{"id":15270,"date":"2012-06-13T09:44:13","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T07:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=15270"},"modified":"2012-06-13T09:55:56","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T07:55:56","slug":"convergence-partners-launches-500m-ict-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/it-services\/15270\/convergence-partners-launches-500m-ict-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Convergence Partners launches $500m ICT fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

Convergence Partners<\/a> is launching a $500 million African fund to invest in information and communication technology, with an initial $35 million equity investment by the International Finance Corp (IFC)<\/a>, a unit of the World Bank.<\/p>\n

The first close of an initial $120-$130 million of the Convergence Partners Communications Infrastructure Fund is expected within two months, Andile Ngcaba<\/a>, chairman of the investment group, told Reuters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Information and communication technology growth has been dynamic when compared to other forms of infrastructure across the fast-growing continent but is still a bottleneck for private sector development, according to the IFC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are rolling nicely. … We’re almost there,\u201d Ngcaba said, adding Convergence had been in talks with development finance institutions and banks in the last two years for the fund.<\/p>\n

The European Investment Bank lists the Fund on its website as a project under appraisal for a $25 million equity injection.<\/p>\n

Ngcaba said most of the investment would be in companies working on next-generation infrastructure projects to provide high-volume data services.<\/p>\n

He said exit would not be difficult given the high investment interest in Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nature of M&A activity we see is quite dynamic. One does not even see a 10-year horizon in some of them, to be honest with you,\u201d Ngcaba said.<\/p>\n

Johannesburg-based Convergence has a deal pipeline of $2 billion and has already invested in about 20 telecommunications, media and technology sector firms in Africa through its \u201cPortfolio I\u201d fund.<\/p>\n

The IFC is expecting a return of at least 25 percent from its investment, said Saleem Karimjee, a senior manager for the Southern Africa region.<\/p>\n

The institution, which invests in developing the private sector in emerging economies, provides loans, equity investments and advisory services to companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still huge gain to be made. Through helping private ICT to blossom, we can unlock much greater private sector development than has already occurred. For us, it is a no-brainer,\u201d Karimjee said.<\/p>\n

The IFC expects to invest $3.5 billion in sub-Saharan Africa in the fiscal year ending this month, he said.<\/p>\n

It made a 170 million rand ($20.18 million) equity investment in South African financial services company Assupol this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Convergence Partners is launching a $500 million African fund to invest in information and communication technology, with an initial $35 million equity investment by the International Finance Corp (IFC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2269,3134,3132,26,767,3133],"class_list":["post-15270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-services","tag-andile-ngcaba","tag-assupol","tag-convergence-partners-communications","tag-headline","tag-ict","tag-international-finance-corp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15270"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15272,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15270\/revisions\/15272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}