Private equity fund to inject $125m in Africa
Sep 28, 2008
A PRIVATE equity fund plans to put money in risk capital investments and other business support to five African countries, a senior manager announced last week.<br>The GroFin Africa fund has so far raised $125m at its fund’s first closing.
By Sylvia Juuko
A PRIVATE equity fund plans to put money in risk capital investments and other business support to five African countries, a senior manager announced last week.
The GroFin Africa fund has so far raised $125m at its fund’s first closing.
“This represents the largest fundraising success by GroFin in a single fund to date, a fact that highlights appetite for investors for Africa,†said Jurie Willemse, the managing director. The fund said in a statement recently that it would invest between $100,000 and $1m in seven countries including Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa. It expects to raise $160m by November.
Willemse, who heads the Mauritius-based GroFin Managers, said the economic, political and social reforms coupled with several years of high growth that have taken place across many African economies, made it a “very attractive growth finance environment.â€
“GroFin specialises in integrating the much-needed risk finance with business development support.
“This helps fill a void between micro-finance and private equity as very few financiers target the emerging growth finance asset class,†he said
The fund will target growth finance opportunities in all sectors like consumer goods services, logistics /transport, private education, manufacturing and agribusiness.
The fund was created by GroFin, a leading growth finance fund management company specialising in risk capital and business support for small-and-medium businesses in emerging markets.
Meanwhile, David Muwanga and Moses Mulondo report that Tropix Technology, an American-based company, has invested $150m (about sh248b) in a project that will enable students and public servants to get laptop computers at subsidised rates.
The information and communications technology (ICT) state minister, Alintuma Nsambu, commissioned the project recently at the Statistics House in Kampala.
“As a country, we have been sleeping in the area of ICT. This is a very historic project. We have removed the intermediary costs and barriers that have been inflating the cost of laptops in Uganda. Let us take the challenge,†Nsambu said.
At least 3,000 civil servants have benefited from the first phase of the programme that was launched six months ago, he added.
Nsambu said his ministry had got one million laptops ready for distribution.
He said President Yoweri Museveni set up the project to ensure that even the poor get access to ICT tools.
Each laptop will cost $699 (about sh1.2m) through a loan scheme Stanbic Bank.
The bank will offer loans for the purchase of the laptops in repayment packages of 12, 24 or 36 months.
A special 48-month package will be reserved exclusively for civil servants who hold accounts with Stanbic Bank.
“We have worked it out with the commercial banks that would provide affordable loans,†the minister said.
A PRIVATE equity fund plans to put money in risk capital investments and other business support to five African countries, a senior manager announced last week.
The GroFin Africa fund has so far raised $125m at its fund’s first closing.
“This represents the largest fundraising success by GroFin in a single fund to date, a fact that highlights appetite for investors for Africa,†said Jurie Willemse, the managing director. The fund said in a statement recently that it would invest between $100,000 and $1m in seven countries including Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa. It expects to raise $160m by November.
Willemse, who heads the Mauritius-based GroFin Managers, said the economic, political and social reforms coupled with several years of high growth that have taken place across many African economies, made it a “very attractive growth finance environment.â€
“GroFin specialises in integrating the much-needed risk finance with business development support.
“This helps fill a void between micro-finance and private equity as very few financiers target the emerging growth finance asset class,†he said
The fund will target growth finance opportunities in all sectors like consumer goods services, logistics /transport, private education, manufacturing and agribusiness.
The fund was created by GroFin, a leading growth finance fund management company specialising in risk capital and business support for small-and-medium businesses in emerging markets.
Meanwhile, David Muwanga and Moses Mulondo report that Tropix Technology, an American-based company, has invested $150m (about sh248b) in a project that will enable students and public servants to get laptop computers at subsidised rates.
The information and communications technology (ICT) state minister, Alintuma Nsambu, commissioned the project recently at the Statistics House in Kampala.
“As a country, we have been sleeping in the area of ICT. This is a very historic project. We have removed the intermediary costs and barriers that have been inflating the cost of laptops in Uganda. Let us take the challenge,†Nsambu said.
At least 3,000 civil servants have benefited from the first phase of the programme that was launched six months ago, he added.
Nsambu said his ministry had got one million laptops ready for distribution.
He said President Yoweri Museveni set up the project to ensure that even the poor get access to ICT tools.
Each laptop will cost $699 (about sh1.2m) through a loan scheme Stanbic Bank.
The bank will offer loans for the purchase of the laptops in repayment packages of 12, 24 or 36 months.
A special 48-month package will be reserved exclusively for civil servants who hold accounts with Stanbic Bank.
“We have worked it out with the commercial banks that would provide affordable loans,†the minister said.