Actis wraps up fundraising for global fund

Emerging market specialist firm Actis has closed its latest fund, according to a source familiar with the matter. 

Including a $160 million African co-investment pool, the firm has raised $1.7 billion, the source said. It is understood the firm closed its Actis Global 4 on 30 September. While the main fund is closed, the African co-investment vehicle is still open and has a small amount of capital to raise before it hits its cap.  

Actis declined to comment on fundraising. 

Actis’ emerging market energy fund also has not held a final closing yet but is fully allocated and is expected to hold a legal closing on $1.1 billion in a month, a source said. 

The final close comes after Actis has spent more than two years on the fundraising trail. The firm had initially targeted $2.2 billion for Actis Global 4, plus additional region-specific investment vehicles for India, Africa, China and Latin America, which brought the overall fund target to $3.5 billion. In May, it emerged Actis had consolidated the regional vehicles into the main fund – apart from the Africa side pool which had a $200 million target for co-investments. 

Fundraising for emerging market has declined in recent years. During the first nine months of this year, 59 funds raised $12.94 billion, according to a report by Private Equity International’s Research & Analytics division.  
The amount compares with the close to $30 billion raised during the whole of 2012 by emerging markets vehicles globally, and is a significant drop from $61.1 billion raised during the whole of 2011, data showed.  

“LPs often claim that returns from emerging market funds have not been high enough to justify the extra risk taken. However, a number of LPs are still keen on making investments into emerging market funds,” the report said. 

It is unclear how much capital Actis’ Global 4 has deployed so far. In June the firm invested $102 million in Edita Food Industries, a snack food business in Egypt, using both its Actis Emerging Markets III, a $2.9 billion 2008 vintage, and its Actis Global 4. Last September, it invested S$68m in CNA, a provider of English language training in Brazil. Part of the equity for this investment also came from the new fund.