ADVERTISEMENT
The Sun Nigeria
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun
No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun
No Result
View All Result
The Sun Nigeria
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Ley Your Dreams Come Alive – With FCMB Loans
Home National

The sunny disposition of private equity in today’s COVID-19 world

20th November 2020
in National
0
The sunny disposition of private equity in today’s COVID-19 world
0
SHARES
107
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

We listened with great interest to four prominent private equity players in Africa in a discussion of prospects during and after COVID-19.

The event took place in early November, and so was before the announcement by Pfizer and Moderna on their vaccines to tackle COVID-19.

The panel discussion was part of the Africa Debate, an annual event put together by an established London-based business association.

Private equity houses are generally optimistic and did not disappoint in the discussion. They had to contend with the great returns available in China and foreign exchange issues in several African markets before COVID-19 struck, yet were able to highlight many positives. One investor who follows the script of the emerging middle class noted that 70 per cent of their companies qualify as essential businesses and have therefore remained open.

Another said that their investments in both telecoms and financial services had performed well with COVID-19 whereas the record for consumer goods had been mixed. His experience in Africa was that the crisis has helped large companies more than small operations, mirroring trends in advanced economies. A third mentioned a successful investment in a remittance business, driven by a shift from sending cash across borders (now often closed) in taxis to digital transactions. There is the general point, made in the context of infrastructure plays, that the global slowdown has made valuations more attractive.

Without travel, investors have been unable to send specialist outside contractors to factories for fire-fighting purposes. Whenever possible, they have sorted the problems out on Zoom. COVID-19 has accelerated programmes to deepen local expertise on the ground, while traditional due diligence has become highly challenging without travel. At the other end of the transaction, an exit via Zoom requires good knowledge of the buyers. Nonetheless one investor has concluded two transactions in the past month, one of which is in the fintech space.

In the Q&A session investors were asked about their target Internal Rate of Return (IRR). The first to answer came up with between 15% and 20% net, and the three others were happy to nod their heads in agreement. Another question covered the integration of ESG considerations into investment decisions. One investor had already said that all their decision-taking incorporated the impact on the climate. He argued that the valuation would suffer on a future exit from a climate-unfriendly holding.

Expectedly, working practices have also had to change. One company has worked hard to keep up morale as its employees work from home rather than network in their office. Its responses have included organizing a party on Zoom to celebrate the appointment of three new partners. Some of the time saved from travelling has also been used to bring employees up to speed on the world of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG).

Overall, the momentum has slowed for the industry in Africa in terms of new deals, exits and fund-raising because of COVID-19. It was clear from the discussion, however, that participants were confident about the future post-COVID, which point may well have been brought closer by the news on vaccine trials we have since had from Pfizer and Moderna in the US.

Gregory Kronsten
Head, Macroeconomic and Fixed Income Research, FBNQuest

Tags: fbn holdingsFBNQuestGregory KronstenHeadMacroeconomic and Fixed Income Research
Philip Nwosu

Philip Nwosu

Related Posts

Shettima to Defence: Investigate Auno attack to forestall future occurrence
National

Shettima gives reasons life is hard, unpleasant in Nigeria

3rd July 2022
NGE: Lawan, Kalu, Tinubu hail new officials
National

Lawan condoles Yobe APC chair over mother’s death

3rd July 2022
Gunmen again strike in Enugu, kill 4 policemen
National

Police raid ESN camp in Ebonyi, kill 1

3rd July 2022
Next Post
Gunmen kidnap Plateau traditional ruler

Gunmen kill driver, kidnap passengers in Edo

Battle to replace NAUTH CMD toughens as Dr Afiadigwe joins race

Battle to replace NAUTH CMD toughens as Dr Afiadigwe joins race

EKITI

EKSU directs newly admitted students to resume Nov., 23

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Highlights

Shettima gives reasons life is hard, unpleasant in Nigeria

Lawan condoles Yobe APC chair over mother’s death

Police raid ESN camp in Ebonyi, kill 1

Bello Matawalle: Taking the bull by the horns

How we hijack petroleum tankers, tie drivers, sell products to black marketers-leader of 10-man robbery gang

Agitations, insurgency‘ll continue in Nigeria except… –Rev Onyema Duruigbo

Trending

FCT and the change mantra
Columns

PDP and the culture of humiliation

3rd July 2022
0

Culture is the way of life of any people. There’s a proverb that when an abomination lasts...

