The two separate entities will be known as Tribune Publishing Company and Tribune Company respectively. The former will oversee newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, while the latter will handle other operations including the 19 television stations that the group recently purchased for $2.7 billion. This, the company said, will give it greater financial and operational focus.

It was in 2000 that Transnet’s then single port division, Portnet, was divided into separate operations and landlord businesses. It was this decision that led to the creation of Transnet Port Terminals (TPT). Since its formation the business has played a fundamental role in supporting the export-led strategy of the South African government.

It's not all about cubic feet and billions of dollars for Mthozami Xiphu, Executive Director of SAOGA since he took over leadership of the organisation from Warwick Blyth in February this year. Xiphu is a man who feels passionately that developing the oil and gas resources, onshore and offshore could radically change the dynamics of South African society.

Mwana Africa was founded by Kalaa Mpinga, a citizen of the DRC, a former senior executive of Bechtel, and a director of Anglo American before launching Mwana Africa Holdings in 2003. Two years later he and a group of partners across Africa were in a position to float Mwana Africa PLC on the prestigious AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

To say that Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited, or KenGen as it is more commonly recognised, plays an important role in the economic development of the African nation is, to all intents and purposes, a gross understatement. The reason for this is that KenGen alone is responsible for producing almost 80 percent of the electricity consumed in the country.

Every person involved in gold mining or trading must have been shaken when the gold price slumped in mid April, so it’s reassuring to hear that one well-respected investor, the Canadian financier, Frank Giustra, said recently that he has complete faith in the continuation of the bull run. When it comes to investment Giustra has been so right for so long that it’s encouraging to know he is on Endeavour Mining’s Strategic Advisory Board.

10. Agricultural Bank of China

China
$111,493 million

Since it was first discovered in the country in the 1920s, copper has been one of Zambia’s most important sources of income. Five years after its independence from British rule in 1964 Zambia was classified as a middle-income country, with its GDP, then among the highest of any African nation, buoyed by what where at the time soaring copper prices. The history of decline in Zambian copper production, as opposed to the growth that was witnessed for example in Chile over the same period, is well known.

The current downstream director will take over the Anglo-Dutch energy giant on 1 January 2014, succeeding Peter Voser who will leave in March 2014 after spending 29 years with the company.

Mr Van Beurden joined the Royal Dutch Shell group of companies in 1983 and had held a number of technical and commercial roles in the upstream and downstream businesses. During his time with the group he has worked in the US, the Netherlands, Malaysia and the UK.