Altira - zweite Chance

Country Offers a Unique Investment Destination - German Investor
2009-11-18 08:22:57.670 GMT


Kigali, Nov 18, 2009 (The New Times/All Africa Global
Media via COMTEX) -- Christian Angermayer, 31 is the founder of
the Angermayer, Brumm & Lange (ABL) group of companies, one of
Germany´s largest and fastest growing independent
financial service groups.
The company that employs about 350 employees and 16,000
Independent Financial Advisors, is active in 12 countries and
manages total assets of approx. US$ 8 Billion. Besides his
entrepreneurial activities, Christian Angermayer is active in
several social responsibility initiatives with a special focus
on climate change and Africa.
He is also a member of the Presidential Advisory Council
(PAC) of President Paul Kagame.
Altira Group, an asset management company that belongs to
Angermayer´s group, has set up a fund called African
Development Corporation (ADC). ADC invests in Sub-Saharan-
Africa.
Angermayer recently led a group of 48 German investors and
media representatives to explore various investment
opportunities in Rwanda. In this exclusive interview with The
New Time's Fred Oluoch-Ojiwah, he talks about his forays as an
investor into Rwanda while generally speaking about how he goes
about structuring his investments.
When did you first hear about Rwanda?
I first heard about Rwanda in 2006 from the former Rwandan
Ambassador to Germany.
What did he tell you?
Just good things. What he told me was a radical departure
from the perception we in the Western World had been made to
believe about Africa for the last decades.
This perception revolves around Africa as being seen as a
continent wrecked by wars, poverty and diseases. Especially
Western media was just focusing on the negative sides of the
continent while choosing to forget the fact that Africa is not
a single country, but different ones.
Some are doing very well, some are doing very badly.
Consequently Western people normally do not see Africa as a
destination of choice for investors.
So I got very good advice to travel to Rwanda to see with
my own eyes the opportunities therein and for the purposes of
changing this kind of wrong perception.
So how did you take this piece of advice?
At first I was sceptical as I was quite satisfied with the
business we already had in Europe and Asia. The turning point
was in June 2007 when President Kagame was visiting Germany and
I had the great honour to meet him.
I must point out that Kagame's insights about Rwanda and
Africa by large as a favourable investment location drastically
changed my perception. President Kagame was very convincing. So
after we met in Frankfurt I decided to visit Rwanda personally.
That was then in September 2007. After the first visit and
after some background work we decided quite quickly to set up a
private equity fund called African Development Corporation(ADC)
to explore opportunities in Africa.
As an investment banker how do you perceive Rwanda as a
location for investing dollars?
Of course very good, otherwise I would not be here with
this relatively big delegation of fellow investors. Our visit
is the best testimonial Rwanda can get.
Rwanda is unique because of several reasons. The most
important one is the leadership you can see in every aspect of
business life. It starts with the first impression visitors
get: All is very clean and organized.
You should not underestimate the worth of a first
impression. Second, Rwanda has very low levels of corruption.
We have for instance never been approached for kickbacks.
Third, Rwanda´s economy is still growing. The list
is long. But to repeat: At the end, this is all the result of
good and strong leadership. And this makes Rwanda special.
So what have you picked from the table in terms of deal
making?
Our focus is in financial services. Meaning banks,
insurances and other businesses related to the financial
industry.
More specifically what have you picked in terms of
investing within this sector?
We have had an investment in BRD. We have sold this stake
successfully after helping this bank to grow successfully for
more than one year. We also hold a 70 percent stake in Simtel,
the national electronic payment switch. These are the kind of
investments we are looking at.
Any other interesting thing in a different sector maybe
real estate which has so much potential in Rwanda?
We are also exploring different projects within real
estate as a reasonable diversification. I just got an
interesting one yesterday evening. It requires investment in
the amount of US$0.5 Million to $1 Million.
So what are the requirements of your fund?
What is interesting to us is a single investment of about
US$1 to $5 Million. Core focus is on financials. We are also
interested in IT, real estate, energy and small infrastructure
projects. For us it is of importance to find the right project,
so deal flow is crucial. Our expected return profile is about
25-30 percent a year.
So that means that as at the moment you have not cleared
any other deal apart from Simtel and BRD?
Not at the moment. But we are checking out continuously
new deals.
As a risk analyst and while doing due diligence you must
have looked at issues that can impact on your investments in
terms of challenges in Rwanda. So what have you dug up as
forming the challenges on the ground now that you are sure of
the opportunities?
First of all we do not see a political risk in Rwanda
itself, which makes Rwanda a 'normal' investment place like any
other country in the world. Meaning the risks we see are
economic ones related to the projects we are chasing.
