RIYADH: Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management Company (Kingdom Zephyr), one of the leading pan-African private equity firms, has completed a $20 million investment in South African power infrastructure company Buildworks, according to an announcement from Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
The investment in Buildworks was made through Kingdom Zephyr’s second private equity fund, Pan-African Investment Partners II (PAIP II), and represents a strategic stake of 30 percent, with the option to increase to 35 percent.
Buildworks was founded in late 2007 by Raoul Gamsu, a South African entrepreneur formerly with Brian Joffe’s Bidvest and Tokyo Sexwale’s Mvelaphanda, starting as a small player in the supply of heavy building materials to the construction industry. With its acquisition of Consolidated Power Projects (Pty) Ltd. (Conco), mainly funded by the PAIP II cornerstone investment, Buildworks has become Africa’s major company in the design, construction and testing of electrical switchyards and substations, and strategically repositioned its core focus on Africa’s growing power infrastructure sector.
Kingdom Zephyr manages the investments of PAIP II and PAIP I from offices in Accra, Ghana; Johannesburg; London; and New York. KZAM is a general partnership (GP) between KHC and Zephyr Management LP of which KHC owns 75 percent. Its main mandate is to focus on investment opportunities in the region and pan-African businesses. PAIP II is managed by KZAM at an investment value of $325 million at the first closing with an option to increase to $500 million at the last closing. The first fund PAIP I has invested more than $100 million in private equity opportunities in sectors such as telecommunications, financial services, IT, equity markets, and real estate as well as in retail, mining, and business services. It focuses on investing in multi-country enterprises with a healthy capacity for growth and an ability to compete domestically and regionally.