8 Miles

"8 Miles is a private equity firm focused exclusively on making private equity investments in Africa. We invest in consumer-driven businesses and service providers with strong growth prospects. We look to partner with leading entrepreneurs and management teams, and work with them to achieve shared objectives by providing capital and operational expertise. A core part of our strategy is active ownership - actively participating in transforming businesses in which we invest. We are "hands on" investors in Africa.

At 8 Miles we have a complementary team of principals with significant experience in private equity and direct experience in successfully managing and transforming businesses in Africa. All our principals have extensive experience in developed and emerging economies, and therefore have a deep insight into the unique opportunities and challenges that Africa presents. We seek to achieve superior capital returns and accelerate the development of African companies by delivering lasting operational improvement.

Typically, we place between US$15 million and US$45 million in each investment that we make. Whilst we look at opportunities from growth equity to more complex buyouts, our strategy is essentially quite simple. We invest in African businesses and sectors with high growth prospects, and enhance performance by implementing our "active ownership" approach to manage the investment. We believe the combination of careful selection and hands-on involvement leads to better performance.

We work with highly motivated entrepreneurs and managers and ensure all stakeholder interests are completely aligned. We aim to take majority or influential minority positions in companies, and work closely with like-minded stakeholders to devise and implement operational changes to the business. Some of these changes appear straightforward - management controls, proper training and incentivisation, alignment of interests, analytically-driven decision making, and so forth - but they help ensure that the companies we work with have a competitive advantage relative to their peer group.

Our collective experience in Africa has taught us that value creation requires the key discipline to do simple things well; applying proven best practice and transferring skills, rather than re-inventing the wheel. Our "active ownership" philosophy integrates governance and operational change programmes. By leveraging our operational expertise, we look to create market leading African businesses. This leads to sustainable growth and value creation for all stakeholders.

8 Miles has identified target geographies and sectors where its investment approach can be best implemented. We focus on countries with strong macroeconomic fundamentals, good governance, a favourable regime for foreign investors, and a track record of private sector reforms which make doing business easier.

8 Miles focuses on consumer driven businesses and service providers with strong growth prospects. Typical sectors which we consider include:

• Agribusiness
• Business and Financial Services
• Consumer Goods and Retail
• Energy and Utilities
• Healthcare and Pharmaceutical
• Hospitality and Real Estate
• Telecom, Media and Technology
• Transport and Logistics

http://www.8miles.com/index.php 

Development Partners International

"Development Partners International LLP (DPI) is the investment adviser to ADP I, a private equity fund that invests across Africa.

Our focus is on companies benefiting from the fast-growing emerging middle class. We work throughout Africa and see the benefits of investing in the fast-growing and newly liberalising countries in Africa.

Our Focus

We expect the fund to invest in a wide variety of companies across the continent, with a view towards not concentrating on any one country, region or industry. We have a focus on companies that provide products and services for the fast-emerging African middle class, which we believe offer the most compelling investment profiles.

These include, but are not limited to the following industries: financial services, fast moving consumer goods, pharmaceutical and health and housing. We also expect the fund to take advantage of strategic opportunities with significant upside, including, among others, resource-based businesses to take advantage of Africa’s oil, natural gas and mineral riches.

Where We Invest

ADP I can invest throughout Africa, with a focus on increasing investments in the fast-growing post-conflict and newly liberalising African countries.

Our Criteria for Investment

We consider profitable or cash-flow positive companies which are growing either organically or through acquisitions, or partnering with established corporations expanding into new regions in Africa. They should offer ADP I the ability to exit over the lifetime of the investment.

The companies’ management must be experienced, and committed to transparency; with a clear corporate strategy designed to create value for shareholders...."

http://www.dpi-llp.com/