02 April 2023
Obi Emetarom is an ambitious man. He wants his fintech company Appzone to be at the heart of African banking and payments with its proprietary cloud and blockchain based technology, and, after raising US$10mn in series A funding earlier this year, he is building the team to do it.
With US$10 trillion in combined assets – many of which are highly polluting – the world’s sovereign wealth funds have been accused of lagging behind the rest of their financial sector in terms of their climate change commitments. What can be done to change the status quo?
Italian energy company Enel sold a multibillion-dollar sustainability-linked bond at the start of July, as the nascent deal structure, which sees a coupon step up on missed ESG targets, continues to gain global popularity.
The pandemic served as a catalyst for changes that were already underway, not least greater digitisation and better non-financial risk management.
Sir Paul Collier has been working in Africa for four decades and is one of the world’s leading voices on the economies of the region. He tells EMEA Finance that, while the pandemic has ravaged the continent, there are clear signs of hope for sustainable economic growth.
The Brexit deal has posed challenges for London-based financial services firms, which look set to lose some of their EU business as a result.
Spain’s CaixaBank has made three high level staffing appointments, as the bank looks to “give more impetus and speed” to its payments and digital transformation strategies.
The European Union raised €5bn by tapping existing bonds in its first syndication of 2023, with a blowout deal using the borrower’s new approach to bond sales that consolidates all its programmes into one monolithic issuing entity.
With a record number of projects taking place from Scotland to Mallorca and across the Middle East, green hydrogen looks like a sensible option for energy transition. Little used at present, governments, developers and investors are beginning to bet big on the future promise of sustainably produced H2.
European renewable energy companies AMPYR Solar and Qair have tapped the private funding market for €443.7m, as the continent continues its push to net zero carbon output.
