Afrinvest Equity Fund

A new fund on the market as the title above suggests. I have had colleagues at Afrinvest from at least 5 years ago from when they were based in London – Ike, Philip, Andrew and more recently Godwin and Mabel in Nigeria. They are a professional company with strong governance and compliance structures in place.

While based in the UK they were pioneers in introducing foreign companies into the Nigerian markets (this was before the days when hedge fund managers started flying directly into Lagos and forming very long queues while my fellow Nigerians abroad were still swearing against their country) Their research capacity and due dilligence must be pretty thorough considering the hurdles they must have crossed in shepherding foreign money into Nigeria in the days when Nigeria was still considered the wild wild west (rather than the currently tame “wild west” )

Afrinvest has an initial offering into their new Afrinvest Equity Fund. Minimum investment N50,000 (min 500 units) and at N100 per unit thereafter. Opening date August 11th, closing date September 17th.

Investment Objective (I quote): The primary objective of the fund is to achieve long-term capital appreciation of its assets, through investments in a portfolio of equity securities quoted on the NSE and other investments approved by the Commission. The fund will invest primarily in stocks listed on the NSE and it is expected that a minimum of 90% of the fund’s assets will be invested in mid to large cap companies under normal market conditions.

Considering the current bear state of the Nigerian stock market, now would be a good time to do some bottom fishing and pick out some bargains to place money in. Unless you are in that line of business and are able to do this bottom fishing yourself, Afrinvest’s new equity fund would be a good proxy to start with.

Unfortunately their site appears to be down otherwise I would have directed you here for further information. I trust it is a temporary glitch.