Pan-African private equity specialist Emerging Capital Partners (www.ecpinvestments.com) today (4 May) announced that Andrew Brown is appointed Chief Investment Officer (CIO) in a newly created position. He will join the investment committee of $613 million ECP Africa Fund III, which the company claims is the largest private equity fund for growth equity in Africa. The fund closed in June 2010 and has so far made 4 investments during 2010 in financial services, industrials and telecom/cable TV sectors across Africa.
Mr Brown will be based in ECP’s Paris office and will oversee and implement ECP’s investment process and strategy across its 6 active funds.
Vincent Le Guennou, co-founder, Managing Director and co-CEO of ECP, said in a press release: “Africa is one of the fastest-growing regions in the world and ECP is dedicated to seizing those opportunities. Andrew’s appointment adds operational experience, support and oversight to the investment process. Andrew has been operating in our core markets for well over a decade and is well suited to lead ECP’s investment process.”
Mr Brown said: “ECP has already invested more than US$1 billion through 50 investments in a variety of sectors across Africa in its decade of operation. I’m looking forward to working with the pre-eminent pan-African private equity firm and its outstanding team.”
He joins ECP from Amundi Private Equity (formerly Société Générale Asset Management Alternative Investments), which he joined in 2006 as CIO for the Kantara Fund, a multi-sector fund targeting private companies in North Africa, securing over €150m in funding and recruiting a North African investment team.
Mr. Brown first worked in emerging market private equity in 1998 when he joined CDC in London specializing in telecoms and infrastructure investments in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He moved to Cairo in 2001 to establish CDC’s Egyptian office. Following the creation of Actis from CDC he was the Actis Egypt Country Manager.