Private Equity

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Azuri’s HomeSmart adjusts power output based on prior solar battery use. In sub-Saharan Africa, home electricity is a 50-50 prospect and bank accounts can be rare, but most people have some kind of cellphone. The phones provide information often tough to come by in rural areas—the latest commodity prices, for example. And even in places where pastoral tribesmen tend livestock in very old-school ways, they may also chat over…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria and Morocco set the stage for the construction of a pipeline that will connect Nigerian gas to customers elsewhere in Africa and make it available to European buyers. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and King Mohammed VI of Morocco on Sunday signed an agreement in Rabat to start studies and consultations on the project, according to a statement by the Moroccan state agency MAP. The 5,660-kilometer (3,500-mile) conduit, which will follow onshore and…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority is restructuring its portfolio to focus more on domestic investments after a drop in the currency wiped out foreign-exchange gains last year. “The asset allocation strategy of NSIA has been restructured to reflect an increased focus on domestic infrastructure investments with 50 percent of future contributions to be dedicated to infrastructure,” according to a statement on Monday from the fund. The institution, which last year had…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Research provider Preqin indicated that 388 private equity (PE) funds raised a total of $114.6bn to invest in emerging markets (EMs) in 2017, compared to 639 EM-focused PE funds that raised $105.3bn in 2016. The aggregate capital raised in 2017 by EM-focused PE funds represented the second highest level since 2008. Also, the number of PE funds with a primary focus on EMs accounted for 32% of total PE funds, while the…