Global private equity firm, Carlyle Group, plans to open offices in Johannesburg and Lagos and start investing in capital growth ventures and buyouts in the fast-growing region.

Washington D.C.-based Carlyle, which has $16.6 billion of assets under management in emerging markets, said it would begin with investments in the consumer goods, financial services, agriculture, infrastructure, and energy sectors.

“The entrance of a global player like Carlyle into sub-Saharan Africa is a testament to the region’s progress and prospects and will attract more capital and talent to the region,” Danie Jordaan, Carlyle’s sub-Saharan Africa co-head, said in a statement.

Carlyle, which has $97.7 billion in assets globally, said it was attracted by Africa’s favourable demographics, its expanding domestic industries, and improving politics.

The International Monetary Fund sees economic growth of 5.5 per cent for the region this year, one of the world’s fastest rates.

Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management, a private equity firm whose backers include Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, is expanding in Nigeria, as buyout firms’ interest in Africa  increases.

Seyi Owodunni, a partner at the firm and a former chief financial officer of Nigerian telecommunications operator Starcomms Plc, will head the new Lagos office, New York-based Kingdom Zephyr said today in an e-mailed statement. Kingdom Zephyr, which raised a $492 million private equity fund in 2008 for Africa, has offices in Accra, Ghana, Johannesburg and London.

Private equity firms are creating teams or raising funds to target investment in Africa and tap faster growth than in western economies. Carlyle Group opened offices in South Africa and Nigeria in March, saying the continent is one of the fastest-growing regions in the world. The Washington-based buyout firm, which raised $500 million for its first Middle East and North Africa fund in 2009, is seeking to raise about $500 million for its first fund targeting Sub-Saharan Africa, two people with knowledge of the plans said on March 3.

“Nigeria’s economic growth has recovered from the temporary dip in 2009 on the back of higher oil prices as well as industry and government reforms,” Owodunni said in the statement. “Growth will be further aided by key demographic trends such as an expanding workforce, increasing urbanization and the rapid growth of Nigeria’s middle class.”

Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa will accelerate to 5.9 percent next year from 5.5 percent in 2011, according to April forecasts from the International Monetary Fund. That compares with projected global growth of 4.5 percent next year.

Funds of about $2 billion were raised for Sub-Sahara, Northern Africa and the Middle East last year, according data compiled by the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association. China attracted $7.5 billion, according to Washington-based EMPEA.

Vital Capital Investments LP, which invests in housing and agriculture in Africa, raised more than $250 million for its first fund and plans to get another $250 million, it said yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in London at achassany@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net

SEFAGO:

^ PhysicsMHD you don craze finish with all those particle and condensed matter physics u dey study?

Anyways I meant these two:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlyle_Group

http://www.kingdomzephyr.com/team.html

Kilode?!:

^^ I had the same thought when I saw Carlyle, I think Prince Bin Talal own investments in Nigerian assets going back to IBB days so no biggie. I dislike conspiracy theories, I like investments, but I also know history can be very repetitive, very cyclical.

Hopefully we are wiser this time around and won't leave all the "grabbing" and control to foreign capitalists.

SEFAGO:

^ Africans are the one managing the funds though. I get your point though, the buck stops at oyibos table.

its just investments and they are trying to make money.

Look at what oyibo think of us:

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/africa

SEFAGO:

^ Africans are the one managing the funds though. I get your point though, the buck stops at oyibos table.

its just investments and they are trying to make money.

Look at what oyibo think of us:

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/africa

 

Nigeria's not Darfur or even pre-revolution Libya, but it's not exactly a place where you can run a large-scale business with a perfectly clean conscience. Just look at Chevron's or Royal Dutch's experience with charges over bribery and unarmed protesters getting shot at by the military.

You read WSO too? lol

It's amazing how clueless some of those preppy kids are, and they want to work in IBs and deal with assets all over the world?

Anyway, the ignorance helps when your cultural world-view actually controls the world, You should read what Oyinbo expats in Nigeria say about us, I will post a link if I can go through the archives on some other site I saw.

Like Ezeuche rightly said, They learn quickly when they get the gig. The unfortunate thing though is that we don't benefit from their ignorance (yahoo-yahoo boys benefit somewhat) because they control too much "economically" right now.

^^ eeyah, can you imagine the sanctimonious ignorance of that one?

Is there anywhere you can run a large-scale business with a perfectly clean conscience? In a dog-eat-dog capitalist world where we all struggle for scarce economic resources? except he can reboot his conscience every night, That guy needs to apply to the Holy Mt. Athos, GS might break his cute little spirit

SEFAGO:


Yeah but the problem is also us, we still keep hiring them no matter what.

SEFAGO:


Another funny fact- they only wanted to go to countries that were more "western"