- ing at grade A3, which it first assigned to AFC in 2014 and has maintained for 11 years.

Moody’s stated: “Despite elevated country risk in sev- eral of AFC’s countries of op- eration and the low average rating of its shareholder base, the credit profile is supported by a sound liquidity buffer backed by high-quality treas- ury assets and resilient asset performance, underpinned by effective credit protections that mitigate potential credit risks.”

Samaila Zubairu, President and CEO of AFC, said the rat- ing: “reinforces our ability to consistently access long-term capital at competitive rates to deliver on our mandate to finance transformational infrastructure projects that integrate Africa and enable its industrialisation.”

In the last financial year to December 2024, the AFC had over $1bn in total revenue and grew total assets by 16.7% to $14.4bn. It maintained a capi- tal adequacy ratio of 33.6% and improved its cost-to- income ratio to 17.3%.

The AFC’s projects over the last year include the 1,300km Lobito Corridor railway which links Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, and a $150m invest- ment in the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex in the DRC, which went into commer- cial production in 2024 and produced 437,000 tonnes of copper that year. It is Africa’s largest copper producer and one of the world’s most sus- tainable copper producers.

The AFC recently raised other finance including a $500m perpetual hybrid bond and a $400m shariah-com- pliant commodity Murabaha issue.

Afreximbank launches $1bn trade subsidiary

In September, the African Export-Import Bank (Afrex- imbank) launched a subsidi- ary called the African Trade and Distribution Company (ATDC) and pledged $1bn in funding. The new firm will invest in aggregating raw materials, minerals and value-added products and in logistics and distribution networks.

ATDC in turn launched a subsidiary called ATDC Minerals (ATMIN) which aims to boost trade in raw materials, minerals including hydrocarbons, and value-add- ed products across Africa. Its focus includes helping Africa make the most of fossil-fuel resources ahead of the global transition to renewable and cleaner energy.

At the launch ceremony in Algiers, during the Intra- African Trade Fair 2025, ATDC signed deals with several Af- rican companies in sectors including logistics, minerals and agricultural produce.

Former President and Chairman of Afreximbank, Prof. Benedict Oramah, said: “Africa is rich in resources; but historical dynamics have skewed our trade outwards. Traditionally, the continent has relied on others to add value to its commodities and minerals as well as to trade them. Through ATDC and ATMIN, we aim to close the loop and to take back control of how our commodities and minerals in global Africa are produced and traded across value chains by integrating them in local economies to benefit more people.”

Afreximbank is working with Arise Integrated Indus- trial Platforms (Arise IIP), Eq- uitane DMCC and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to set up ATDC, through the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), another investment subsidiary of Afreximbank.

Equitane DMCC, previously known as the Africa Trans- formation and Industrialisa- tion Fund, is a conglomer- ate set up in 2021 by Gagan Gupta, with headquarters in Dubai and an office in India. It works in 14 countries to focus on climate solutions such as electric vehicles and renew- able energy.

It manages businesses in- cluding Arise IIP, which de- signs, finances and operates industrial zones and parks in Gabon, Benin and Togo and is developing zones in Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, Tanzania, Cameroon, Malawi and other places. Indian businessman Gagan was also a key driver in setting up ATDC.

Abdul Aziz Ba, CEO of ATDC, said: “We look forward to cultivating a robust trad- ing ecosystem across Africa that integrates with global markets for shared prosperity through impactful partner- ships and effective logistics. Through this, we will trans- form intra-African trade by driving the continent’s tran- sition from the export of raw materials and minerals to value added products and last-mile distribution.”

ATDC also agreed terms for joint ventures with CBZ Holdings and Nigeria Com- modity Exchange for setting up national versions of itself in Zimbabwe and Nigeria.

Prof. Oramah stepped down in September 2025 after 10 years as president and chairman of the board of directors. His successor is George Elombi, who has been with the bank for 29 years and was its Executive Vice President, Governance, Legal and Corporate Services.

BANK IPO FIRES UP ANGOLA EXCHANGE

Angola’s stock exchange, the Bolsa de Dívida e Valores de Angola (Bodiva), scored a huge success with the suc- cessful outcome of its biggest initial public offering (IPO), the sale of Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA), which raised 220.9bn kwanzas ($241m). Its shareholders, Unitel and Banco BPI, sold 4,462,500 shares in an offer from 5 to 25 September.

The shares were listed for trading from 30 September. The share price climbed rap- idly and scored 25% gains on both the first and sec- ond days of trading. By the time of writing, the price had more than doubled to 123,000 kwanzas (up 143%).

The offer had closed at 49,500 kwanzas ($54.08) per share, the top of the sug- gested offer range, after a five times oversubscription. There were over 11,000 applications for shares, of which 10,133 were filled. Each shareholder received less than a fifth of what they had applied for.

