Prince Alwaleed attends the signing ceremony.

Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and PineBridge Investments Middle East (PBME), a global multi-asset-class manager, have signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a joint venture platform to invest in direct private equity opportunities in Africa.

Adel Alsayed, KHC’s executive director for private equity and international investments, and Talal Al-Zain, CEO of PineBridge Investments Middle East, signed the MoU.

Heba Fatani, senior executive manager, corporate communications department, Fahad bin Saad bin Nafel, executive assistant to the chairman and Dina Kasrawi, managing director global marketing and communications, PineBridge Investments Middle East, also attended the signing ceremony.

The joint venture between KHC and PineBridge will invest in African companies, in response to rising investor demand for exposure to the continent’s fast growing economies.

Key focus sectors include manufacturing, consumer driven sectors, infrastructure, financial services and other sectors.

Prince Alwaleed commented: “The investment in this platform is a continuation of KHC’s successful investment strategy in Africa that began in 2003, and reflects our confidence in achieving long-term returns for investors in this venture.”

Al-Zain said: “We have strong conviction that the African continent is going through positive socio-economic transformations. PineBridge has a long track record of direct investing in Africa since the 1990s, with extensive experience in investing in sectors including infrastructure, banking and consumer sectors. The firm has offices in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, investing in equities, credit and private markets.”

KHC and PineBridge are long-established in Africa and have extensive emerging and frontier markets experience.

Over the 2003 to 2011 period, KHC and Zephyr Management (Zephyr) combined their efforts in execution of an African investment strategy.

In 2011, KHC and Zephyr reached an agreement for the acquisition of Zephyr’s interest in KZAM and was subsequently renamed to Kingdom Africa Management (KAM).

KHC is now the sole shareholder in KAM and continues to pursue an African investment strategy.

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