Private sector investment key to continent's development, says Kaberuka
African Development Bank support for private equity investment in Africa recorded a major success on Wednesday, April 16, when The Carlyle Group announced it had raised $698 million for its new Sub-Saharan Africa Fund, exceeding its initial target by 40 per cent. The Bank was a cornerstone investor and played a crucial role by investing $50 million at an early stage in the fundraising.
"Private sector investment is one of the key ingredients in this continent taking charge of, funding and managing its own development destiny," said Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank. "This success shows another route through which the world can invest in Africa, a new global growth pole."
"Carlyle is one of the first global alternative asset managers to launch a dedicated Sub-Saharan African fund and we are grateful for the support of our fund investors, who share our belief that Sub-Saharan Africa offers many investment opportunities," said Marlon Chigwende, Managing Director and co-head of the Sub-Saharan Africa advisory team at the Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest global asset management firms.
The Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund will seek to invest in large national companies looking to expand across regions. It hopes to lead in the transformation of single-country companies to regional platform companies. The Fund's investment team has reviewed deals in a wide range of countries in the region, including Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zambia.
The Carlyle Group views Ghana, Tanzania, Botswana and Benin as attractive places to allocate capital, in addition to its initial investment anchor countries of South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. It forecasts that the new Fund's portfolio at exit will be a mix of buyout and growth capital investments, in 15 countries across the region. With investment interest in Africa at an all-time high, private equity and other investment will play a critical role in the development of African economies in the coming years.
"Today's story is a further instance of global confidence in African markets," Kaberuka continued. "Foreign Direct Investment into Africa rose to $50 billion in 2013, and it is the task of multilateral development banks to help unlock that money, and to multiply it."
About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with approximately $189 billion of assets under management across 118 funds and 106 fund of funds vehicles as of December 31, 2013. Established in March 2012, the Carlyle Sub-Sahara Africa Team advises on buyout and growth capital investments in private and public companies from offices in Johannesburg, SA and Lagos, Nigeria. Carlyle's target industries include consumer goods, logistics, financial services, agribusiness, and energy, and the Africa-based team has worked in 29 African countries.
