ETFs

VENTURES AFRICA – Africa’s largest online community of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists VC4Africa (Venture Capital for Africa), last week welcomed it’s 10,000th member, with 1,000 African enterprises already registered on the platform and many securing valuable partnerships to date. VC4Africa wants to close Africa’s startup-funding gap, bringing quality entrepreneurs and qualified investors closer together. In [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – Growth-hungry African Guarantee Fund is already making a mark in credit-deficient Small and Medium-sized Enterprises sector in Kenya, nine months after official launch on June 1, 2012. In two days’ time, the Pan African SME Fund headquartered in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has separately inked deals with two commercial banks for onward lending [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – Tough liquidity constraints are a challenge for investors focused on African markets, which have been dominated by foreign investors, Renaissance Capital said in a note on Monday. Foreign interest in African stock markets such as those in Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe has main stayed trade dealings since the beginning of this year. [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – Leading South Africa based finance firm Ethos Private Equity has gathered $800 million for an investment fund catering specifically to African opportunities. The private investment firm had originally set raising $750 million as a target, however, interest in the African market from foreign investors was such that the target was easily surpassed, [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – Eleni LLC, a newly formed company led by CEO Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, announced today that Morgan Stanley and International Finance Corporation (IFC) have both agreed to make an equity investment totalling about $7.5 million in the Kenya-based company which will incubate and support the formation of agricultural commodity exchanges across Africa, helping to [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced plans for a 200 million euro($260 million) investment aimed at enhancing growth, with special focus on development of SMEs, in the North African region. The Bank announced yesterday that its Board of Directors (representing the Bank’s shareholders) has approved a first wave [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – The Trademark East Africa Challenge Fund (TRAC) has extended its remit, launching the Fund in Rwanda, with an Introductory Stakeholders’ Workshop in Kigali, to be followed by a similar launch in Burundi this Friday. While already present in Kenya and Tanzania, the Challenge Fund – which aims to encourage cross-border trading in [...]

VENTURES AFRICA - Ghana-based Fidelity Capital Partners, a private equity fund manager and originally a member of the Fidelity Group, has rebranded to Jacana Partners, after a two year partnership with the London based pan-African SME private equity firm. The fund will now combine Jacana’s international private equity experts with its experienced local teams, as it [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – Private Equity fund manager Adlevo Capital Managers and Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A organization, have made an investment into Rancard Solutions Limited, a provider of cloud based software for mobile content discovery and delivery focused on Africa. The deal marks Intel Capital’s first investment in West Africa and is the [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – East African insurance giant UAP Insurance Group has raised Sh4.7 billion ($54.8 million) from the sale of shares to three private equity funds, Aureos Africa Fund, AfricInvest Fund and Swedfund International AB, in a bid to finance expansion as it eye Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) listing in two years.   The deal [...]

A new survey by Deloitte Consulting shows in comparison with South Africa and West Africa, PE executives polled cited East Africa’s higher growth potential, more business confidence, less exposure to global turmoil and the benefits of a strong regional trading bloc as key lures.   As such, more private equity firms are set to open [...]

Private equity funds in Africa and the developing world are set for increased investment from the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund), which has announced plans to double its portfolio over the next five years. Click here to read more

The FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index advanced for a second day, rising less than 0.1 percent to 34,106 by the close in Johannesburg. The index gained 0.6 percent last week. The following were among the most active equities in the South African market today. Stock symbols follow company names. Click link to continue reading