The Mid-Market Squeeze

In recent months, I’ve enjoyed some great conversations with individuals who have welcomed a frank discussion of the EM PE industry’s challenges. One recurring topic of conversation is the imbalance between supply and demand for capital for PE funds operating in the lower- and mid-market segments in EMs.

The hollowing out of mid-market funds animated my decision to found Portico, and it served as the impetus for our EM Mid-Market Survey, which we conducted in May. I am pleased to announce the release of Portico’s second research piece, The Mid-Market Squeeze, which shares findings from our survey.

We undertook this project with two objectives in mind: (i) to test our hypotheses for the supply-demand imbalance; and (ii), to illuminate potential paths toward solutions.

Most of our hypotheses were affirmed, in whole or in part, but the report’s overarching finding is that the declining number of EM mid-market funds is more than just a funding gap, it is a symptom of industry-wide problems. Our survey reveals four drivers for the mid-market squeeze:

• Macroeconomic developments in EMs are not the reason why LPs aren’t committing to mid-market PE funds; it’s the failure of EM PE funds to deliver returns.
  
• There is an acute funding gap for EM PE funds smaller than $100 million in size.
  
• Development finance institutions are walking away from smaller EM PE funds, and investing with larger, more established firms. Moreover, their preferred ticket sizes are in the sweet spot of where commercial LPs prefer to play.
  
• Institutional investors lament the lack of transparency in the EM PE industry.

The report offers a few thoughts on potential solutions to the mid-market squeeze, and prognostications on the road ahead. I invite you to click the button below to download a copy of the report. Please feel free to share it with colleagues, and of course, all feedback is welcome.

Finally, thanks go out to the 76 industry professionals who participated in this survey, as well as the winner of our prize drawing—a representative from an Asia-Pacific sovereign wealth fund—who selected the donation to UNICEF.

Alla prossima,
Mike

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Indonesia: So Hot Right Now

Having freshly returned from a trip through Southeast Asia, I was interested to see KKR’s Henry McVey release a new report on Indonesia, stating:

Indonesia has one of the most compelling stories that we see … and unlike in past trips, we are now confident stating that we think Indonesia is harnessing its potential into near-term economic and investment realities.

The macro is certainly compelling, and there are reasons to be optimistic (not least the forthcoming rail line connecting the airport with downtown).

I agree with McVey that “public market indices are often not the appropriate investment vehicles to actually gain access to compelling GDP-per-capita stories;” and based on my own meetings in the country, I share McVey’s conviction that there are attractive tech opportunities in private markets (see charts below). KKR is actively pursuing this thesis, having invested alongside Capital Group Private Markets, Farallon Capital Management, and Warburg Pincus in the local ride-hailing / transportation company GO-JEK last year.

Still, translating the macro into compelling investment returns requires deft navigation. One dynamic working in mid-market managers’ favor is the general scarcity of capital; there is less competition for deals from other financial sponsors in this segment, though local families and investors play an important role in the private markets ecosystem. The game changes once tickets climb north of $100m, where a large volume of PE capital is searching for deals.

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Coffee Talk

In our April newsletter we highlighted the rise of secondary buyouts as an exit channel in Africa, and there’s big news from ECP portfolio company Nairobi Java House. Abraaj won the auction for the company, which reportedly drew 12 non-binding bids (including from Carlyle and TPG). Abraaj shall take full control of the company, which includes two additional franchises: Frozen Yoghurt and 360 Degrees Artisan Pizza. By my count this is Abraaj’s third secondary buyout in Sub-Saharan Africa out of four deals since 2014 (Mouka from Actis in 2015, Libstar from Metier in 2014).

While Abraaj has some experience in the QSR segment (Kudu in Saudi Arabia), and I’m curious about potential synergies with its investments in Brookside Dairy, Fan Milk, and Libstar, the firm has its work cut out for it. I struggle to think of an East African firm that has been able to achieve pan-African scale.

One experienced advisor in the region tells us:

The pan-African strategy is very difficult to execute due to: (a) the small size of most of Africa’s 40+ markets, which means you’re spreading the fixed costs of market entry across a small customer / revenue base; (b) the high cross-border costs of trade, which makes supply chains expensive to run; and (c), the economic, regulatory, and cultural differences between East, West, and Southern Africa. The difficulties cut in every direction.

