海国百态:非洲人民的钱不好赚

Nor is the competition just for deals. Another emerging headache is what one investor calls the “traffic jam” of fund managers seeking capital from investors. According to Preqin, the data company, 57 Africa-focused private equity funds are looking for $13.1bn, half of which are based in South Africa. While emerging market fundraising increased 72 per cent overall to $40bn in the past two years, fundraising for sub-Saharan Africa fell 3 per cent to $1.45bn last year – well down on its 2008 peak of $2.24bn.
争夺的对象不仅仅是投资机会。另一问题正在浮现：基金管理公司追逐投资者的资本，因而出现了一名投资者所说的“拥堵”现象。按照数据公司Preqin的资料，目前有57家专注于非洲的私人股本投资基金寻求募集131亿美元资金，其中有一半基金位于南非。最近两年里，新兴市场的募资总额增长72%，达400亿美元，但去年撒哈拉以南非洲的募资额却下滑3%，仅为14.5亿美元，远低于2008年22.4亿美元的峰值。

Ethos, a South African private equity company, which has been investing in the region for 25 years, closed one of the continent’s largest funds last year after securing $800m from investors, but it says fundraising “has not been easy”.
南非私人股本公司Ethos在该地区投资已有25年。去年，Ethos向投资者募集了8亿美元，创设了非洲最大基金之一。但它表示，募资“并不容易”。

Harith, another South African fund manager, had to rely on domestic money after foreign investors shied away.
随着国外投资者纷纷退缩，另一家南非基金管理公司Harith只得依赖国内资金。

Roger Leeds, founder of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, says the smarter money is targeting middle market deals worth less than $50m, which he believes have stronger growth prospects.
新兴市场私人股本协会(Emerging Markets Private Equity Association)创始人罗杰?利兹(Roger Leeds)表示，更精明的资金正在瞄准5000万美元以下的中等规模投资机会。他认为这一领域的增长前景更为强劲。

“The fund managers are happy to take investors’ money but it puts tremendous pressure on them to do bigger deals and they’re going to run out,” he says. “They’re all complaining they’re finding trouble finding deals and they’re competing with each other and driving up valuations.”
“基金经理很乐意吸收投资者资金，但这会对他们产生巨大的压力，要求他们投资大的项目，而这种投资机会快要没了，”他说，“他们都在抱怨难以找到投资机会，他们互相竞争，将估值越抬越高。”

In other words, as the African growth story attracts more and more funds, the going is getting tougher. 换言之，非洲的增长故事吸引了越来越多的资金，但现状却愈发严峻。
That is one reason why resourceful and locally based managers matter so much more today than in the past.

因此，有能力的当地基金经理发挥着比过去更重要的作用。
“It’s no longer like venture capital where you take a shotgun approach and hopefully one of the pellets will hit the bullseye,” says veteran fund manager Michael Turner at Actis, the UK-based fund manager, which is raising money for a new global fund that will include Africa. “In today’s African private equity you can’t afford to have failures – it’s extremely hard to come back in a portfolio to deliver an overall good profit if you’ve had one or two wipeouts.”

英国基金管理公司英联(Actis)正在为一支囊括非洲的新全球性基金募资。该公司的资深基金经理迈克尔?特纳(Michael Turner)称：“现在私人股本投资跟风投不一样了，风投是漫天放枪，指望有一颗子弹能命中靶心。但当今的非洲私人股本领域容不得失败——如果有一两笔投资崩盘，一项投资组合就极难产生总体上很好的利润。”
Sev Vettivetpillai has made dozens of Africa investments and exits as head of Aureos, which was bought by Abraaj Capital of the United Arab Emirates last year. He says the days of flying in and out of Africa and managing investments from a distance are over.

作为欧瑞斯(Aureos)的首席执行官，塞夫?维蒂维特皮莱(Sev Vettivetpillai)在非洲做过许多投资，也曾退出其中的一些投资。欧瑞斯去年被阿联酋的Abraaj Capital收购。他表示，不停往返非洲、远程管理投资的日子已经远去。
“The growth story is very valid and real across Africa, but it still remains that if you pick the wrong partner and the wrong industry, you’re not likely to be benefiting from that growth story. Without the right management team you will lose your money. You won’t get out of that hole.”

“非洲各地的增长故事真实可信，但如果选错合作伙伴和行业，你仍然难以从中受益。没有合适的管理团队，你便会赔钱，后果难以收拾。”
Additional reporting by Andrew England and Anne-Sylvaine Chassany

安德鲁?英格兰(Andrew England)和安妮-西尔万?沙萨尼(Anne-Sylvaine Chassany)补充报道