Nkanu East lauds Ugwuanyi over Mbah’s emergence as PDP candidate

Nkanu East lauds Ugwuanyi over Mbah’s emergence as PDP candidate

3rd July 2022
We’re ready for election –INEC

Primaries: Party members overwhelming us with litigations – INEC boss

3rd July 2022
Shettima to Defence: Investigate Auno attack to forestall future occurrence

Shettima gives reasons life is hard, unpleasant in Nigeria

3rd July 2022
NGE: Lawan, Kalu, Tinubu hail new officials

Lawan condoles Yobe APC chair over mother’s death

3rd July 2022
ADVERTISEMENT

Follow us on social media:

Latest News

  • PDP and the culture of humiliation
  • Nkanu East lauds Ugwuanyi over Mbah’s emergence as PDP candidate
  • Primaries: Party members overwhelming us with litigations – INEC boss
  • Shettima gives reasons life is hard, unpleasant in Nigeria
  • Lawan condoles Yobe APC chair over mother’s death
  • Police raid ESN camp in Ebonyi, kill 1
  • Bello Matawalle: Taking the bull by the horns
  • How we hijack petroleum tankers, tie drivers, sell products to black marketers-leader of 10-man robbery gang
  • Agitations, insurgency‘ll continue in Nigeria except… –Rev Onyema Duruigbo
  • Catholic Priests to el-Rufai: Provide space to bury all of us
  • Police arrest 3 over alleged human trafficking in Delta
  • Leicester fans label Ndidi ‘King’
  • Super Falcons gun for N208m AWCON prize money
  • … Onumonu rates team high
  • How to treat prostate enlargement
  • UN Ocean conference: Buhari commits to reduce marine plastic pollution
  • It’s not enough to teach wealth creation without giving young people startup capital –Bishop Erumaka
  • We spent N672.9m on PHC in 2021 not N3.03b – Kebbi govt
  • Osun guber: Be on red alert for disgruntled politicians’ antics, NSA charges security agencies
  • Strange fires in the  temple

Categories

  • Abuja Metro
  • Anambra Watch
  • Arts
  • Broken Tongues
  • Business
  • Business Week
  • Cartoons
  • Citizen Joe
  • Columns
  • Cover
  • Culture
  • Duro Onabule
  • Editorial
  • Education Review
  • Effect
  • Elections
  • Entertainment
  • Events
  • Features
  • Femi Adesina
  • Food & Drinks
  • Frank Talk
  • Funke Egbemode
  • Gallery
  • Global Square by Kenneth Okonkwo
  • Health
  • Insights
  • Kalu Leadership Series
  • Kunle Solaja
  • Kunle Solaja
  • Letters
  • Lifeline
  • Lifestyle
  • Literary Review
  • Marketing Matters
  • Muiz Banire
  • National
  • News
  • Offside Musings
  • Opinion
  • oriental news
  • Politics
  • Press Release
  • PressClips
  • Public Sphere
  • Ralph Egbu
  • Shola Oshunkeye
  • Sideview
  • South-west Magazine
  • Sponsored Post
  • Sporting Sun
  • Sports
  • Sun Girl
  • Tea Time
  • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
  • The Sun Awards Live
  • The Sun TV
  • Thoughts & Talks
  • Time Out
  • Today's cover
  • Tola Adeniyi
  • Travel
  • Travel & Tourism
  • Trending
  • TSWeekend
  • Turf Game
  • Uncategorized
  • Updates
  • Views from Abroad
  • Voices
  • World
  • World News
  • About Us
  • Paper Ad Rate
  • Online Ad Rate
  • The Team
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

© 2019 The Sun Nigeria - Managed by Netsera.

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun

© 2019 The Sun Nigeria - Managed by Netsera.

Posting....