Swedfund, owned by the Swedish state, provides risk capital, expertise and financial support for investments in local companies in the developing markets of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. AGF’s Anna Lyudvig speaks with Maria Håkansson who joined Swedfund as its new Chief Executive Officer in March, to learn more about Africa investments.
Alta Semper, a sector-focused private equity manager that invests in Frontier Markets (currently focused on Africa), across both the Consumer and Healthcare verticals, has recently announced its first investment in Nigeria. AGF’s Anna Lyudvig speaks with Afsane Jetha, Managing Partner & CEO, about the firm, its investment strategy, deals and more.
Africa Global Funds’ Anna Lyudvig sits down with Felix Adahi Bikpo, Chief Executive Officer of the African Guarantee Fund, a pan-African non-bank financial institution, which aims to promote economic development, increase employment and reduce poverty in Africa to discuss the Fund, African growth prospects and agreement with GuarantCo.
AGF’s catches up with Zack Bezuidenhoudt, Head of South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, S&P Dow Jones Indices, to discuss index-based products and passive investing.
Anna Lyudvig (AL): How South Africa is positioned for growth and what are the ways that passive investing may contribute?
Zack Bezuidenhoudt (ZB): The investment options South Africans have access to have increased dramatically over the last few years. More options in the passive space have meant that investors can now construct low cost strategies across multiple asset classes and styles of investing. S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) has rolled out a range of plain vanilla and smart beta indices in South Africa that serve as the underlying for ETFs and index funds. S&P DJI introduced the SPIVA® South Africa Scorecard three years ago to show how active funds have performed against its respective S&P indices. The SPIVA® Scorecard is an educational resource for market participants to learn holistically about the differences between active and passive investments, and how each performs over various timeframes.
AL: How to take advantage of the wide range of index-based vehicles now available to market participants?
ZB: S&P DJI launched a range of new indices for the South African market four years ago, including various smart beta indices that follow factor based investing style such as, quality, momentum, value, yield, low volatility and size. Our indices underly quite a few new ETFs listing on the JSE, ranging from indices that measure Local and Global Property, Global Equity, Multi Factor, Single Factors, Dividends, Fixed Income and Large Cap South Africa and US equity. Market participants have more choice with a broader range of index-based ETFs across asset classes and regions. Market participants that prefer unit trusts also have more options, as various asset managers now offer smart beta and index funds, as well as Robo Advisor solutions offered across the risk spectrum.
AL: Which indices may best suit particular risk/return goals, and when/how to employ each?
ZB: As an index provider, our indices are meant to measure the returns of broad markets and market segments through a fully transparent and publicly available methodology that outlines the rules for governing the indices as well as the eligibility criteria to be added to an index. We do not govern our indices for outperformance.
AGF’s Anna Lyudvig speaks with Wildu du Plessis, Head of Africa at Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg, about how the nature of deals, exits and fundraising activity has changed in Southern African private equity throughout the years.
A major initiative made possible by the Phatisa-Meridian partnership was the Productivity Improvement Program for Smallholders; instrumental in mobilizing the AAF’s TAF to provide funds and the necessary expertise to roll out the outgrowers' program in Malawi through Meridian’s existing network of retailers in the country. Farmers Worlds, part of the Meridian Group, has hired 60 salesmen/women termed ‘agronauts’ to operate out of Meridian’s (> 100) retail outlets and reach 12,000 farmers in the central and southern regions of Malawi. Phatisa is a sector-specific fund manager with committed investments from Sierra Leone in West Africa to Mauritius in East Africa. This reflects a total of nine portfolio companies across a diverse range of agri and food-related businesses.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has backed several initiatives to support their Feed Africa Strategy, such as Africa-based Phatisa, which invests in food and agri-related businesses in Africa that show strong growth potential.
AGF’s Anna Lyudvig (AL) speaks with Rory Ord, Head of Unlisted Investments at 27four Investment Managers about the new private equity business and the launch of the PE fund of funds.
Vakayi Capital has recently invested in Homelux Property Development, making its first investment since its launch. The firm is the country’s only small and medium enterprise (SME) focused impact investor. It is uniquely positioned in Zimbabwe to tap into investment opportunities in businesses with proven business models, strong growth prospects and the potential to significantly create jobs and impact the lives of low-income people. Africa Global Funds speaks with Chai Musoni, Partner & CEO at Vakayi Capital, to learn more.
Africa Global Funds (AGF) catches up with Vincent Destieu, Deal Principal, Phatisa, to discuss new office in Abidjan and trends in agri-food in sub-Saharan Africa
In March, Mediterrania Capital Partners, a private equity firm focusing on growth investments for companies in North African and Sub-Saharan countries, announced plans to raise €250m for its third fund, Mediterrania Capital III (MC III). AGF speaks with Albert Alsina, CEO and Managing Partner, on the progress and investment strategy.
Africa Global Funds speaks with Khaled Ben Jilani, Senior Executive Partner at AfricInvest, about fundraising for its new financial sector private equity fund, investment strategy and opportunities.
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Abuja, Sigma Pensions is the fifth largest pension fund administrator (PFA) in Nigeria. Sigma was one of Nigeria’s first PFAs and now has over 600,000 members and just under N300bn ($1bn) assets under management. The funds under management comprise of RSA Fund, Retiree fund, Afribank Fund, TCF Fund, CBN Fund, NNPC Fund, SEC Fund, NEXIM Fund, FAAN Fund, Jigawa Fund and Intercontinental Bank Fund.
