Business
Africa: Private Equity – New Cash for Expanding Businesses
A rutted road
Even for larger investors, the path to profitability can seem more like a rutted dirt road than like a freshly paved expressway. “Private equity is not challenging in terms of finding investment opportunities,” says Larry Seruma, chief investment officer and managing principal of Nile Capital Management, based in the US state of New Jersey. “It is like fishing in a barrel. The problem is with managing the business. Often there is not enough talent to take it to the next level. If you are a minority shareholder, you might not find the right people to represent you on the board, for example.”
On the talent front, Seruma, himself a native of Uganda, finds hope in the return of people who were once counted as drops in the brain drain. “The African diaspora is huge,” he says. “Well educated people are going back. Employment in the developed markets is not that good anymore, and Africa is growing. Local talent is moving back.”
Investors are also worried about their “exit strategies,” a euphemism for how they expect to realize returns on their investments. After all, these are profit-seeking capitalists, not philanthropists.
Venture capitalists like Mr. Jeromin sometimes look to larger private equity firms to buy their stakes as their protégés grow. Another option is known as a “trade sale,” selling all or part of a firm to a muscular multinational company looking to expand. Potential buyers could include major players in neighbouring countries seeking cross-border expansion to take advantage of the liberalized flow of goods and services within regional trade blocs.
Recently the Aureos Southern Africa Fund sold its 49 percent stake in Zambia’s foremost producer of table eggs, Golden Lay, to the African Agriculture Fund, a private fund managed by Phatisa, which invests in sustainable food businesses across Africa. “This marks a very successful investment and exit for Aureos,” says Ron den Besten, its managing partner. “Golden Lay has made great strides in the last five years. Production capacity has more than doubled as a result of our strategy of investment in new state-of-the-art laying houses, providing the impetus for exponential financial growth during our investment period.”
