26 Firms Win Private Equity Africa Awards 2018

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Private Equity Africa (PEA) has announced winners of the 2018 GP & Advisor Awards with 26 firms collecting the much coveted accolades at the 7th Annual PEA Awards Gala Dinner hosted at London’s prestigious Langham hotel on June 12, which attracted over 200 industry professionals.

The recipient of this year’s Outstanding Leadership Award was Papa Madiaw Ndiaye, Founding Partner and CEO at AFIG Funds, for his contributions to the growth of the industry. This is the only award given to an individual and voted on by industry peers.

Runa Alam, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at DPI, was recognised with the Woman Investor Award. She is also the 2015 Outstanding Leadership award winner.

Old Mutual Alternative Investments walked away with the LP Award for its investments across private equity funds.

The much coveted Sub-Saharan Africa House of the Year was picked up by Carlyle’s Africa team.

In the house category Investec Asset Management held on to its crown as Credit Investor of the Year, also taking the Credit Deal of the Year for Akuo Kita Solar.

Investec also received the Venture Philanthropy Africa Award, for its corporate social work in the continent.

In the Advisory category, Clifford Chance continued to reign as king in the legal space, winning the much contested Overall Legal Advisor of the Year, covering aggregated advisor work across funds and deals. Clifford Chance also scooped the Deals Legal Advisor of the Year, while Funds Legal Advisor of the Year went to Simmons & Simmons.

KPMG won the special recognition as Global Financial Advisor, and Perigeum Capital as Corporate Finance Advisor. Trident Trust was awarded Fund Administrator of the Year.

The final winners were chosen by an independent panel of leading industry professionals with representation from Proparco, Morgan Stanley, FMO, Swedfund, Hamilton Lane, Mbuyu Capital Partners, HarbourVest, IFC and Cebile Capital.

The 2018 PEA Awards received a record number of entries, the highest since the awards were launched. Based on 2017 achievements, the self-entries were complemented by editorial recommendations from the Private Equity Africa team and industry data.

The nominations were in partnership with the London Business School Private Equity Institute.

Commenting on the awards, Gail Mwamba, the Awards Chair and Managing Editor at Private Equity Africa, said, “Well done to all the Winners of the 2018 Private Equity Africa Awards. The quality of the entries we saw this year shows that Africa continues to offer immense opportunity for private equity, and demonstrates and the resilience of the industry.  Congratulations and we look forward to gathering again next year.”