Emerging Capital Partners, the Washington-headquartered private equity firm, is looking to raise an additional $750 million in the next 12-18 months to pursue more deals in Africa. Acquisitions by the fund will increase the buyout firm's assets to

$3.25 billion. 

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Viswanathan Shankar, who stepped down from his role as Standard Chartered's Head of Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas in April, has confirmed that he is launching a $750 million-$1 billion private equity fund targeting Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and South East Asia. The fund aims to provide companies with growth capital to emerging market firms looking to break into other emerging or frontier markets. 

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Beltone Capital is looking to raise EGP 1 billion, (approximately $131 million), in an offering on the Egyptian Stock Exchange later this year. The private equity company is owned by a number of Egyptian and Arab investors. 

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The IFC is partnering with CITIC Construction Co., the Chinese construction and engineering multinational, to launch a $300 million affordable housing investment platform focused on sub-Saharan Africa. The new vehicle, CITICC (Africa) Holding, will partner with local housing developers to provide long-term capital to build 30,000 homes over the best five years, creating 150,000 new jobs in the process. 

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MENA Telecomms operator Zain Group is joining the ranks of other investors by making its second foray into venture capital investing with a strategic participation in Wamda Capital's new $75 million fund. The structure and terms of the investment were not disclosed. 

Interswitch, the Nigerian payments and transaction processing company which is majority owned by Helios Investment Partners, Adlevo Capital and the IFC, is considering holding initial public offerings in London and Lagos in 2016, according to founder and CEO, Mitchell Elegbe. Bloomberg reports him as saying that there is no guarantee of an IPO, as owners would also consider exiting their stakes via a trade sale.

Choppies, the Botswanan food retailer, has reached a conditional agreement to acquire 10 outlets from Ukwala Supermarkets in Kenya for approximately $9.5 million.  While not a huge deal, it is indicative of the company's intent to use acquisition as part of its strategy to have 200 stores in six African countries by the end of 2016. The firm recently listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, but still counts Standard Chartered Private Equity among its significant backers. 

At an industry forum in Nairobi last week, policy makers and regulators agreed on the need for harmonization of policy and regulatory frameworks to help bridge the continent's digital divide. Several African governments have started exploring how to relieve bottlenecks that obstruct high speed access to the internet.

This week sees the launch of the Tripartite Free Trade Area, an agreement between the East African Community, Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern which creates a market of more than 625 million people in 26 countries with a  combined annual GDP of $1 trillion. The agreement follows 4 years of negotiations, and the free trade area will be inaugurated at a summit in Egypt on Wednesday.

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Following their acquisition of a minority stake in insurer Apollo Investments from LeapFrog Investments, Swiss Re's CEO, Frank O'Neill tells Bloomberg that the company is keen to acquire similar minority stakes in Nigerian insurers to capitalize on the anticipated growth in the market.

As the growth of Africa's cities fuels demand for high quality commercial and residential real estate, Ventures Africa takes a brief look at the market in 5 countries that offer investors potentially the best opportunities on the continent.

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M&A activity in Africa is at its lowest level in more than a decade, the Financial Times reports, a response to collapsing commodity prices, political instability and the anticipated tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Most of the decline is caused by the contraction in inbound M&A where international companies acquire of merge with African businesses, and which is down 46% on the same period last year.

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In a joint KPMG/EAVCA research study, 52% of the private equity exits in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia which occurred from 2007 to 2014 were made through buybacks by the original firm proprietors. The trend hampers the growth of the private equity industry in the region, which would benefit from the development of a secondary private equity markets and more efforts to attract strategic investors.

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At the World Economic Forum conference which took place in Cape Town last week, panelists talked of the need to mobilize private sector capital to invest and help narrow Africa's yawning infrastructure gap. A summary of how countries can mobilize capital inflows and what safeguards can investors reasonable expect.

Yet another perspective on the opportunity in Africa, highlighting the benefits investors and corporations can expect by actively engaging in with the continent. With enormous untapped potential, those willing to invest might profit handsomely. 

An editorial from BusinessDay following the conclusion of the World Economic Forum which was held in Cape Town last week. While the factors that drive the "Africa Rising" narrative are still intact, constraints exist. In EY's latest report, which found levels of foreign direct investment to be slowing, if only mildly. Africa should not take capital inflows for granted, especially as developed markets start to recover, creating more competition for capital.

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Despite promising much and taking significant strides, Africa is at a crossroads. In this piece by OPIC's CEO, Elizabeth Littlefield, instead of asking whether Africa will continue to grow, we should be asking whether this growth will translate into improved standards of living for the continent's peoples.

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Emerging markets look set to be an engine for growth for the world economy well into the future. Real GDP growth in emerging markets has been outpacing developed market growth by a factor of 2 or 3, with opportunities for investors not limited to the BRICS countries, but also much of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.

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