In recent years, private investment has been recognised as a vital engine for economic growth. This growing significance of private investment is largely due to the need to revive global economic growth and consequent job creation following the 2008 global recession. Governments are operating at, or close to, the limits of their respective fiscal budgets because of the stimulus packages. It has therefore become critical to completely understand the drivers of private investment given the different macroeconomic contexts of different countries. Historically, much of the policies to stimulate private investment were based on investment theories established in the developed economies. However, performance of the investment theories in developing countries yielded mixed results. That led to studies focussed on developing countries with a view to develop relevant neoclassical investment theories for developing countries. Initially, such studies were based on a group of developing countries such as Sub-Saharan African countries. The heterogeneity of developing countries within the group impacted on the validity of the results, necessitating the need for a focus on specific individual countries. This study follows this latter approach and is an attempt to estimate the private investment function for South African economy using the multiple regression model. This study is relevant because recently, private investment in South Africa has declined from the peak of 74% of total investment in 2005 to the current level of 63%. This study contributes to the debate on how to reverse this declining trend of private investment. To this end, the relevant data was collected and analysed. The results of the study revealed that private investment in South Africa is positively influenced by an increase in public investment, in savings rate, and the narrowing of the output gap while negatively influenced by increasing uncertainty, interest rates and to a limited extent real exchange rate appreciation.These empirical results suggest that public investment in core infrastructure— though declining—does ‘crowd in’ private investment. Reduction of uncertainty, together with improved quality and policy certainty, will enhance South Africa’s international standing as an attractive investor destination. This way, South Africa will be able to attract some of the huge global savings for domestic investment- one of the benefit of being an open economy. This is despite South Africa’s relatively low domestic savings rate. The significance of economic growth cannot be overemphasised in terms of creating investment opportunities. Economic growth creates investment opportunities. Further, managing inflation and inflation expectations should be conducted with due consideration for impact of monetary policy on private investment. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / ccgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Sustainable Investors Capital (SiC) will capture a niche within the South African Private Equity industry in two ways. Firstly SiC is different by having a large network of selected members who help generate deal flow, offer their expertise if they choose in ex-post management, and who enjoy the benefit of relevant proprietary research and focused networking events. The second and main differentiating factor is the fact that the members as investors have the ability to invest on an opt-in basis. When joining SiC, members are offered the opportunity to commit capital to the Discretionary Fund. This is a fund managed by SiC in the typical private equity fashion where the member has limited to zero input in the investment decisions made. However, by committing capital to the Discretionary fund, members’ ipse facto get access to the opt-in investments made by SiC. The opt-in investments allow members to select on a deal-by-deal basis whether they want to invest or not. This has the benefit of increasing the flexibility and agility with which SiC can make investments, as well as granting the advantage to would be investors to optimise the returns on their capital which would be committed (and paying fees) but undrawn under normal private equity model circumstances. The amount that a member is allowed to invest in on an opt-in basis is directly proportional to the capital committed to the Discretionary Fund. This is done to enable SiC to actively and effectively pursue deals with the confidence that capital is available. It is reasonable to assume that the Discretionary Fund will be coinvesting with the opt-in funds.

Employment, economic growth and self-reliance are the appetites of every country. Small enterprise development is seen as an effective solution towards this goal depending on the availability of resources. Private equity finance is one of the key resources to enterprise development in a country. International case studies have shown that private equity finance can lead to enterprise development in a country. The aim of the study is to determine the contribution of private equity finance to enterprise development in South Africa. In order to get views from other role players in the private equity finance market, questionnaires were distributed to 200 private equity finance players and the response rate was 39%. The sample size comprised 61.5% males and 38.5% females. The majority of the participants were in the age group 25–34 and constituted 53% of the respondents, whilst those aged 35–49 years constituted 35.9%. A smaller number of respondents were in the age group 18–24 and 50 and above, which both comprised 11.5% as an aggregate. The results revealed that there is a positive correlation between enterprise development and private equity capital with 83% of the respondents agreeing and strongly agreeing that the business skills and expertise brought by private equity investors increase business performance. Of the respondents, 74.4% strongly agree and agree with the notion that most Small and Medium Enterprises do need the intervention of private equity investors. It is recommended that the government, through relevant legislation, needs to promote and encourage private equity investment. Some form of private equity investment such as angel investment needs to be formalized, as is available in other countries such as the United States of America and some countries in Europe. / MBA. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2010.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / This research paper analyses how asymmetry information impacts Private Equity (PE) investment deal structuring in Sub Saharan Africa excluding South Africa ((SSA (ex SA)) relative to SA. It asks the question: how are the risks faced by Africa frontier market private equity investors - reflected, mitigated and managed via contracting, monitoring and investment exiting activities? In so doing the research makes a number of hypotheses based on agency academic theory. A survey questionnaire was distributed to PE firms who invest in South Africa (SA) and in the Sub-Saharan Africa excluding SA (SSA ex SA). Under each segment of the survey (contracting, monitoring and exiting) a number of questions were posed for ranking according to likelihood or frequency of occurrence. Using the Wilcoxon Rank Sum test statistical methodology, to test for statistical differences between the two sub-samples of responses to the questionnaire provided by 32 PE firms. The results were interpreted in relation to existing financial agency theories related to contracting, monitoring and exiting investments. The results of the work achieved in this study largely suggest that PE investors use global best practices when investing in the sub Saharan Africa region. SSA (ex SA) PE investors employ the same sophisticated approaches and contracts provisions as investors in established markets. However given the levels of information asymmetries the use of instruments that do not give investors direct control rights are rare in SSA (ex SA) relative to SA. The results are consistent and support that view that there is a persistent scepticism regarding the many Africa jurisdiction legal systems’ ability to effectively protect debt investors and this is mainly reflected in choice of security, which also impacts the types contracting provisions in contracts.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In 2007, Bürer and Wüstenhagen (2009) conducted a survey amongst European and United States venture capital and private equity investors (VC/PE) to ascertain their public clean energy policy preference and concluded that VC/PE investors view the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme to be the most preferred policy option. In this research study, the author re-conducted part of the Bürer and Wüstenhagen (2009) survey with thirty South African VC/PE investors to determine their perceptions on clean energy public policy preference. It is evident from the survey, that opinions are varied and at times even contradictory. This in itself demonstrates an important feature of the South African VC/PE and clean energy industry: it is young, dynamic, changing rapidly and can look very different, depending on the vantage point. The investors surveyed were mainly optimistic about the long-term development of the South African renewable energy industry led by private investors. VC/PE investors in South Africa have mixed views on various investment options, and are concerned about both the regulatory and macro-economic trends. The interviews and survey results show a number of recurring issues. Altogether, the survey results indicate that VC/PE investors consider FITs to be the best public clean energy policy instrument in leveraging private investment and finance for renewable energy in South Africa. This study serves to illustrate and confirm, in line with empirical studies, that VC/PE investors in South Africa believe that clean energy market-pull policies provide an impetus and indeed spur private investor participation in clean energy in developing countries. While it is true that most VC/PE investors would prefer the price certainty associated with a FIT regime, this is almost an irrelevant question in South Africa since constitutionally the state is bound to procure through competitive tendering. This study also serves to highlight the need for more active research and attention in this field.