Deloitte sees increased private equity deals in EA

Private Equity firms expect to increase their investments in East Africa in the next 12 months as they look for opportunities to deploy recently raised funds.

A new survey by consulting firm Deloitte says that 90 per cent of firms, compared to 71 per cent last year, expect to invest more in the region, while the number of those exiting investments is expected to remain low in the near term.

A number of PE firms have been raising Africa focused funds, which they are now actively deploying especially within East Africa where growth has been above the sub Saharan Africa average for the past few years.

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“The majority of PE firms indicated that they have raised new funds and are planning to deploy these over the next year. The lack of projected exits from deals is as a result of most PE firms being in a deploy stage of their investment cycle, resulting in most funds consolidating current investments rather than looking at exit options,” said Deloitte in the survey report.

Earlier this month, British PE firm Actis—the developer of Garden City mall— said it has raised Sh50.5 billion ($500 million) for real estate investment in eight African countries including Kenya.

Fellow UK firm Helios partners is also actively investing in various sectors following last year’s profitable sale of a 24.9 per cent stake in Equity Bank for about Sh50 billion. It had also raised Sh100 billion ($1.1 billion) for its Helios III fund that closed in January 2015.