Advisory Council Spotlight
NASP – MiDA Africa Institutional Investor Advisory Council Update

During this challenging year, NASP and MiDA have worked hard to keep their collective “fingers on the pulse” of the institutional investor community’s outlook for global investing, emerging markets, and Africa (in particular).  During the first half of the year, we hosted two quarterly Advisory Council meetings, and co-sponsored - with the Corporate Council on Africa (“CCA”) - a webinar that was headlined by Standard Bank’s Chief Economist Goolam Ballim's insightful discussion of COVID-19 impacts and implications for the African continent. We also took the opportunity to survey Advisory Council members about their respective outlooks for the current and post-COVID-19 environments. For a brief summary of some their feedback, please read more here.

To continue the important thought-leadership and sharing of dialogue between US institutional investors and their counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa, MiDA Advisors is co-hosting a webinar with NASP on August 4, 2020 at 1:00 pm EST. This webinar will highlight perspectives of Advisory Council members on " N avigating the New Global Socio-Economic Challenges”. Please click here to register for the webinar and join us in this insightful conversation.


Lee Stephens, Advisory Council Chair and Aymeric Saha, MiDA Advisors CEO
Henry Jones featured in Pensions & Investments
CalPERS board discusses racism, approves new investment policy

CalPERS' board discussed systemic racism and vulnerable workers before moving on to its agenda and approving a new total fund investment policy.

Before the board considered the agenda, Henry Jones, president of the CalPERS board, took a moment to speak about the $386.9 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System's role in addressing systemic racism.

"I typically begin each CalPERS Board meeting with a statement intended to engage and inform our members, employees, partners and the public about the goals and priorities of CalPERS as a pension fund. There is however, nothing typical about where we all find ourselves today.
Our country, and in fact our world, is on the precipice of change. Not the type of change driven by marketing and PR and slogans and platitudes. But, the type of change that births an awakening to the racial and economic inequities that exist in societies where people don’t really see each other. Or see ourselves in one another."

Henry Jones CalPERS article as featured in June 19, 2020 article in Pensions&Investments.

Henry Jones
CalPERs Board President
NASP - MiDA Advisory Council Member
MiDA Advisors Stands Against Racial Injustice

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) is America’s premier legal organization fighting to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans. NAACP LDF actions include litigation, advocacy, and public education. MiDA Advisors and CrossBoundary have jointly donated $10,000 to the NAACP LDF.
Advisory Council Members Speaking at KORIED Global Summit
KORIED Virtual Summit
“The New Order Of Investments And Investors”.
July 28th - 30th, 2020
MiDA Chairman Christian Dunbar along with Advisory Council members Angela Miller May and Daniel Miller will be featured speakers during KORIED's Annual Global Summit.

Christian Dunbar will be speaking on
Thursday, July 30 at 11:00 am EST on a panel focusing exclusively on investing in Africa.

Why Africa Now?
Why should asset allocators explore investing in Africa now? What are the opportunities, benefits and expected returns? How can asset allocators educate themselves and explore co-investing opportunities with African institutional investors? This panel will seek to answer these questions.

Valerie Mosley Speaking at SAVCA
Valerie Mosley
NASP-MiDA Advisory
Council Member
Valerie Mosley will speak during the upcoming SAVCA 2020 Private Equity Industry Survey Launch
Advisory Council member Valerie Mosley, will be a panel speaker on the SAVCA 2020 Private Equity Survey Launch, a virtual event that will focus on the latest industry trends pertaining to capital raising, deal activity, and exits.

This virtual event will take place on
Thursday, July 30, from 9:30 am - 11:00 am EST
Special Publication
Industry Partners Spotlight


Gateway’s investments across emerging markets South Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa - have delivered robust performance with strong connectivity to North America, mitigating risk by diversifying income sources and currency.
  • Gateway Real Estate Africa has contracts with clients including the US government (building US diplomatic housing) and Halliburton
  • Liquid Telecom, the leading independent data, voice and IP provider in Africa, provides data center storage services to large multinational corporations including very large US companies that dominate the NASDAQ
  • Mrs Bector’s, a North Indian bakery company, supplies to QSR chains including McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Wendy’s, Carl’s Jr., Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Subway
  • TVS Supply Chain Solutions, a global supply chain solutions firm, counts General Motors, Ford, Carrier and Caterpillar as clients
  • The GCC franchise of Tim Hortons, Canada’s leading QSR chain, is the largest outside of North America.

