Multi-Family Office Reaches Out To African Market Via Joint Venture

Amisha Mehta

19 February 2016

Multi-family office has formed a joint venture with global development consultant and philanthropist Roberta Annan to provide financial and investment services to the African market.

The joint venture, called LJ Africa Advisors, will work with individual African countries to support their investment in key areas of opportunity such as power, infrastructure, oil and gas, agriculture, telecommunication and affordable housing. The new business will be based at LJ Partnership’s London office.

The venture comes as Africa’s GDP is expected to rise to $2.6 trillion by 2020 following economic and demographic expansion, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. The continent’s investment environment has seen a wave of recent changes, such as tax policy changes in Kenya, LJ Partnership and Annan noted in a joint statement. In Nigeria, the drop in oil prices has encouraged many high net worth individuals to diversify their portfolios and look into different regulated markets.

Worth noting, over 30 per cent of the world's global mineral reserves are found in Africa, yet less than 5 per cent of the global mineral exploration and extraction budget is invested in the continent, indicating a significant underexploited investment opportunity, according to the two parties.

“With increased wealth comes an opportunity to create real impact and to forge stronger links between philanthropy and business. This is the opportunity that LJ Africa Advisors is responding to,” said Andrew Williams, chief executive of LJ Partnership.

“The expert guidance and counsel provided by LJ Africa Advisors can help wealthy individuals and families, charitable foundations and institutions think more strategically about how they invest and support philanthropic causes - and this is in turn likely to increase both their level of engagement and the ultimate impact created. LJ Africa Advisors is in a unique position to affect real change, help Africa to make a major contribution to impact investing and boost the African economy."

LJ Partnership, which was launched in 2009, now operates from eight offices across Europe, the US and Asia. Its offering comprises direct investment, investment advisory, trust and fiduciary, and private office services.