CAPE TOWN

Sub-Saharan focused private equity fund, Agri-Vie, will reach its $100m target for investment in agricultural projects by March, and could triple this amount in a second fund, a top official said over the weekend.

Agri-Vie funds food and agricultural projects in Africa seeking to make equity investments across the agri-business spectrum, including processing and product distribution. The first fund was launched in May 2008.

“The indication is that we would reach the target of $100m by February or March this year,” Izak Strauss, the executive director and chief investment officer of the Cape Town-based fund told Reuters.

“There is definitely an opportunity to do a second fund substantially larger than the first fund, probably (in the region of) $200 to $300m,” he said, adding that the second fund would likely launch around 2013 or 2014.

Strauss said the firm plans to invest up to $25m on five new projects during 2010, including a new $4m eco-tourism project in Tanzania.

Earlier this month, Agri-Vie invested slightly more than $10m in two ventures in the east African agri-business sector, which it considered an “investment hotspot” because of positive economic growth forecast in the region.

Strauss said Agri-Vie invested $6.7m in New Forests Company, a forestry and timber products group with operations in Uganda as well as Tanzania, Rwanda and Mozambique and with a British holding company.

East Africa has so far been a net importer of sawn timber and electrical poles and NFC aims to replace these imports with locally-produced goods.
- Reuters