Chart of the week: Middle East and Africa fundraising strategies

Buyout fundraising in 2015 to date on par with fundraising levels reached in 2014

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Private equity fundraising targeting investments into the Middle East and Africa raised $3.87 billion in 2015 to date. Buyout funds gathered $2.56 billion of aggregate capital in this year; $10 million greater than the amount raised by buyout vehicles in the whole of 2014. Since 2010, Middle East and Africa focused funds have predominantly targeted buyout, venture capital or growth equity opportunities. In 2015 to date only one fund has closed that has not followed one of these strategies. Investec Asset Management’s mezzanine vehicle, Investec Africa Credit Opportunities Fund 1 collected $60 million from investors this year.

There are currently 109 Middle East and Africa-focused vehicles on the road targeting $32.77 billion. Total capital raised for funds focused on this region in 2015 has already reached 76 percent of the amount gathered in 2014. This shows a strong Middle Eastern and African private equity market which currently holds a lot of interest for investors. Over the last five years, buyout, venture capital and growth equity opportunities focused on the region have gathered a significant amount of capital compared with other strategies, and this is also true in 2015 so far.

To date this year, the two largest funds focused on the region that have held a final close are Helios Investors III managed by Helios Investment Partners and Abraaj Africa Fund III managed by The Abraaj Group. The buyout vehicles have raised $1.1 billion and $990 million respectively for investments into Africa. The largest venture capital or growth equity fund to close is Development Partners International’s African Development Partners II which collected $725 million from investors.