HiPipo Money

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Leading regional investment company sells its full majority stake in a leading Sudan-based bank as part of its program to shed non-core assets over the coming three years; firm remains a large-scale investor in Sudan

Citadel Capital (CCAP.CA on the Egyptian Exchange), the leading investment company in Africa and the Middle East, has exited its full 66.12% stake in Sudanese Egyptian Bank (SEB) in a US$ 22 million sale to the Islamic Solidarity Bank of Sudan.

“Having helped grow it from a small, trade-focused bank into a full-fledged Islamic financial institution, we are delighted to have exited our investment in Sudanese Egyptian Bank and placed it with a strategic parent with the capacity to take it to the next level,” said Citadel Capital Chairman and Founder Ahmed Heikal. “This transaction is entirely in line with our program of divesting non-core assets to focus on proven winners in our five core industries: energy, transportation, agrifoods, mining and cement across a footprint that concentrates on Egypt, North Africa and East Africa.”

Originally established to facilitate trade between Egypt and Sudan, SEB is a full-service, Shariah-compliant bank with a diverse portfolio of corporate and individual clients. Sudanese Egyptian Bank is a portfolio company of Finance Unlimited, a non-core Citadel Capital platform in the regional banking and finance industry.

Citadel Capital is shedding non-core investments at appropriate times and valuations over the coming three-plus years.

“This said, we will continue to be significant long-term investors in Sudan, where we see great opportunities to create value for our shareholders in the years ahead,” Heikal noted.

Citadel Capital subsidiaries in Sudan operate in sectors including cement (leading cement producer Al-Takamol Cement Co.); agrifoods (Rashidi for Integrated Solutions, leading Sudanese confectioner Al-Musharraf, and large-scale farm Sabina); and transportation (NRTC Keer Marine, a division of river transport company Nile Logistics).

“Proceeds from our divestment program will be used to both deleverage and fuel growth at core subsidiaries,” Heikal noted. “We are also continuing to invest in governance at the Citadel Capital and subsidiary levels to ensure we have the people and systems we need to make our growth sustainable.”

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For the fourth year running, the Airtel Africa Championship will provide an opportunity for budding stars around Africa to showcase their football skills and to gauge their raw talent against continental peers. Airtel announced today that the Airtel Rising Stars Africa Championship finals will take place in Fort Portal from the 19^th to 23^rd June 2014 in partnership with partnership with FUFA, Rwenzori Water and Arsenal FC.

The Airtel Rising Stars initiative, the biggest Under-17 grassroots tournament on the African continent, aims at identifying talent and nurturing upcoming footballers. This is one of the few football equal opportunity initiatives that targets boys and girls. Over the years, the Airtel Rising Stars initiative has yielded many success stories and has enabled several upcoming soccer talents to join Africa Premier League clubs and their countries’ national teams. The selected players would then get an opportunity to get the best-in-class sports training, during a residential clinic due to take place in Gabon this year is organized by Airtel and her partners.

Airtel’s Managing Director, Arindam Chakrabarty, said: “Airtel Rising Stars andThe Airtel Africa Championship are committed to growing grassroots football in Africa.  We believe emphatically that nurturing young talent is the means by which we will ensure the foundations of the game in this country stay strong.As one of the most unrelenting investment programs in grassroots sports in Uganda it would be great to see Ugandans cheer on the Airtel Rising Stars team that represents Uganda as the go to Gabon for the Soccer clinics.”

Minister of State for Housing Hon.SamEngola said: “, I would like to encourage the youth across Uganda to come out and participate in this program and showcase their potential not only nationally but on an international platform. I would also like to congratulate Airtel Uganda on partnering with FUFA, Rwenzori Water and to encourage them to work hand in hand in order to keep building football in the country and being role models for the youths.”

The Fourth Edition of the Airtel Rising Stars (ARS) initiative has taken place in 16 countries across Africa with hundreds of thousands of youngsters taking part in the regional and national tournaments. The best teams of each country will be pitted against each other in the Airtel Africa Championship. The winning teams will receive the grand prize of USD 10,000 which will be put towards the players’ education. The teams representing Uganda will be selected from the regional games and finals that take place in the next few months across the country.

By designing a big stage for the teams and the future soccer stars, Airtel is inching closer to its objective of becoming the biggest and most consistent supporter of grassroots football in Africa.

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Thulani Nzima, Chief Executive Officer, South African Tourism: “A quick, easy solution for hosted buyers wanting to plug into a diverse array of South African leisure tourism offerings”

SOUTH AFRICAN TOURISM’s Speed Marketing Sessions, the highly successful engine for brokering business at INDABA, are kicking into high-gear again this year, introducing an array of South African tourism product to 200 top quality hosted buyers from around the world.

These fast, highly effective sessions have been a huge hit since they were introduced at INDABA 2012. With inbound tourism to South Africa continuing on an encouraging growth trajectory, the sessions are expected to be a hive of potentially lucrative deal making.

“The Speed Marketing Sessions are specifically designed to facilitate as many fruitful trading contacts as possible, and given that South Africa is currently among the fastest growing inbound regions in the world – arrivals to the country rose by 10,2 % in 2012 and the 2013 figures are showing a similar growth trajectory, so we are expecting that international travel buyers will be keener than ever to plug into South Africa’s tourism offering,” says South African Tourism Chief Executive Officer Mr. Thulani Nzima.

The Speed Marketing Sessions will take place at Room 22 at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban. In the sessions, global buyer delegates will be introduced to a wide variety of South African product, including everything from action-packed adventure and unique experiences to cosmopolitan hot spots.

