Southern Africa’s new leaders still have much to prove

The £2 billion London listing of Shell retailer Vivo Energy, which raised £548 million in May, was the LSE’s biggest such deal so far this year. It is the largest IPO out of Africa to take place in London since 2005: but is it a sign that the Africa-rising narrative is back?

In fact, Vivo’s timing probably has less to do with an African resurgence on the back of a tentative commodities recovery – let alone thanks to occasionally favourable political trends – and more to do with the investment cycle of owners Helios (private equity) and Vitol (the oil trader).