Emerging Capital Partners seeks $750 mln for Fund IV

Marketing for ECP Africa Fund IV will start soon, the people told sister website peHUB.

Emerging Capital’s last pool, ECP Africa Fund III PCC, closed at $613 million in 2010, according to a press release. Investors included the African Development Bank; the International Financial Corp; the Overseas Private Investment Corp; CDC, the United Kingdom government development finance institution; and South Suez Capital, the pan-African fund-of-funds manager.

Fund III invested in high growth companies throughout the continent of Africa. Sectors included telecommunications, natural resources, financial services and agriculture, according to the ECP website.

ECP Africa Fund II closed in May 2007 with $523 million in commitments, a statement from that time said. ECP’s first pool totaled $407.6 million, the ECP website said.

Performance data for the funds was unavailable. News of the fundraising was previously reported by Dow Jones.

ECP, which has offices in Johannesburg, Paris, Nairobi, Kenya, as well as Washington D.C., invests in Africa. The firm has made 50 investments across 40 African countries and reportedly averages a 2.4x return on their exits.

ECP has raised seven pools. This includes a $105 million Moroccan Infrastructure Fund, established in 2006, which invests in sectors like telecommunications, transportation and energy. An ECP MENA Growth Fund, which was established in 2007 and collected $150 million, targeted investments in the Middle East and North African countries, according to the ECP website.

Executives at ECP declined comment.

Luisa Beltran is a senior writer for peHUB.