| In the early 1990s African securities markets were opened to foreign portfolio investors, since when there has been a reversal of capital flight. Slowly, markets are creeping on to the radar screens of emerging market fund managers. "Africa is no longer a burned-out hole," says Christopher Hartland Peel, head of equity research at Standard Bank, London, and author of African Equities (published by Euromoney Publications). "Crucially there have been no financial scandals, failures of stockbroking firms or frauds in the markets. African equities have given positive inflation-adjusted and dollar returns, and higher than those of treasury bills." Here are some of Africa's best listed firms. Commercial International Bank (Egypt) Egypt's Commercial International Bank (CIB), one of the Cairo stock exchange's most popular stocks, has a well-earned reputation for innovation. Its privatization through a share distribution to employees in 1992 was copied by many local companies. Its initial public offering a year later helped kick-start Egypt's capital market activity. Last year it issued a $120 million GDR Egypt's first (and easily the largest from the Middle East) - and the $100 million syndicated loan it announced in March is the first by an Egyptian borrower for 15 years. |