Can you make money in African infrastructure?

Brian Myerson, joint chairman of PME Infrastructure Managers, says you can, and he's raised a $180m fund to prove it

Brian Myerson is a director of PME African Infrastructure Opportunities and joint chairman of PME Infrstructure Managers Limited, which will mange the funds of PME Afraican Infrastructure Opportunities. He is also CEO of Pinnacle Capital Group (www.principalcapital.com), which he founded in November 2004. Pinnacle Capital Group specialises in alternative investment management and is one of four joint venture partners in PME Infrastructure Managers.

In 1993, Myerson co-founded Active Value and was a pioneer in actvist investing in the UK, Continental Europe and South Africa. He has also been on the boards of several listed UK companies.

Once described as one of the City’s "most feared corporate raiders", Myerson has turned his activist investor mindset to African infrastructure through the creation of PME African Infrastructure Opportunities, an AIM-listed investment fund.
"Infrastructure is literally top of every African government official’s agenda at the moment," says Myerson.

He believes the current environment is perfect for private equity investment in infrastructure due to a number of factors coming into play at the same time. First, the worldwide boom in demand for mineral resources is a fantastic opportunity for Africa. But to fully benefit Africa needs the mines and supporting infrastructure - such as roads, railways and ports - to get the stuff out of the ground and shipped to places such as India and China.
Second, peace has taken hold and democracy is spreading across large parts of Africa, significantly improving the investment climate. At the same time, African governments are starting to embrace capitalism. They are desperate for inward investment and going out of their way to bring down regulatory barriers. Finally, South Africa and many other African countries have experienced extended periods of economic growth but infrastructure development has not kept up.

"Just being in Africa and knowing people in the investment banking industry means I’m being shown potential deals all the time," says Myerson. "People are desperately looking for equity investments in infrastructure-related projects and that’s why we put this fund together."

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