Most of Africa is a backwater as far as investment banking is concerned. According to Thomson Reuters, investment banking fees from the continent totalled $318m in 2013, of which $232m came from South Africa. To put that into perspective, Norway’s investment banking activity – while relatively small on a global scale – generated $339m of fees.
Yet Africa’s rapidly rising economy, particularly in the sub-Saharan part, is leading to more capital markets and advisory activity. Exemplifying this, the volume of Africa-targeted mergers and acquisitions reached $20bn in the first half of 2013, up 30% from the same period a year earlier.