Johannesburg/New York — Africa investor (Ai), a leading international investment and communications group, today announced that the Africa investor (Ai) CEO Institutional Investment Summit has successfully engaged the investment community in a co-investment dialogue at the New York Stock Exchange.
The 7th Ai CEO Institutional Investment Summit, held in partnership with the New York Stock Exchange, and billed as the institutional investor community follow-up to the recent President Obama-led US-Africa Leaders' Summit, focused on facilitating co-investments between select African and U.S. institutional investors, including sovereign wealth and pension funds, to invest in Africa's fastest growing sectors and capital markets.
Africa investor provided additional thought leadership at the Summit with the launch of its new BizClim-supported report, The African Sovereign Wealth and Pension Funds Summit Report, on mobilising domestic African capital as a tool to leverage global institutional capital. The report was launched during the 2014 Ai Heads of State Investment Advisory Council Dialogue, held in partnership with UNOSAA and GPF. The Heads of State and Ministerial dialogue featured Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama; Hubert Danso, CEO and Vice Chairman, Africa investor; Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson, African Union; Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, United Nations; Amir Dossal, Chairman, Global Partnerships Forum, and a number of Ministers from around Africa. The panel saw a further commitment from Africa's leaders on developing a conducive environment for improving the participation and regulatory environment for African pension and sovereign wealth funds, based on
the recommendations from the Ai BizClim-supported report on facilitating co-investments with African pension and sovereign wealth fund capital for infrastructure investment on the continent. Ai also announced its $1bn Africa investor Sovereign Infrastructure Investment Platform, for African pension and sovereign wealth funds – continually developed in close partnership with African pension and sovereign wealth funds. The new Ai Platform is uniquely designed to increase intra-African investment, which is currently at a mere 5% compared to intra-European investment levels in excess of 70%. The Ai Platform will achieve this through its co-investment programme, designed to extend and increase the level of co-investment between not only African pension and sovereign wealth funds (both public and private), but also amongst their international peers. The Ai Sovereign Infrastructure Investment Platform will therefore catalyse Africa's domestic assets and de-risk and attract increased allocations from the $30 trillion-plus global institutional capital
seeking growth.
Africa investor Capital also hosted a series of one-on-one investor meetings during the Summit in partnership with Auerbach Grayson & Company.
Commenting on the Summit, Hubert Danso, CEO and Vice Chairman of Africa investor, said, "We are delighted with the level of the participation of African and global institutional investors, and the realisation that Ai's co-investment platform not only benefits Africa's growth, but the global
economy also, through reciprocal international allocations and the creation of new markets." The 7th Ai CEO Institutional Investment Summit partners included: NYSE Euronext, GE Africa, Ecobank, the Securities Exchange Commission, Nigeria, BizClim, IFC, Auerbach Grayson & Co, ASEA, UNOSAA, Global Partnerships Forum, United Nations Office for Partnerships, World Pensions Council, ILPA, AVCA, Market Atlas, The Africa-America Institute, Africa PLC, the Quadrant Company, AllAfrica and the Bunengi Group. The 2014 Ai Index Series Awards were also announced and presented during the Summit. The Summit formed part of Ai's annual US roadshow for African Business and Investment Leaders, which will be moving to the World Bank Annual Meetings on the 9th of October 2014 at the Ritz Carlton in association with the World Bank Group.
About Africa investor - www.africainvestor.com
Africa investor is a specialist investment and communications group advising governments, international organisations and businesses on communication strategies for capital market and foreign direct investments in Africa. Africa investor publishes Africa investor, the leading international newsstand magazine for Africa's investment decision makers; maintains the Africa investor 40 Investors' Index, hosts the Ai Index Series Summit & Awards and the Africa investor Infrastructure Projects Summit & Awards, among other events.
About the Africa investor Index Series
Africa investor Research provides a family of products and services that support our clients' investment processes in major asset classes across Africa. Our goal is to leverage our deep understanding of Africa's financial markets to turn data-driven insights into tools that our clients can use to meet their investment process needs. Ai produces weekly, value-traded adjusted, market capitalisation-weighted indices. Its Ai100 and Ai 40 Investors' indexes capture the top 40 and 100 of the largest and most liquid publicly traded stocks across Africa ranking them by market capitalisation and by liquidity as measured by the average daily value traded in US Dollars. The Ai40 and Ai100 indices can be found on Bloomberg and Reuters and are licensed to fund managers.
For more information on the Africa investor (Ai) CEO Institutional Investment Summit and Index Series Awards, contact Catherine Wright on +27 11 783 2431 or cwright@africainvestor.com.
