Standard looks to Nigeria, Kenya

STANDARD Chartered, which has operated in Africa for more than 150 years, sees Nigeria and Kenya as the best opportunities on the continent for its business to expand in 2015. Standard Chartered, which has retail banking operations in most of the 15 African countries where it is present, did not plan to expand to new markets on the continent this year, Diana Layfield, the chief executive for Africa at the London-based bank, said late on Thursday. – Bloomberg WESTINGHOUSE Electric will probably find a partner to give the company a better chance of winning a contract to build nuclear power plants in South Africa. The South African approach favoured government-to-government deals, so the firm might enter a partnership with China, Japan or South Korea, chief executive Danny Roderick said last week. “You will probably see Westinghouse will go in with one of those countries.” – Bloomberg SOUTH Africa’s energy regulator approved increases for oil and gas pipelines operated by Transnet that would enable the ports and rail utility to increase tariffs by 6.9 percent in the year starting April. Allowable revenue would climb to R3.4 billion in the 12 months untilMarch 2016 from R2.9bn in the current fiscal year, the regulator said onThursday. Transnet applied for an 8.2 percent increase in tariffs. It expects volumes to expand by 2.8 percent. – Bloomberg THE NATIONALUnion of Mineworkers (NUM) on Saturday urged mining company Glencore to prioritise the needs of its employees and reconsider closing its Optimum operations. The union handed over a memorandum, in which the union said Glencore’s plans to shut down part of its Optimum coal operations would have serious implications regarding the plight of its employees, communities around the mine and the country as a whole. – Sapa