Read more about Gateway Partners and these case studies here.

AIIM, a member of Old Mutual Alternative Investments, has been investing in the African infrastructure sector since 2000 with a track record extending across seven African infrastructure funds. AIIM’s investment experience extends across more than 60 portfolio company investments over this time. AIIM currently manages USD1.9 billion in assets across the power, telecommunications and transport sectors with operations in 19 countries across East, West and Southern Africa. AIIM considers the incorporation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into its investment and ownership processes to support the pursuit of creation of positive futures and obtaining sustainable, superior risk-adjusted returns for its clients.

AIIM Article:
AIIM's recent article titled COVID-19 pandemic: Considerations for Africa’s infrastructure investors analyzes the investment opportunities within African emerging markets in the wake of COVID-19.


Sango Capital Management is a private equity firm focused on high growth middle market investments across the African continent. Founded in 2012, and based in Johannesburg, Sango is minority owned and manages nearly $400 million across three funds and co-investment vehicles. Since inception, Sango has become a trusted partner for global institutional investors who seek focused and intelligent opportunities to invest in the African middle market, through a combination of fund-of-funds, direct and customized solutions. Sango combines its middle market focus to maximize ESG impact per dollar spent by embedding sustainability and impact into the investment process.

Publication from SANGO:
Why COVID may make Africa more Attractive in Absolute Terms focuses on the impact of COVID on African markets.


MiDA Updates
Webinar
Navigating the Effects of Covid-19: Perspectives from Asset Owners on New Global Socio-Economic Challenges .
MiDA Advisors in partnership with NASP, will be hosting a webinar with US Asset Owners to discuss their outlook and prospects during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. Featured speakers will be Henry Jones of CalPERS, Tarrell Gamble of ACERA, and Kirk Sims of TRS of Texas from the NASP-MiDA Advisory Council.

Date
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST



New MiDA Website!
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new website!
Please visit at:
COMING SOON:
Mercer-MiDA Publication Part ll
Since 2018, Mercer and MiDA have joined forces through collaborative projects to investigate the barriers (perceived and real) to opportunities for increased institutional investments into Sub-Saharan Africa infrastructure sector.

Part II of the Publication will be available in late 2020.
In the News
An African Model for This Moment: Local Institutional Funding of Infrastructure
Governments in the region are pushing for more high impact infrastructure investments, but public resources are increasingly under pressure. Kenyan Pension Funds Investment Consortium (KEPFIC) is an innovative initiative in Africa where pension funds are investing in infrastructure and private equity with potential for replication.

The Rise of Corporate Investment Partnerships for Social and Environmental Impact
By Vanessa Holcomb-Mann, USAID INVEST Senior Investment Advisor, and Lala Faiz, Director of Strategy and Investment at Conservation X Labs

Corporate investment partnerships bring together the resources of companies, donors, and investors, efficiently coordinating investments of capital and capabilities — such as talent, expertise, and local knowledge — to address business, social, and environmental challenges. The new wave of corporate initiatives take as many forms as there are companies. But they have one thing in common: These are not philanthropic side-projects. They are critical to secure companies’ long-term viability.


MiDA Advisors is a USAID implementing partner under the INVEST Project.
Scaling Up Investment for Covid-19 Economic Recovery and Jobs in Africa
By Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in partnership with CrossBoundary

In order to maintain these levels of investment in the new COVID-19 reality–and to make investment more transformative and build economic resilience –coordination is needed. Development investors and international development partners should work together with governments on their national economic recovery responses, their development planning processes and their plans to develop key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and technology solutions.

This paper discusses scaling up private investment in a way that can support Africa’s economic recovery from COVID-19 and deliver economic transformation, these three players need to align their approaches and synchronize their efforts better.

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.