NAIROBI Oct 9 (Reuters) – Emerging markets private equity
firm Actis has raised $278 million for investment in African
real estate to ride a housing boom fuelled by a growing middle
class.
Actis, one of the largest private equity investors in the
world’s poorest countries, said on Tuesday the fund, Actis
Africa Real Estate 2, will focus on retail and office
development in east, west and southern Africa, excluding South
Africa.
Although African economies are growing quickly – second only
to Asia – there is a lack of sufficient liquidity in Africa’s
public capital markets, and investors are increasingly turning
to private equity to tap into the continent’s economic growth.
“Sub-Saharan Africa has a population of 800 million people
and is the fastest urbanising region in the world but lack of
capital often constrains real estate development,” David Morley,
head of Real Estate at Actis, said in a statement.
“Governments recognise the crucial role of FDI (foreign
direct investment) in this regard.”
Infrastructure development is a capital-intensive business
that most African governments struggling with large budget
deficits cannot afford, making other regions more attractive to
investors.
The private equity group has over $300 million invested in
the east African region.
Earlier this year, it said it was looking to invest around
$300 million annually in Africa, with much of that earmarked for
bigger markets such as South Africa.
Paul Fletcher, a senior partner at Actis, said the fund was
evidence of Actis’s broader investment plan of building domestic
infrastructure in the emerging markets.
(Editing by James Macharia and mark Potter)
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