FT Syndication Service
London: Two pioneers of fund management in Africa have gathered investors from the US and the Gulf to back the first private equity venture focusing on African countries emerging from conflict.
Development Partners International (DPI) launches at a time when record amounts of private capital are flowing into Africa, with investors attracted by the strongest growth in decades.
Miles Morland, who started up Blakeney Management to invest in nascent African stock exchanges in the early 1990s, and Runa Alam, formerly of private equity firm Kingdom Zephyr, have raised euro 230m ($361m) in five months towards a targeted euro 400m for DPI. They are initiating the first deals.
Mr Morland listed Angola, Algeria, Ethiopia, Libya and Mozambique as five countries - either emerging from conflict or in Libya's case from international isolation - they would invest in initially. If opportunities arose in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, or similar regions, they would also consider them.
"There is about $2.5bn of uncommitted private equity money looking for action in Africa but 90 per cent of this will be spent in five countries with developed capital markets: South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Egypt and Kenya," he said. "These countries are all interesting but valuations are often stretched because local stock markets are high while the countries we will be focusing on are growing faster and do not have functioning stock markets."
Private capital flows to sub-Saharan Africa, including foreign direct investment portfolio flows and loans, were $53bn last year, according to the International Monetary Fund. This represents a fourfold increase since 2000, when rising Asian demand for African resources was beginning to revive the terms on which Africa trades.
US pension funds, European development agencies and a Gulf sovereign wealth fund have backed DPI. Mr Morland is hoping a Chinese state entity will come in.
The anchor investor in DPI is the Dubai Group, one of the investment arms of Dubai Holdings, the ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum's vehicle for non-oil growth.
It has put up euro 75m towards the fund, in what Tom Volpe, its chief executive, describes as the first step in a broader African investment strategy.
"Every private equity group coming through here has an India and China relationship," Mr Volpe told the FT.
"From private equity standpoint, Africa has a lot of investment opportunities but not a lot of capital chasing after it."
