It was great to be part of the inaugural Private Equity Africa Awards, organized by the excellent team at www.privateequityafrica.com. According to them, the accolades are the first to focus only on Africa’s private equity industry.
The evening concluded a day-long LP (limited partners, another name for some private equity institutional investors) summit held on 14 June at Thomson Reuters’ beautiful HQ in Canary Wharf, London. The aim of the awards in the nearby Four Seasons Hotel was to celebrate best GPs (General Partners or fund managers) and Advisors for their achievements in the decade up to 2011.
Dinner guests enjoyed a speech by Lord Simon Cairns, Co-founder & Director, Commonwealth Business Council, who touched on the importance of recognizing the industry’s achievements. The combined event had almost 190 registered attendees.
The biggest winners on the night were Helios and Citadel Capital. Helios won awards for development and for social impact, both for its investment into Equity Bank. Citadel won an award for portfolio turnaround for its fascinating investment into Rift Valley Railways (RVR), and the landmark deal award for mid-cap deals for Tawazon. Citadel Capital was also awarded a special recognition accolade for its work in the development of the private equity industry in North Africa.
Actis was lauded with a pan-Africa house special recognition award for having allocated the most capital across Africa. Other cornerstone GPs recognized were Emerging Capital Partners for Sub-Saharan Africa private equity development. Aureos Capital scored on its investments and efforts in the small and medium enterprise (SME) segment. The SME space also saw TLG Capital walk away with the Small Cap Landmark Deal accolade for Quality Chemicals.
Full List of Winners
PORTFOLIO AWARDS
* Turnaround: Citadel Capital – Rift Valley Railways
* Development Impact: Helios – Equity Bank
* Social Impact: Helios – Equity Bank
* Governance: Chayton Capital – Chobe Agrivision
ADVISOR AWARDS
* Transaction Services: Clifford Chance
* Fund Services: Uteem Chambers
LANDMARK DEAL AWARDS
* Small Cap Deal: TLG Capital – Quality Chemicals
* Mid Cap Deal: Citadel Capital – Tawazon
* Large Cap Deal: Africa Capital Alliance – Union Bank
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS
* Actis – Pan-African House
* Emerging Capital Partners – Sub-Saharan Africa House
* Citadel Capital – North Africa House
* Aureos Capital – SME Dealmaking
Methodology
A panel of judges, among whom was your author, selected winners and runners up for Landmark Deals, Portfolio and Advisor Services winners. They were selected from a list of 23 nominees, in turn picked by the London Business School Coller Institute of Private Equity and the Africa Club, and were picked from a shortlist of 44 entries. The shortlist was made up of a combination of self entries, Preqin shortlists and Private Equity Africa editorial recommendations.
The special recognition awards were awarded internally by Private Equity Africa, and were based on deal volumes and aggregate investment values, primarily based on data provided by Preqin.
Judges were
* Rory Ord – Head of Private Equity, Riscura
* Matthew Craig-Greene – Associate Director, Templewood
* Jean-Luc Koffi Vovor – Founder, Kusuntu
* Peter Guest – Africa & Frontier Markets Journalist
* John Rowland – Managing Partner, White Lake
* Tom Minney – CEO, African Growth Partners and editor of this blog
* Luca Del Conte – Independent Consultant
* Lisa Lambie – Executive Director, Satatt Holdings
Awards Honorary Chair
* Lord Simon Cairns, Co-founder & Director, Commonwealth Business Council Awards Executive Chair
Many thanks to the orgnizers for an excellent evening of good company and celebation: Gail Mwamba, Managing Editor, Private Equity Africa and Awards Director; Richard Tandoh, Publisher, Private Equity Africa and .Adeola Dosunmu, Head of Research, Private Equity Africa, Awards Coordinator. For more information, see their blog here.
