Kingdom Zephyr planned to invest about $300 million (R2bn) over the next three years by taking minority stakes in six or seven companies across Africa, managing partner Kofi Bucknor said yesterday.
Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management, whose biggest investor is Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, is in the process of investing more than $400m of committed capital from a 2008 fund.
The Africa-focused private equity firm had already spent 30 percent of that amount on three deals and was looking to spend the rest over the next three years, Bucknor said at the Reuters Africa Investment Summit in Johannesburg.
“Our focus will continue to be around the investment opportunities coming from the consumption patterns of the growing middle class in Africa as they relate to industries such as banking, insurance, housing, telecommunications and cement,” Bucknor said.
Consumer spending in Africa is expected to roughly double by 2020 as disposable incomes rise in a nascent middle class.
Bucknor added that the fund would focus on Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Angola, Algeria and Morocco for companies to invest in.
“I think the obvious places to look are the large markets where we can find companies of critical size more easily,” he said. “We seek significant minority positions.”
Kingdom Zephyr owns stakes in South African building materials group Buildworks and Ivory Coast canned tuna maker Thunnus Overseas.
The fund also sees opportunities in infrastructure sectors such as housing and electricity, and is keeping an eye out for opportunities in the natural resources sector. – Reuters