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Actis Targets Fast-Growing African Economies In Five-Year Real Estate Plan

Actis Targets Fast-Growing African Economies In Five-Year Real Estate Plan

From BusinessDay

Actis, an international private equity investment firm, says it has a five-year plan to invest in projects including shopping centres, office towers and industrial parks in fast-growing African economies such as Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.

Kevin Teeroovengadum, the firm’s director of sub-Saharan Africa real estate unit, who revealed this recently in an interview in Johannesburg, says that they would lead investment of as much as $1.5 billion in African commercial property to meet rising demand from international companies targeting a growing middle class.

Michael Chu’di Ejekam, Teeroovengadum’s counterpart in Nigeria, had noted in Lagos that African market was “huge, under-supplied and growing,” adding that “there is a sharp demand-supply imbalance which we are trying to bridge.”

“This is sub-Saharan Africa and in comparison with some other markets, it is one of the fastest growing in the entire world. Africa dominates the list of the fastest growing economies in the world,” Ejekam noted in an interview with BusinessDay.

African Development Bank’s annual outlook also notes that Africa’s economy, excluding Libya and Somalia, is forecast to expand 5.2 percent this year amid a rise in oil and mining projects and direct investment from foreign companies.

Teeroovengadum points out that Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, grew 6.6 percent in the first quarter of 2013, while South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy, expanded by an annualised 0.9 percent.

Actis has raised about $1.4 billion across seven Africa funds since 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Written by Chuka Uroko | Read more at BusinessDay