AS SAUDI ARABIA STARTS TO IMPORT SA MEAT, MEDICINE AND SPORT ARE ALSO ON ITS AGENDA
JOHANNESBURG - Saudi Arabia will start importing South African beef and lamb products as part of an investment push into the continent’s most developed economy.
The kingdom’s Food and Drug Administration lifted a 20-year prohibition on South African meat imports in August, and final approvals to start shipments of halaal cuts to the Middle Eastern nation are now in place, said Matthew Karan, part-owner of Karan Beef, one of South Africa’s biggest meat producers.
"The plan is to start exports
ABIDJAN/LONDON - Ivory Coast successfully raised $2.6 billion through two bonds with respective maturities of nine and 13 years in its first return to the international Eurobonds market after two years of absence, the government said in a statement.
It said the issuance drew interest from more than 400 investors, in a record-breaking operation that generated an order book exceeding $8 billion, representing the highest order level ever recorded by a sovereign in coming weeks," he told reporters in Johannesburg at a South Africa–Saudi Arabia Business Council briefing. Saudi Arabia has a $2 billion meat market, and lifting the ban - which Riyadh imposed after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease two decades ago is part of its efforts to forge stronger trade and investment ties as it seeks to diversify its $1.1 trillion economy away from oil.
Saudi Arabia is among five countries that joined China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa in the BRICS bloc on January 1, in West Africa.
"This transaction witnessed historic mobilisation from major global investors, including existing holders of Ivorian bonds and new benchmark investors," the Budget and Finance Ministry said in the statement.
The two new bonds carry respective interest rates of 6.30 percent and 6.85 percent upon execution, the statement said. the grouping’s first expansion since 2010. One of the body’s aims is to increase trade and investment between the member nations.
Pharmaceuticals and technology are other areas of potential cooperation between South Africa and Saudi Arabia, with Durbanbased Aspen Pharmacare to work with Saudi companies on endocrine and anaesthetic products, said Stavros Nicolaou, Aspen’s senior executive for strategic trade and co-chairman of the two nations’ business council.
"Simultaneously with the bond issuance, a Dollar-Euro currency hedge operation covering the entire issued amount was executed, resulting in an average interest rate of 6.61 percent," it added.
Many Sub-Saharan African economies were hit hard by Covid-19, the fallout from Russia's war in Ukraine and rising global interest rates, which made foreign currency
The push for exporting beef and lamb products into Saudi Arabia has opened up conversations for other agricultural products including poultry, Nicolaou said.
The country that vies with the US to be the world’s biggest oil producer is plowing millions of dollars into becoming a global supply-chain hub and creating new industries from electric vehicles to pharmaceuticals to meet local demand and for export to the Middle East and Africa. – BLOOMBERG NEWS. debt prohibitively expensive for most from early 2022 and locked them effectively out of international capital markets.
Ivory Coast's Finance ministry said in the statement that the funds will primarily be used to repurchase and refinance the country's existing Eurobonds, as well as international bank loans.