The main question is: Can the company we invest in use our
money to raise its valuation in the next years more than 25-30
percent a year? Of course as a foreign investor, whose fund is
denominated in the Euro currency, we also have to consider the
foreign exchange rate risks. So we have to look at the
stability of the local currency. We also look at factors such
as ease of doing business.
In Rwanda it is good at the moment, but it also has to be
sustained. This is an on going challenge. And it can always be
better. Once you are number one, you need to stay at the top.
Have you toured the Rwandan countryside?
Actually I have done the Gorilla tracking. I have also
been to Akagera Park. Gorilla tracking to me can be described
as a once in a lifetime encounter.
How would you look at it in comparison to other
destinations?
I am very convinced that the Gorillas are one of
Rwanda´s jewels. This is why I invested privately in a
company called 029 which is a German luxury travel company.
Whereby an investment of several hundred thousand dollars
have been put into marketing this unique experience to German
speaking tourists. 029 has entered into a contract with the
authorities to market Rwanda within Germany and other German
speaking countries as a tourist destination of first choice.
There is huge potential.
How is your global portfolio and how can it enrich
Rwanda's investment landscape?
We have three pillars. The first is asset management in
which for Africa we have the African Development Corporation
(ADC). Besides ADC, we have funds investing into German small &
medium sized companies and in energy projects in Asia.
Additionally, we have a large retail financial services
business in German speaking countries where we employ over
16,000 people. In this we sell items like mutual funds.
We also have an investment bank in Europe. So there are
several potential synergies in the future. We are thinking of
doing energy investment also in Rwanda with our energy fund for
example.
Our focus on renewable energy is dovetailing with Rwanda's
aspirations within the area of renewable energy so we are keen
to invest into this sector as well.
How can policy makers boost the country's investment
drives?
The most important component is capacity building.
Education is very important for investments. It takes time but
nevertheless it is the most important. Of course there are
other challenges.
Rwanda is developing fast and you can see that you need
within every sector locally qualified personnel. That to me is
the top priority. The other is the business climate which must
be made sustainably easy for Rwanda to remain at the top league
of those being labelled as investor's paradise.
The economy needs very large investment in infrastructure
like the railway deal that needs funding in excess of US$3.5
Billion. Are you looking at these too?
We ourselves are not looking at such deals as they are
surely very huge deals. But we have a partner company called
MRK. The person in charge is called Peter Hartmann, who does
exactly these kinds of deals worldwide.
He is with us on this trip and is exploring the country
for the very first time. He builds airports, harbours and other
forms of physical infrastructure in which he owns a specialised
company with 400 people.
He does this sort of work from planning, financing,
execution and eventual implementation of such projects. He is
our exclusive partner as we know that infrastructure is crucial
for a lot of emerging markets we invest in.
So how long have you been in this game of investments?
Almost 11 years now. I started when I was twenty. I
started very early generally as an entrepreneur and even more
unusual I started out early regarding working as an investment
banker.
In terms of looking back at history how do you see your
first deal on the ground in Rwanda ever since you first landed
here?
Our first deal was Rwanda Development Bank(BRD). In this
case I must say that it was a good deal from inception to when
we exited. Being the first company that was presented to us I
can say that our investment paid us good returns.
Given the circumstances in the worldwide banking industry
at that time and if you are aware about the effects of the
financial crisis that was biting on a vintage investment made
in 2008, I must say with hindsight that it was good.
Another key spin off is how we were able to impact on the
bank's performance.
I think we forged a good collaboration with the other
shareholders. We really added value and this is the reason the
bank developed well despite the very difficult times for the
banking sector.
How about your second deal-Simtel, when are you exiting?
It is developing at a slower pace. Simtel is not what we
call an exit deal. We are there to stay in Simtel. I must say
that our fund ADC is designed in such a way that it is what is
referred to as a 'never ending' fund.
Meaning that the fund itself has no ending. In that I mean
that investors can sell shares in the fund if they want to go
out but the fund itself stays.
So we can do both: exit driven deals and those that are
such that we stay in them for long or for ever. In the case of
Simtel we are here to stay, since it is a key business
undertaking within the country's banking industry and
potentially in the region and beyond.
This is also why we took a majority shareholding at
seventy percent. And maybe let me add a last sentence.
We are here to stay in Rwanda in general for a very long
time and we are happy about the good cooperation we have with
the Rwandan private sector and the Rwandan people in general.
by Fred Oluoch-Ojiwah


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