According to a report by the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA), private equity investments in Southern African has more than doubled to $2.4 billion in 2017. This increase came about as both the volume and the value of the deals increased significantly.
The report shows the number of transactions from 574 in 2016 to 750 in 2017. That report was compiled following a survey done by Deloitte across 80 funds within the region. It is reported that the average deal size rose by 54%to 41.7 million rand.
The value of deals in 2017 exceeded the 14.7 billion rand average in the past decade, even though the South African economy – the most vibrant in the region – contracted within the first quarter. In South Africa, the report shows private equity firms managed to raise 7.5 billion rand during the year; which was a decrease from the 10.2 billion rand they raised in 2016.
The funds under management rose to 158.6 billion rand, which is a compound annual growth rate of 9.4% since the SAVCA started compiling the data back in 1999. To be specific, the most vibrant economic sectors in 2017 were retail, banking, insurance, infrastructure, and real estate. The most impact was in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, and Lesotho.