Advisory, Capital Raising and Risk Management from one partner
Our approach is to help connect the Africa focused portfolios of both the global investor and broad based financial institutions community to selected business opportunities in Africa seeking capital. The form of capital raised ranges from Venture Capital and Private Equity, to structured debt finance including the provision of risk mitigation products to both credit enhance, as well as mitigate applicable exogenous risks present for both investor and borrower.
It is our belief that the traditional providers of finance focus more on highly secured senior debt packages, but it is the more structured and more appropriate finance required, including equity or equity like finance as well as early stage financing, that the traditional markets are not well placed to service. Our team aims to plug that gap by providing advisory services and capital raising services to support clients seeking to raise such capital, in a partnership approach designed to support the companies over the evolution of their business by providing both the bridge to the investor community and financial advice to the company.
We only work on projects that we understand and believe in and a core feature of our business model is that we will invest our own capital alongside our investors. This approach helps to align the interests of all parties. We work very hard to ensure that the transactions we support are sound. It is a central tenet that trust and long term relationships on both sides are critical to the success of our firm and is therefore embedded in the way we do business. We believe a good deal is only a good deal if it benefits all parties
Leading the team is Brad Koen, previously Global Head of Global Markets, Global Head of Investment Banking Coverage, and Global Head of Business Development at Standard Bank. Brad has 20 years of experience in building these businesses for Standard Bank across its footprint of 30 emerging markets around the globe, with Africa as its focus.
Brad is based in London, together with founding partner of African Alpha Investment Partners, Rupert Boyd, ex Global Head of Sales and Structuring for Standard Bank, and prior to that Head of Emerging Market Sales and Syndication for Morgan Stanley.
In addition to the use of traditional financial risk mitigants to provide security to the investor, the offering is further strengthened by a Financial Services license providing Political Risk advice and Insurance which partners the likes of Gallaghers London. The Political Risk insurance, besides reducing risk, enhances the creditworthiness of the borrower and hence lowers finance costs. It is often a prerequisite of investor’s that this cover is in place and by using one provider economies of scale and administrative efficiencies can be harnessed and cost savings passed on to the client.
With members of the team operating out of London, Mauritius and Johannesburg, we believe we have the ability to provide our client’s with the connectivity they require to progress their respective projects