Old Mutual, Macquarie launching new Africa infrastructure fund

Africa busines bankingBy Neo Khanyile and Palesa Vuyolwethu Tshandu

(Bloomberg) — Old Mutual Plc is setting up a new fund for investments in African infrastructure including toll roads and power plants as part of a joint venture with Macquarie Group Ltd.

The companies intend to “raise a new fund because the old fund is almost fully invested,” Paul Boynton, head of alternative investments at Old Mutual Investment Group, said in an interview in Johannesburg on Wednesday. “We are going to launch a fund next quarter.”

Through their African Infrastructure Investment Managers Pty Ltd., which had $1.2 billion under management at the end of 2014, the companies are tapping into growing economies of sub- Saharan Africa. Expansion is forecast at 4.5 percent in 2015 and 5.1 percent next year, according to the International Monetary Fund, as nations build roads, power plants and water systems to meet the demands of the world’s second-most populous continent.

Old Mutual, headquartered in London, and Sydney-based Macquarie have invested in renewable energy and transportation infrastructure in East and West Africa, Boynton said. The companies put funds into gas-fired power plants in Ghana and Nigeria, and are looking to invest in wind farms in East Africa, he said.

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