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The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) has appointed Investec Asset Management as its fund manager following a competitive tender. Investec took over the management of the $670m fund on 9 May, replacing Frontier Markets Fund Managers. EAIF is a public-private partnership. It is a member of the Private Infrastructure Development Group, and is funded by the governments of the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, private sector banks and development finance organisations.

President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh’s government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) aimed at relaunching exploration of the country’s geothermal energy potential. Speaking at the first UK-Djibouti Trade and Investment Forum in London on 8 May, ministers from Djibouti said that, after four-and-a-half years in financial limbo, the government had secured the means to proceed with development. Sinopec and the government first signed a geothermal resource co-operation framework agreement in Beijing in July 2012. Economy and finance minister Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh told the forum that Sinopec had agreed to develop, on a joint venture basis, two “high-potentiality” sites at Obock.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering providing a reserve-based loan of up to $100m to Kuwait Energy International to help finance its development operations at the Abu Sennan, Area A, Burg El Arab and East Ras Qattara fields in Egypt. The project supports the development of Kuwait Energy’s Egyptian operations including measures and investments in associated petroleum gas-flaring prevention and recovery. The projected cost of the development plan is $160m.

Chad’s upstream sector is experiencing renewed interest thanks to asset sales, an upturn in crude output which the government says rose to 126,000 b/d in H1 2019, and an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that has helped to stabilise the oil-dependent economy. While production peaked at 180,000 b/d in 2005, the Chad-Cameroon export pipeline has 225,000 b/d capacity, offering significant space for new players.

State power utility Zesco is seeking to renegotiate its power purchase agreements with independent power producers (IPPs) in an effort to curb its ballooning debt. At end-April 2019, Zesco owed IPPs about $680m, and the company says low power tariffs mean it has little hope of reducing the burden.Zesco sought to raise tariffs in March, but on 3 May, energy minister Matthew Nkhuwa announced that President Edgar Lungu had directed that Zesco’s application for a tariff increase be suspended.

Houston-based Vaalco Energy announced on 16 September that it was seeking a listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange to complement its existing New York Stock Exchange listing. Its shares are expected to start trading in London on 26 September. Vaalco operates the producing Etame Marin Block in Gabon and has a stake in Block P in Equatorial Guinea. A number of US-based companies have sought London listings to access the market’s expertise in understanding the African oil industry. Africa Oil Corporation opened a London office earlier this month.

Economy minister Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi signed loan agreements on 31 July for a total of CFA105bn ($194m) from the World Bank and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) for the $494m Lom Pangar dam development

Fastnet Oil and Gas executive vice president exploration Paul Griffiths said in October that Morocco’s Foum Assaka offshore permit, which is operated by Kosmos Energy, as having “multi-billion barrel resources in place in several plays including a Jubilee field, Ghana analogue”.

Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB) announced on 12 February a public tender to hire a financial intermediary to lead the process of selling a 7.5% stake in the company to Mozambican citizens, companies and institutions through the Mozambique Stock Exchange (BVM). The public offering was announced by President Filipe Nyusi in November 2017, but no timetable has been announced.

Private equity fund Evolution One has invested R51.8m ($7.6m) in major South African waste management company EnviroServ Waste Management (EnviroServ).

A new London-based advisory boutique has been set up by non-executive chairman Bill Mundell and founding partner Michael J Prest to focus on investment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Amid its financial problems, one bright spot for Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau, the merged entity created from the kingdom’s power and water utilities, is that Morocco continues to be a favourite for financiers.

Warburg Pincus-backed Delonex Energy has won $60m in equity finance from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation to fund its planned oil and gas exploration in east and central Africa. Delonex, run by former Cairn India chief executive Rahul Dhir, has yet to announce any asset acquisitions, but the IFC’s contribution will form a key part of a $600m equity line to be provided by the company’s investors led by Warburg Pincus. IFC’s investment will be used to fund start-up costs, exploration, appraisal, acquisition and early development of oil and gas assets.

The United States’ Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) has signed an investment incentive agreement with the government of South Sudan supporting US private sector investment. The first investment Opic will support in South Sudan is the construction and operation of a 150-room hotel in Juba by Delaware-based Aquila Investments and Jordan’s Taher Investments. The agreement was signed at a South Sudan Investment Forum in Washington on 17 April, organised by the US Agency for International Development.

Former rebels of the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo) have dealt a blow to Mozambique’s efforts to position itself as a major investment success story and future gas exporter, abandoning their 1992 peace deal with the ruling Frente de Libertação Moçambicana (Frelimo) with a series of attacks on government troops. Few commentators expect a return to all-out civil conflict but investors are jumpy, not least because Renamo’s rejection of peace coincides with a spate of kidnappings –15 in October alone –with some in the capital, Maputo. In early November, British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, which has extensive coal operations in north-western Tete Province, withdrew expatriate employees’ families from the country.