By Vidya L Nathan and Carolyn Cohn

LONDON (Reuters) – South Africa’s Rand Merchant Investment Holdings ramped up its presence in the British insurance market on Wednesday with the purchase of a 30 percent stake in Hastings, driving the UK firm’s shares to 2-1/2 month highs.

Hastings, which listed just over a year ago, has made headway in a competitive sector by focusing on selling motor insurance via price comparison websites.

Hastings Investco, the firm’s main shareholder, and other individual shareholders are together selling up to 30 percent of the firm to RMI in a deal worth between 487.3 million and 499.5 million pounds ($634.61 million), Hastings said in a statement.

RMI offered between 248 pence and 255 pence per Hastings share, the top end of which represents a 15 percent premium to the stock’s Tuesday close.

“The acquisition meets RMI’s objectives of diversifying geographically, adding a significant traditional financial services business alongside its existing portfolio,” the investment firm said in a separate statement.

RMI has a majority stake in OUTsurance, which offers motor and home insurance in Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and minority stakes in insurers Discovery and MMI, which also have a presence in Britain.

KBW analysts said in a client note they saw RMI’s stake purchase in Hastings as “an endorsement by a player who has a track record in identifying companies in the insurance space that have superior…growth outlook,” reiterating their outperform rating on the Hastings stock.

Hastings’ stock closed up 6.8 percent at 236.5 pence, one of the best performers on the FTSE 250 index. RMI’s share price was steady at 40 rand.

As part of the deal, which makes the South African investment firm the biggest shareholder in Hastings, RMI’s Chief Executive Herman Bossman has been named to Hastings’ board.

The stake sale to RMI comes two months after holding vehicle Hastings’ Investco and founding shareholders Neil Utley, Utley Family Charitable Trust and Richard Brewster sold about 45 million shares, or 6.8 percent of the company’s then issued share capital.

Hastings said it welcomed RMI’s investment, which both firms have capped at 29.9 percent.

($1 = 0.7871 pounds)

(Editing by Martina D’Couto and Adrian Croft)

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TUNIS (Reuters) – Oil and gas industry contractor Petrofac is halting gas production in Tunisia after two weeks of renewed protests on the southern Kerkennah islands, the company said on Wednesday.

The announcement comes just three months after Petrofac restarted operations at Kerkennah’s Chergui gas field, following nine months of disruptions due to protests.

Petrofac had threatened in September to shut down operations entirely and leave Tunisia, but the government reached a deal with protesters demanding jobs and development.

Imed Darouich, head of Petrofac’s operations in the North African country, said the company was now being forced to halt operations again because protesters were blocking trucks and stocks were running out.

“After 14 days of people blocking trucks, the company finds itself unable to produce,” he told Reuters.

Petrofac officials declined to comment on local media reports that the company had once again told Tunisian authorities it would leave the country.

Petrofac’s operations supply around 13 percent of Tunisia’s domestic gas needs. It holds a 45 percent share at Chergui, with the rest held by a state-run company.

Any closure of operations would be a blow to Tunisia just as the government pushes to revive foreign investment, rein in the deficit, and spur growth through economic reform. Investment, growth and employment have been hit by labour unrest and militant attacks since Tunisia’s 2011 uprising.

Government officials say importing gas from Algeria to make up for the shortfall caused by disruption to Petrofac’s production during first nine months of 2016 had cost the government about $100 million.

(Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Aidan Lewis, Greg Mahlich)

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt has cancelled its tender to rent a third natural gas import (LNG) regasification terminal as it is no longer needed, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters on Tuesday.

“The tender to rent a third regasification terminal was cancelled due to a lack of need for it and until we reassess the gas production capacity of Egypt and the consumption levels over the next few years,” he said.

Once a net energy exporter, Egypt began importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) last year and has leased two floating and storage regasification units (FSRU) already to help avert power shortages caused by falling energy production and rising consumption.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; writing by Asma Alsharif; editing by Louise Heavens)

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KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda on Monday started up its first grid-connected, 10 megawatt solar power plant as the east African country moves to tap its renewable energy resources and expand its electricity generation capacity.

Funded by Norway, Germany, UK and the European Union, the $19 million plant was developed by Access Power and Eren Re, two energy sector investors based in Dubai and France respectively.

Uganda, a prospective crude oil producer of some 34 million people, generates about 850 megawatts of electricity, mostly from hydro power dams.

Officials have said they want to increase that capacity to 1,500 megawatts by 2018 and are seeking foreign investors to develop the country’s non-traditional energy sources such as solar and geothermal.

The plant, a vast field of some 32,600 photovoltaic panels, is located in Soroti in northeastern Uganda and the electricity generated will help power at least 40,000 homes.

Last week Uganda signed a 90 million-euro ($95.55 million)loan deal with German development bank KfW and French government finance agency AFD to build a 45 megawatt (MW) power plant in the country’s west.

($1 = 0.9419 euros)

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Louise Heavens)

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