Three types of tourist experiences have been identified for this year’s Speed Marketing Sessions. These are: Hidden Treasures (Saturday, May 10 from 12.30pm to 2pm), Urban Vibe (Sunday, May 11 from 12.30pm to 2pm) and Action Adventure (Monday, May 12 from 12.30pm to 2pm). Twenty products will be represented for each theme, and each will have 4 – 5 minutes each to make their sales pitch to the buyers.

Hidden Treasures is a collection of unique countrywide innovative products collated by the Tourism Enterprise Partnership, including heritage tours and attractions that offer insight into the people of

South Africa.

These are high quality, value-for-money products that authentically represent the people and stories of South Africa. “Market research has shown that global inbound tourists are increasingly seeking these experiences, so an enticing spread of these products will definitely be good for buyers attending the Speed Marketing Sessions,” says Nzima.

For the Urban Vibe session, South Africa’s most popular urban hubs will have the opportunity to showcase their attractions and experiences, while for Action Adventure, the most sought after adventure experiences have been chosen, including hot air ballooning, shark diving, river rafting, horse riding and hiking.

“We are committed to showcasing the best of South Africa to buyers in innovative, relevant ways at Indaba 2014, and this is what Speed Marketing is all about. Above all, these sessions are about doing business, and generating robust profits for our tourism industry over the next year,” says Nzima.

INDABA 2014 opens on May 10. For more information, please visit

http://www.indaba-southafrica.net

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Following on from its successful campaign in 2013, South African Tourism will once again host a group of bloggers from around the world to #MeetSouthAfrica.       

IN AN AGE where bloggers have become an important source of information for those searching for their next dream destination, destination marketing organisations are taking heed to their importance as a part of their digital marketing scope.

In 2014, 14 bloggers will traverse South Africa in search of the ideal activities, accommodation and destinations for their readers between 2 May and 11 May 2014. These bloggers include a mix of both international and local bloggers known for their influence in the travel sphere.

“South African Tourism has always been known as a leading organisation when it comes to digital marketing, and this year will be no different,” says Chief Executive Officer, MrThulaniNzima.

“We’re looking forward at INDABA to hosting a new pool of bloggers that are eager to come and Meet South Africa, explore our destination and convey what they find back to the world.”

The bloggers included in this year’s campaign are:

Melvin Boëcher – www.traveldudes.org

Matt Karsten – www.expertvagabond.com

Mauricio Oliveira – www.trilhaseaventuras.com.br

Caspar Diederik – www.storytravelers.com

JD Andrews – www.earthxplorer.com

UmeiThe – www.ccfoodtravel.com

Kash Bhattacharya – www.budgettraveller.org

Rob Lloyd – www.stophavingaboringlife.com

Adriana Lacerda – escapismogenuino.com

Heather Mason – www.2summers.net

MeruschkaGovender – www.mzansigirl.com

IshayGovender – www.foodandthefab.co.za

Dawn Jorgensen – theincidentaltourist.com

Katarina Mancama – simplysouthafrica.wordpress.com

“The bloggers will all start in Johannesburg, and then head out to other parts of the country over the course of the week leading up to INDABA 2014. We will be following their every move through the use of the hashtag #MeetSouthAfrica and we have lots of exciting elements and activities planned,” adds Nzima.

Some of this year’s activities include scheduled Instawalks – city walks with local Instgrammers who will show off their favourite photo spots – open to the public in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban; a Blogger’s Cocktail Event in Durban ahead of INDABA and panel discussion happening in the new TechZone at INDABA 2014.

South African Tourism first instituted its #MeetSouthAfrica Blogger’s Campaign in 2013 with the aim of opening up a new form of communication with potential travellers looking for their next holiday destination. The campaign saw over 219-million impressions of the hashtag across various social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

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With less than 50 days till the kickoff of the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza – The FIFA World Cup DStv has decided to make it possible for as many Ugandans as possible to enjoy the event by dramatically slashing its hardware prices.

Effective Thursday, 24^th April 2014, a fully  installed kit for DStv will go on sale for just 279,000 UGX.

Speaking at the launch of the World cup promo dubbed “We are Brazil” Bryan Muwonge, DStv Marketing Manager for Uganda said, “This is an amazing offer which I encourage Ugandans to take advantage of the price we are selling the equipment is almost 40% off what we normally charge.

He continued it is our main objective as DStv is to “ensure as many Ugandan’s as possible get the opportunity to watch the world cup in a crystal clear digital format on HD. The FIFA world cup is a special event that comes only once every four years as MultiChoice we want to make this a memorable experience which Ugandans will remember for a very long time”.

Talking about the channels where the matches will be shown Bryan stated that “in addition to the regular HD Super Sports channels where matches will be shown exclusively live, DStv will dedicate two 24 hour Super sports channels showcasing World Cup news, player updates, match highlights, expert commentary and replays to ensure that all our viewers will not miss even a minute of the action even if they have busy work schedules”.

He added “viewers who might be extremely busy and might miss some of the live matches should contact MultiChoice customer care and look at purchasing a DStv Explorer the latest and most advanced decoder from DStv, it comes with many exiting features including the option of recording two live matches at the same time”. It’s important to remember that most cities in Brazil are at least 6 hours behind Uganda so some of the matches will kick off quite late in the night”. 

The world cup is being held on the South American Continent for the first time in over 30 years, 32 teams will contest the finals in eight groups with the top two teams progressing to the second round and the knock out stages. A total of 64 matches are to be played in twelve cities across Brazil and for the first time at a World Cup Finals, the matches will use goal line technology. All the matches will be shown live exclusively on Super Sports. 

The World cup price special on DStv kits will be available while stocks last.