Business Africa

BERLIN— Chancellor Angela Merkel appears all but certain to win a fourth term when Germans vote Sunday after a humdrum campaign produced few divisive issues but saw smaller parties gain support— including the nationalist, anti-migration Alternative for Germany, which is set to become the most right-wing party in parliament for 60 years.

CONAKRY, Sept 21- Hundreds of rioters in the Guinean bauxite mining town of Boke burned down a police and a gendarmerie building on Thursday and clashed with security forces wielding batons, leaving 17 people injured, the local Red Cross said. Despite decades of mining, Guinea, Africa's top bauxite producer, remains one of the world's least developed countries.

*Ivory Coast, Ghana seek $1.2 bln to build warehouses. *Ivory Coast will limit production, focus on quality. ABIDJAN, Sept 21- Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world's top cocoa producers, plan to create a buffer stock of beans with the aim of exerting more influence over world prices, a senior Ivorian government official told Reuters on Thursday.

NAIROBI, Sept 21- Kenya Airways has started talks with the government, seeking its help in coping with competition from foreign carriers operating flights to its Nairobi hub, its chairman said on Thursday. The losses, caused by a slump in tourism due to frequent attacks in Kenya by militants from neighbouring Somalia, came at a time when the airline was taking on...

MOSCOW, Sept 21- Russian National Reinsurance Company aims to expand into China, India, the Middle East and Africa to increase income from premiums and diversify beyond Russia, the chief executive said. He said Western sanctions would not hurt the firm's business outside Russia and said RNRC's goal was to collect 500 million roubles in 2018 and 5 billion roubles...

India's rupee skidded to a two-month low while China's yuan eased 0.2 percent. Turkey and South Africa- two countries vulnerable to Fed moves due to their current account deficits- saw their currencies slip 0.3 percent to the weakest in around five weeks. And there could be more weakness ahead for currencies across central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and...

PRICING DEAL TO PROVIDE AFRICA, OTHER POOR REGIONS WITH MODERN HIV DRUG COCKTAIL FOR $75 PER PATIENT A YEAR.

LONDON, Sept 21- Makers of generic AIDS drugs will start churning out millions of pills for Africa containing a state-of-the-art medicine widely used in rich countries, after securing a multi-million dollar guarantee that caps prices at just $75 per patient a year. In return the drugmakers, India- based Mylan Laboratories and Aurobindo Pharma, will agree the...

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 20- Shares in South African petrochemicals and energy firm Sasol dropped sharply on Wednesday after it said it was looking at raising $980 million in a share sale to fund a buy- out of indebted black investors. Companies in Africa's most advanced economy are required to help increase black ownership, often using vendor financing deals to sell...

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 20- Steinhoff's African subsidiary surged nearly 10 percent on its market debut on Wednesday, as investors looked past its parent company's legal wrangles in Europe and piled into the continent's retail powerhouse. By 1245 GMT, the stock was changing hands at 21.55 rand, giving STAR a market capitalisation of 75 billion rand, dwarfing its...

DUBAI/ ABU DHABI, Sept 20- Abu Dhabi is hoping to fast-track at least $5 billion of stock market listings by state-backed companies next year before Saudi Aramco's planned $100 billion IPO dominates investor demand. Like neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi is restructuring its industrial sector, hoping to lure foreign investors with privatisations after...

*Broker Sasfin cites "well-publicised concerns". JOHANNESBURG, Sept 19- A South African broker and an energy investment firm fired KPMG on Tuesday, two of a number of local firms weighing whether to ditch the auditor to distance themselves from a scandal involving business friends of President Jacob Zuma. Sasfin and Hulisani, both relatively small financial...

*Egypt exports to hit $22 billion for 2017. CAIRO, Sept 19- Egypt's exports should grow about 10 percent this year to reach $22 billion, Trade Minister Tarek Kabil said on Tuesday, as the country lures foreign investors keen on setting up manufacturing following economic reforms. Egypt has been trying to market itself as a manufacturing hub for foreign investors,...

*Broker Sasfin cites "well-publicized concerns". JOHANNESBURG, Sept 19- A South African broker and an energy investment firm fired KPMG on Tuesday, two of a host of local firms weighing whether to ditch the auditor to distance themselves from a scandal involving business friends of President Jacob Zuma. Sasfin and Hulisani, both relatively small financial...

DOHA/ KUWAIT, Sept 19- North Korean workers will start leaving Qatar and Kuwait after the Gulf Arab states said they would stop renewing visas, cutting off a source of foreign income for Pyongyang after U.N. Security Council sanctions and pressure from the United States. President Donald Trump urged United Nations member states on Tuesday to turn up the pressure...

LUSAKA, Sept 19- Zambia will resume talks with the International Monetary Fund on an aid programme in October and hopes to get IMF board approval by the end of the year, one of ist finance officials said on Tuesday. The IMF said in June it may grant Zambia up to $1.3 billion in a three-year credit facility to help plug a budget deficit of around 7 percent.

LUSAKA, Sept 19- Zambia will resume talks with the International Monetary Fund on an aid program in October and hopes to get IMF board approval by the end of the year, one of ist finance officials said on Tuesday. The IMF said in June it may grant Zambia up to $1.3 billion in a three-year credit facility to help plug a budget deficit of around 7 percent.