Egypt's Tahrir Square has been the scene of regular protests. CC image courtesy of Zeinab Mohamed, on Flickr.
Managers of the Amadeus Capital Partners fund, invested in by the MTN Group, have told HumanIPO they are not put off by political unrest in African countries such as Egypt.
After announcing MTN’s investment of up to US$75 million, Amadeus named South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt as the four African emerging markets they were most interested in exploiting with their portfolio companies.
When quizzed by HumanIPO whether they had been put off by the recent military coup in the North African country, Anne Glover, the fund’s chief executive officer (CEO), said: “To be clear we have selected these markets because of the demand characteristics, not necessarily because of they are a centre of innovation.”
Glover added: “Hopefully politics can change quickly and positively, but we will always react to the market.”
Jason Pinto, investment manager at Amadeus, who spoke to HumanIPO alongside Glover, added that the explosion in mobile growth in the above four mentioned countries was what focused their minds on them.