BFA has added 8,488 new shareholders. Rui Oliveira, CEO of BFA Asset Manage- ment, said: “The transaction was entirely anchored by do- mestic investors.”

Shareholder Unitel, a tel- ecommunications firm con- trolled by the government, had sold 15% of total share capital and raised 111.4bn kwanzas ($121.7m), as part of the second phase of the state’s privatisation programme.

Banco BPI, a Portuguese lender and a subsidiary of Spain’s CaixaBank SA, had sold 14.75% of the total shares and raised 109.5bn kwanzas ($119.6m). (The European Central Bank had told Caixa- Bank in 2017 to reduce its An- golan exposure.)

Cristina Lourenço, Presi- dent of the Executive Com mittee of Bodiva, said: “BFA’s listing on the stock exchange is a testament to what’s pos- sible when governance, in- novation, and commitment to the country are aligned. It’s also an invitation for more companies to profession- alise, prepare and join this movement for transparency, growth and financial inclu- sion.”

After the share offer, the free float (shares available for trading) on Bodiva is around 30%. Unitel has 36.9% of the shares and BPI 33.35%, while 2% of the shares are reserved for BFA employees.

It is the fifth listing on Bo- diva. In 2022, Banco Angolano de Investimento (BAI) raised 40.1bn kwanzas ($43.8m) through selling 10% of its shares in the first IPO. Three listings are expected in 2025.

State-owned giants Endia- ma (diamonds) and Sonangol (oil) are preparing for public offerings. The exchange ex- pects to have 10 listed com- panies by 2027.

BFA’s Chief Financial Of- ficer, Francisca Ferrão Costa, said that the IPO was “an opportunity to diversify our shareholder base and re- inforce institutional solidity”.

According to BFA, in 2024 it had a net profit of 205.8bn kwanzas ($224.9m) and a re- turn on equity of 33.7%. BFA reports that it has over 3m customers and employs more than 2,500 people, and it has 194 branches.

The Angolan government launched its privatisation programme in 2019 and this IPO is part of the second phase called ProPriv (2023- 2026). The aim is to reduce Angola’s dependence on oil, stimulate growth by creating more competition in strategic sectors, and attract foreign capital.

Bodiva, founded in 2014, mostly serves as a market for government bonds and trades an equivalent of $2bn annually in local currency. The trading members are 23 commercial banks and two brokerages.

Large numbers of state- owned enterprises are be- ing privatised through other means, with 73 due in the current phase. The govern- ment reportedly raised $1.13bn through public tenders, auc- tions and IPOs of 96 com- panies in the first phase be- tween 2019 and 2022.

NAIROBI EXCHANGE REJOINS THE EAST AFRICAN LINK

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has an- nounced that it will rejoin the East African Community’s Capital Markets Infrastruc- ture (CMI) technology link. The Nairobi bourse boycotted the project to link the region’s securities exchanges in 2015 after alleging improprieties in the procurement of the system.

According to previous re- ports, the IT platform was to go live at the end of 2020, enabling the remaining three exchanges, Uganda Securi- ties Exchange, and the Dar es Salaam and Rwanda stock exchanges, to connect their trading systems and operate as a single market. However, it has been hard to find any news about progress since then.

The technology link is pro- vided by Pakistan-based Info- Tech Group and includes the capital market suite, Capizar ATS, and a smart order rout- ing system to channel orders between the markets.

It is part of a $26m World Bank regionalisation project to create a single market for both central banks and capi- tal markets and to stimulate intra-regional securities trade and investment. The CMI platform allows investors in each country to trade on the different markets, saving time and costs.

The CMI project creates a single platform for indi- viduals and institutional investors such as pension funds to buy and sell shares, bonds and other invest- ments throughout the mem- ber countries. The markets also recognise qualifications for personnel across the re- gion, enabling key staff such as stockbrokers to move from one capital market to another.

The East African Commu- nity (EAC) has gone further than many other regions in creating links. Capital mar- kets bodies include the East African Securities Regulatory Authorities (EASRA, set up in 1997) and the East Africa Se- curities Exchanges Associa- tion (EASEA).

Celestin Rwabukumba, CEO of the Rwanda Stock Ex- change, chairman of the Afri- can Securities Exchanges As- sociation (ASEA) and former chairman of EASEA, said the second phase of the CMI pro- ject would bring on board all the EASEA exchanges. In 2025 these are the Nairobi, Ugan- da, Dar-es Salaam, Rwanda, Somali, Burundi and Ethio- pia securities exchanges as well as the National Securi- ties Exchange of Somalia and Kenya’s Central Depository & Settlement Corporation.

