Tuesday, June 05, 2007

PE in South Africa

Now this is really interesting, and pretty cool from the empowerment angle. I never would have considered that private equity might take on a profile of being a backdoor method of Black economic development, and in South Africa of all places! Maybe things aren't as well developed in the US as they seem. Or maybe they are further along elsewhere than they seem. Hmmm.

This story also makes me wonder if a firm like The RLJ Companies would ever consider this type of project. I know that Robert Johnson (yes, of BET fame or infamy, however you choose to describe his notoriety) has setup a mid-sized PE shop in conjunction with The Carlyle Group. However, Bob Johnson is also very proud of his "value creator" stripes, and this type of deal may be too altruistic for him. But one can dream, can't he?

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