While Ecobank is a partial exception (it has a long way to go to become a consolidated, sustainable business with deep insight into all of its local markets), the failures are numerous. For example, United Bank of Africa, which has met success in its home market of Nigeria, got burned in Kenya. South African retailers, such as Shoprite and Massmart, have struggled to gain traction north of the Limpopo.

The general lesson I draw is that African markets do not have a broadly even playing field. Any attempt to expand beyond one’s own region will only work if you make a massive investment, and you bring in heavy hitters with political influence. A more sensible strategy is to aim to become the number one player in your region rather than overstretching by seeking a continental presence.

🤔

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Will Private Equity Build Africa’s Manufacturing Sector?

No.

The FT recently ran a comment piece imploring PE firms to drive the development of Africa’s manufacturing sector. Private equity can deliver—and has delivered—powerful developmental impacts in Africa. For example, an impact assessment of CDC Group plc’s Africa fund investments between 2004-12 shows direct job creation of 40,500 positions and a $600 million increase in taxes paid. I’m a believer in the potential of the asset class to deliver dignity in EMs; however, some of the author’s overzealous assertions bear some scrutiny:

Private equity has largely ignored investment in African manufacturing and industrial projects. [EMPEA] data show that 23 PE firms have made only 53 investments in the industrials sector in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2008.

PE firms have not ignored African manufacturing companies. First, by excluding deals in manufacturing companies outside of the industrial sector (e.g., consumer durables, food and beverage), the data understate the volume of investments that have been made in manufacturers.

Second, how many manufacturing companies are there in Africa? Within the industrials sector, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon there are only 57 private African companies generating between $50m and $500m in revenue.

Middle market funds, in particular, have an enormous opportunity to unlock potential in this sector. Doing so will … create value for investors by creating a robust deal pipeline with attractive exit opportunities …

Maybe? There have been—and will be—some excellent returns from manufacturing deals in Africa; but has the traditional EM PE model created value for investors?

According to Cambridge Associates’ African Private Equity & Venture Capital Index, the 10-year horizon pooled return is 4.51%, and the pooled return has not exceeded 5% over any multi-year period. This may be a function of the constituents in Cambridge’s database—Ethos, for example discloses a USD gross IRR of 20% since its third fund—but the pooled return suggests investors are taking on equity risk + country risk + illiquidity, and receiving 200 basis points over 10-year Treasurys.

With this return profile, why should pensioners, endowments, and foundations be subsidizing African industrial policy?

On a related note, McKinsey Global Institute released a fascinating report on Chinese investment in Africa that shows who is likely to drive the growth of manufacturing on the continent: Chinese firms. McKinsey estimates that there are more than 10,000 Chinese firms operating in Africa—3.7x more than previously estimated—and nearly one-third of them are in the manufacturing sector (generating ~$60 billion in local revenue, with 12% market share). Says McKinsey:

In sectors such as manufacturing, there are too few African firms with the capital, technology, and skills to invest successfully and too few Western firms with the risk appetite to do so in Africa. Thus the opportunities are reaped by Chinese entrepreneurs who have the skills, capital, and willingness to live in and put their money in unpredictable developing-country settings.

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In the Beach Bag

I don’t know if these are the books I’ll end up reading, but here’s what I’m planning to pack for the beach this year:

• Business Adventures, by John Brooks
  The “best business book” say Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond
  Most Americans are one accident away from financial ruin: 25% can’t pay their monthly bills in full, and 44% can’t meet a $400 emergency expense. Desmond’s book looks at the precarious state of Americans’ living situations. In Milwaukee, for example, “a city of fewer than 105,000 renter households, landlords evict roughly 16,000 adults and children each year.”
• The Devils of Loudun, by Aldous Huxley
  I quite enjoyed Huxley’s Grey Eminence, which chronicled the life of Father Joseph—advisor to Cardinal Richelieu and advocate of policies that led to the Thirty Years’ War—so I thought I’d return to the trough for his take on mass hysteria and witch hunts in 17th-Century France.
• The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies, by Ryszard Legutko
  A Polish freedom fighter contemplates the similarities between liberal democracy and communism.
• Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages, by Carlota Perez
  A recommendation from Marc Andreessen.
• The Thirty Years War, by C.V. Wedgwood
  With talk of the Westphalian system’s decline, why not read Dame Wedgwood’s classic for a refresher on the madness that led to the peace?
• Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa
  A novel chronicling the life of the infamous samurai, and teacher of bushido, Miyamoto Musashi.

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From the Bookshelf

I have given up newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid; and I find myself much the happier.

— Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 21 January 1812 (Monticello, Virginia).

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