Mining and oil deals drop by half in East Africa

Money Markets

An oil rig worker at Ngamia 3 in Turkana County. PHOTO | FILE 

By JOHN GACHIRI

In Summary

• The he number of deals in the mining, oil and gas sectors halved due to the poor market.

Deal making in East Africa’s natural resources sector slumped in 2015 due to the falling price of commodities in the international market.

The annual financial review by Burbidge Capital shows that the number of deals in the mining, oil and gas sectors halved due to the poor market.

“2015 was a low year for the natural resources sector in East Africa as investor interest decreased, with around half the number of deals announced compared to 2014. The number of deals reduced to 23 in 2015 with Kenya accounting for almost 50 per cent of the total deals recorded in the sector,” said the report.

The number of deals in the oil and gas sector reduced to nine in 2015 from 14 a year earlier while in mining the deals stood at seven from 14 deals reported in the previous year. The energy sector was the most vibrant driven by interest from private equity and venture capital firms.

“M-Kopa secured a total of $31.5 million (Sh3.2 billion) in form of debt and equity from a consortium of PE and VC investors in two separate transactions. The petroleum sector recorded the least number of transactions compared to all the natural resource sub-sectors although a notable development was Ethiopia and Djibouti’s agreement to construct a 550km refined petroleum products pipeline estimated to cost $ 1.55 billion (Sh155 billion) linking the two countries,” said the report.

There has been some capital raising too for the energy sector since the beginning of the year.

Powerhive, a California-based company with offices in Kenya and the Philippines, announced that it had raised Sh2 billion to invest in solar mini-grids in Kenya and other African countries.