Nairobi is the biggest bourse in the region, and several Kenyan companies are cross-listed on the other regional exchanges. Rejoining the linkage could encourage more listings in Kenya, where there is relatively deep in- vestment capital, and widen the investor base.

Previously Kenya had set conditions for its return, in- cluding a new procurement of the connecting software and clarity from the EAC Secre- tariat regarding who would be responsible for costs and for maintaining the system. It has now reportedly dropped these in order to benefit from the regional links in line with the NSE’s five-year strategy plan (2025-2029), which in- cludes boosting the number of listed companies.

The CMI East Africa ex- changes link was part of a $26.2m World Bank devel- opment and regionalisation project, which was due to run over nine years and the link project was extended to De- cember 2020.

KAVANGO RESOURCES DUAL-LISTS ON VIC FALLS EXCHANGE

Exploration company Kavan- go Resources has dual-listed on Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) on 5 September and started trading from 8 September. The com- pany keeps its primary listing on the LSE.

Kavango raised capital to advance its exploration and development projects as it seeks base and precious metal deposits in Southern Africa. It has active projects in Zimba- bwe prospecting for gold in the greenstone belts and in Bot- swana – where it is exploring for large-scale copper deposits using advanced geophysical techniques. It claims the sec- ond-largest landholding in the Kalahari Copper Belt (above).

As part of the VFEX list- ing, it issued 330.5m shares at £0.01 (1p) each to raise a total of US$4.46m, consisting of 69.4m shares going to a con- sortium of nine pension funds, 259.2m shares to its major- ity shareholder Purebond and 1.85m shares to other Zimba- bwean residents. It also issued 18,533 new shares with a total value of $250 to each of 157 Zimbabwean employees.

The Sponsoring Broker in Zimbabwe was Inter-Horizon Group (IH Securities) and the Arranger was Nurture Invest (Pvt) Ltd.

On 10 September the com- pany announced the success- ful issue of a further 227.75m shares at £0.01 each to raise £2.2m ($2.95m), which were due to list on the exchanges and for trading on the LSE Main Market, starting on 15 September. The total issued share capital is 3.6bn shares. Its Corporate Broker in London is Shard Capital Partners LLP.

Ben Turney, CEO of Kavan- go, commented: “We are now entering the crucial phase of Kavango’s plan in Zimbabwe. In the last two years, we’ve made four significant discov- eries that we believe we can bring into commercial pro- duction. Our immediate objec- tive now is to build and com- mission 250tpd (tons per day) of gold mining and processing capacity at our Hillside Gold Project in the first half of next year. This pilot-scale produc- tion will allow us to decisive- ly prove to the international market that Zimbabwe is a mining-friendly jurisdiction that is open for business.”

Zimbabwean investors can keep their Kavango shares An employee of East African Breweries Limited working on a production line at the company’s bottling plant in Ruaraka, Nairobi in custody in Zimbabwe and trade directly on the VFEX, or transfer the shares to the LSE share register via a cen tral control account transfer mechanism. However, they would need to work through a London broker to trade on the London bourse.

Zimbabwe’s VFEX was launched in 2020 as a US dol- lar-denominated subsidiary of the Zimbabwe Stock Ex- change and is based in a spe- cial economic zone set up in Victoria Falls. The exchange offers exemptions from capi- tal gains tax, free repatriation of funds in foreign currency, and lighter regulatory require- ments compared to the ZSE.

It has 17 listed companies in the five years since launch, in- cluding gold miners Kavango and Caledonia Mining Corp, which is listed in New York and London. Other companies include Invictus Energy, which is exploring and developing natural gas and is primarily listed on the Australian Se- curities Exchange (ASX). It has been exploring for gas in the Cabora Bassa basin since 2018. Other firms include pan- African seed producer SeedCo and Padenga Holdings, which produces crocodile-skins.

The benchmark index is up 45% in the year to 3 October, helped by a 48% jump in gold prices. Lloyd Mlotshwa, head of research at IH Securities, said “mining company stocks have become a proxy for gold. These companies invested well in time to catch the gold rush and have also ramped up pro- duction when the timing is right.”

Investors have switched to VFEX where they can trade in US dollars after it became difficult to obtain sufficient amounts of Zimbabwe’s ZIG currency (launched in April 2024) for trading and other liquidity. ZSE CEO Justin Bgoni said: “The exchange is now ripe to go to the next level, where we can raise money for bigger projects that can help the country.” He said they are also looking at plans to de- velop a US dollar-denominated financial centre for banks, in- surance companies and oth- ers, similar to international financial service centres in Botswana and Mauritius. n

BFA’s listing on the stock exchange is a testament to what’s possible when governance, innovation, and commitment to the country are aligned.

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