Carlyle co-founders David Rubenstein and Bill Conway, as well as Aliko Dangote, have been identified as investors in a new Africa-focused fund.
This comes after Partner Genevieve Sangudi stated that the private equity firm expects to raise up to $500 million in the following months, with its first closing bringing in $140 million.
This is not Dangote’s first collaboration with the Carlyle Group founders. Dangote teamed with Blackstone Group in 2014 to spend $5 billion in energy infrastructure projects across Africa over a five-year period.
The deal had a special bias on power, transmission and pipeline projects.
In 2014, Carlyle Group launched a strategic investment relationship with Dangote Industries via its vehicles Carlyle International Energy Partners LP and Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund LP.
The collaboration comprises investment across the oil and gas value chain, as well as in financial services, consumer, and agriculture sectors – all of which are critical building blocks of the African economy.
Carlyle Co-CEO David M. Rubenstein said, “We are proud and excited to deepen our relationship with Dangote Industries, an anchor investor in our Sub-Saharan fund. Aliko Dangote, President and CEO of DIL, is a pioneer in the African business community, with the depth of vision and commitment that will better enable Carlyle to find and create choice investment opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa and contribute to economic development on the continent.”
The investment agreements were made shortly following the 2014 U.S.-Africa Business Forum in Washington.
Carlyle’s goal, with $376 billion in assets under management, is to invest effectively and create value for investors.
Over $300 million has been invested in a variety of industries and countries, including J&J Africa, a logistics company in Mozambique; Diamond Bank, a Nigerian Tier II bank; Tiger Automotive (TiAuto), a leading tyre retailer and wholesaler in South Africa; and Traxys Group, a physical metals and minerals commodity merchant, logistics, and trading firm with a presence in Africa.
