Kingdom Holding Company said Asian investment group Temasek Holdings is set to invest $75 million into Pan-African Investment Partners II Limited (PAIP II), a fund managed by Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management Company (KZAM).

KZAM, a leading pan-African private equity firm, is a joint venture between KHC (which owns 75 per cent) and New York-based asset management firm Zephyr Management.

Singapore-based Temasek has made the fund commitment through Fernvale Investments(Mauritius), its wholly owned indirect subsidiary, KHC chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said in a statement.

With this investment, PAIP II capital will surge to over $492 million, Prince Alwaleed added.

Besides KHC, the PAIP II's investor base includes African Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, European Investment Bank, and Netherlands Development Finance Company.

“We are proud to have this partnership with Temasek on the African continent. We believe this will pave the way for more transactions to come with such an institution that shares our global vision,” Prince Alwaleed said.

Ahmed Reda Halawani, executive director for Private Equity, said the success of Kingdom Zephyr through its investment funds had made it Tamasek’s first choice for its investment in Africa.

'Temasek and Kingdom Holding Company’s partnership in PAIP II further demonstrates and solidifies our dominance in the Private Equity field in the African continent. We are building the right investment conduit between Africa and East Asia,' he stated.

PAIP II makes private investments in growing businesses throughout Africa. Since its inception in 2008, the fund has invested approximately $100 million in three investments.

These are Thunnus Overseas Group, a seafood canning and processing business based in Cote d'Ivoire and Madagascar; Mixta, S.Africa, a builder of affordable housing, operating in five North African countries; and Buildworks, a South Africa based company listed on the AltX division of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, that provides heavy building materials and constructs electrical power substations and transmission lines throughout Africa.
 
Kingdom Zephyr manages the investments of PAIP II and PAIP I from offices in Accra, Ghana; Johannesburg; London; and New York.

Kingdom Zephyr's previous investments include  Zain (formerly Celtel; pan-African cellular telecoms), CNIA Assurance (Moroccan insurance), Letshego Holdings Limited (pan-African consumer micro-finance), Ecobank Transnational (pan-African bank), UBA (pan-African retail bank).

KHC’s portfolio has its main interest in landmark hotel properties and hotel management companies, real estate development in Jeddah and Riyadh, financial services, technology and media.-TradeArabia News Service