MiDA Advisors Newsletter

This summer has presented unprecedented challenges for communities, governments and institutional investors around the world. Yet, we have seen in our network in the U.S., Africa, and other emerging markets, a great sense of resiliency, newfound partnerships, and demand to expand our work to support sustainable solutions that improve the well-being of people and communities across the world.

In this next season, we will continue to expand our partnerships with USAID INVEST and other global initiatives on sustainable development, while supporting investment and trade opportunities for U.S. and global institutional investors seeking to further diversify into new sectors and opportunities in Africa and other emerging markets. Recent events have demonstrated that we are all part of one global society and our well-being and prosperity is ever more interconnected.

Thank you for your continued interest and we look forward to the time we will be able to convene in person again.

MiDA Advisors Team

MiDA Advisors Partner Updates

Batseta Virtual Conference

Navigating the New Normal

September 15-16, 2020

The Council of Retirement Funds for South Africa (Batseta) Conference aims to harness the investment decisions of retirement funds during these turbulent times.

The Conference aims to educate trustees on the various aspects associated with infrastructure investment. The program is divided into various series / streams addressing Infrastructure, Impact Investing, Private Equity, Risk Management, and ESG.

MiDA Advisors Managing Director Roselyn Spencer will co-host a panel with both U.S. and South African pension funds covering themes including: diversification opportunities, South African infrastructure and other key sectors, and pension fund markets and policies.

Featured Speakers:

Tarrell Gamble

Trustee for Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association

Andrew Palmer

CIO of State of Maryland Retirement System

Jolly Mokorosi

Trustee for multiple South African pension funds

Isaac Ramputa

Chair of Batseta & Executive Director for RisCura Solutions (Pty) Ltd.

Date: September 15-16, 2020

Cost of Attendance: $65.00 USD

The KEPFIC Launch and Infrastructure Investment Conference is a two-day conference featuring the launch of KEPFIC as a legal entity on day one and a trustee educational conference on day two.

This conference will feature the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya as a guest speaker and other speakers from both Kenya and the U.S.

Date: September 29-30, 2020

Time: 8:00 am - 11:30 am EST

Registration Information Coming Soon

MiDA Updates

MiDA Advisors Welcomes new Senior Associate

We are pleased to welcome Kunal Kukreja to the MiDA Advisors team!

Kunal is a Senior Associate in the Transaction Advisory Practice with a focus on capital markets. Previously, he worked as an Analyst in the Emerging Markets Structured Credit Trading at Citigroup in NYC. In this role, he executed several market and credit risk strategies for several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Finance and a B.A. in Economics. Outside of work, Kunal enjoys traveling, cooking, and playing tennis.

Welcome to the team Kunal!

MiDA Advisors

Virtual Road Show

MiDA Advisors will be hosting a Virtual Road Show focused on supporting U.S. and African institutional investors to build relationships and deepen their business connections with U.S. and African asset managers that are offering investable opportunities across the African Continent.

More information coming soon

This is an invitation only event

In the News

African Nations Say They’re Being Ripped Off by Wall Street

Foreign investors, hungry for returns in a world awash in cheap money, have snapped up African debt. But that hasn’t lowered African nations’ borrowing costs, which for 10 years are between 5% and 10% -- well above other emerging markets.

Consider Senegal, for example. It is one of continent’s most stable democracies, praised by the IMF for its economic management and poised to become a major oil exporter after discovering crude and natural gas off its shores. Yet it pays over five times more on its 10-year notes than Greece, the epicenter of Europe’s debt crisis in 2008, which has a lower credit rating.

With the exception of countries like Mozambique and Seychelles, most African sovereigns have remained current on their bond payments since a continent-wide debt write-off backed by the IMF in the mid-2000s.

“There is this tendency to think that the risk attached to African entities must be very high while in fact very few African countries have defaulted,” Fofack said. “How can the spread gap with Italy be over 800 basis points? It’s not justified.”

Increasingly Compelling Investment Space

Growing breadth and depth of a $100 billion plus African Eurobond market
Hard currency issuance avoid African local currency complexities
Highest yielding risk adjusted returns of all sovereign bond assets in hard currency
Highest performing hard currency sovereign bond markets with a lower correlation to global assets than emerging market sovereigns
Improving liquidity due to increased market making and bond trading
Highly selective portfolio construction means problem issuers/jurisdictions can be avoided
Portfolio diversification benefits and added investment alpha for balanced funds

Data provided by Stanlib

Promises, Priorities, Pandemics: How an “investor perspective” drives PPP funding in Ghana’s infrastructure

With an efficiency and funding gap of $1.5 billion per annum, Ghana has been unable to achieve an infrastructure endowment comparable to the region’s middle-income countries. No doubt, PPPs in infrastructure are accompanied by a range of arguments about risk-sharing, innovation, and accountability. The Ghanaian experience is no different. Regardless, there is one distinctive institution whose ethos lies in “cautiously” using the PPP model – The Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF).

Africa Oil & Power Welcomes New Managing Director, Launches 2021 Events

Africa Oil & Power (www.AfricaOilandPower.com) welcomes Renée Montez-Avinir as its new Managing Director; Montez-Avinir brings over 15 years of experience at the highest level to Africa’s leading energy investment platform; Events and investment promotion initiatives are planned for major and emerging African markets in 2021, including Angola, Nigeria, DRC and Mozambique.

South African Space Sector Set to Grow With New Space Infrastructure Hub

Amidst the global Covid-19 pandemic and a financial recession, the South African government has secured funding for a number of strategic infrastructure projects as part of its effective economic recovery plan. Digital infrastructure investment has ranked as a high priority due to our ever-increasing dependency on technological systems which rely on space infrastructure such as satellites and ground stations. Daily weather forecasts, instantaneous worldwide communications, navigation systems, and a constant ability to record high-resolution images are all examples of space infrastructure that are extensively utilised. Even basic commodities, such as food and energy resources, are facilitated through the use of space-based technology.

Old Mutual Infrastructure Fund Urges S. Africa to Focus on Power

A $1.9 billion infrastructure fund owned by Old Mutual Ltd. said South Africa should start with power as it embarks on an 2.3 trillion rand ($137 billion) drive to lure private investment into infrastructure over the next decade. Electricity is South Africa’s most urgent need and the country has experience of approving renewable energy projects with a prior program attracting 209 billion rand of private investment, Vuyo Ntoi, co-managing director of African Infrastructure Investment Managers.

Upcoming Events

NASP Annual Conference

Registration Open!

The NASP Conference has been rescheduled to take place virtually from December 7-10, 2020.

The Africa and Emerging Markets Summit will take place throughout the conference and African speakers will also be featured at conference plenary and breakout sessions as we celebrate and launch the next phase of the NASP-MiDA partnership.