PAPE Fund Managers, an established black-owned boutique private equity manager, has announced the first close of PAPE Fund III, with Investors committing initial capital of ZAR471m.

Zuko Kubukeli, CEO of PAPE Fund Managers, said: “We are very pleased to announce that, following a successful fund raising campaign, five investor groups have signed up to PAPE Fund 3 to provide capital for investments into a portfolio of pedigreed mid-cap businesses that demonstrate sustainable growth potential.” 

According to Kubukeli, investors include the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which is the biggest asset manager in Africa, the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund, a number of family offices represented by the Rosebank Wealth Group and the Dutch Development Bank, FMO.

“The commitment by these investors will ensure that PAPE continues on its investment philosophy of finding quality deals, successfully deploying capital, closely monitoring these investments and maximizing returns,” he said.

PAPE Fund Managers invests in Southern Africa with the principal office domiciled in South Africa. 

PAPE Fund III will consider investment opportunities across several sectors of the South African economy, with specific focus on mid-cap SME businesses operating in the manufacturing, telecommunications, infrastructure, logistics, food security, tourism and leisure and medical sectors.

Kubukeli said: “We have an active pipeline of deals that we have been working on over the last two years and we are set to deploy capital into two investments within the next three months. We intend to continue with our capital raising programme and our objective is to reach a final closing target of ZAR1.2bn in capital commitments by end-June 2019.”

The individuals that make up the PAPE Fund Managers team have a successful track record having established and managed four private equity funds since 2009. 

Some of the successfully-executed investments from Fund I and II include Jojo Tanks, a supplier of high quality polyethylene tanks for the domestic, agricultural and commercial sectors; Tessara, an agri-business and food technology service provider; and Motivity, which provides operational support for the information communications technology.

PAPE Fund Managers has offices located in Bryanston, Gauteng, and in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape.

As a diverse and level 1 BEE-rated company, PAPE Fund Managers’ shareholders in the Fund manager include the Cala Foundation Trust, a broad-based education and health upliftment trust for the benefit of rural women in the Eastern Cape.