Africa
We began operations in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2006, where we replicated our successful business model in this high-opportunity region. We currently have more than 90 professionals dedicated to our Sub-Saharan Africa operations, with headcount expected to exceed 150 by the end of 2008. Our teams are based in four locations:
Lagos, Nigeria – West African operational hub
Nairobi, Kenya – East African operational hub
Harare, Zimbabwe
Johannesburg, South Africa
We are building the largest and most experienced team of world-class local and international professionals dedicated solely to Sub-Saharan Africa and are creating a pan-regional investment bank, asset management and merchant banking operation that will be run by Africans in Africa.
We have a consistent track record of building high performance businesses. This has been achieved by combining our global industry, product and research expertise with local origination distribution and execution. We provide a gateway for foreign capital coming into Sub-Saharan Africa and other African high-opportunity emerging markets and will make a significant difference in accelerating capital flows in to Africa acting as a catalyst for economic development and wealth creation.
Outstanding Results
We created over US$2.5bn of demand in two highly successful equity capital market transactions which demonstrates our unique ability to attract capital inflows into the region:
- The international US$300mn equity offering for Nigeria's United Bank for Africa in April 2007.
- US$300mn equity offering for Nigeria's Access Bank in July 2007.
- The Safaricom IPO was the largest initial public offer in Kenya’s history with 10 billion shares offered and a subscription rate of 463%, with share applications totalling KES 236 billion.
