Emerging Capital Partners Sells Entire Position in Starcomms, One of Nigeria's Largest...

Emerging Capital Partners Sells Entire Position in Starcomms, One of Nigeria's
Largest Telecommunications Operators
Exit represents nearly 3x firm's initial investment, highlights strength of
mobile telecommunications in Africa

WASHINGTON, July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Emerging Capital Partners LLC (ECP),
an international private equity firm focused on investing across the African
continent, today announced the sale of its entire position in Starcomms, a
leading Nigerian mobile telecommunications operator. ECP's exit was made
through a private placement of the company's shares. The shares were then
listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), making Starcomms the first listed
Nigerian telecom company on the NSE. The exit represents 2.9x ECP's initial
investment, with total proceeds of U.S. $99.1 million.
ECP made its initial investment in Starcomms in 2005 and committed
additional capital over the next two years for a total investment of U.S.
$34.3 million. ECP's investments helped Starcomms expand its telecom
infrastructure and grow its customer base from approximately 100,000
subscribers to 1.5 million. Today, the company is Nigeria's fourth largest
telecom operator and the largest CDMA 3G mobile operator.
"Over the course of ECP's investment period, Starcomms has become more
competitive in the Nigerian telecom sector and has significantly grown its
subscriber base," said Hurley Doddy, chief operating officer of ECP. "We are
proud to have worked with such a well-governed, world-class operator while the
company expanded its national footprint, developed new services, and generated
top corporate business accounts."
ECP invested in Starcomms alongside Actis, an emerging markets private
equity fund manager. Actis invested in Starcomms at the same time as ECP and
on the same terms and conditions. The firms, whose goals in terms of
liquidity and governance were similar, structured the voting interest in
Starcomms to be separate from the economic interest. ECP and Actis controlled
the company by retaining a majority of the voting rights while holding a
minority of the economic interest.
"ECP has been an important strategic partner for Starcomms," said Maher
Qubain, chief executive officer of Starcomms. "The firm helped us improve our
management, operations and corporate governance and enabled us grow to the
point that the company is now ready to be publicly traded. We look forward to
continuing to build upon this base of success as we move Starcomms into the
next stage of its growth."
ECP's investment in Starcomms was made through the firm's AIG African Fund
Infrastructure Fund. The U.S. $407 million fund was established in 2000 to
invest in infrastructure and related industries in Africa. During its
commitment period, the fund invested primarily in telecommunications, natural
resources, agribusiness, transportation, and power and water.
ABOUT ECP
Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) is the first private equity group to raise
more than $1.5 billion for investment in companies across the African
continent. The firm's investment strategy is focused on delivering
consistently above-market returns to investors that are uncorrelated to the
U.S. and other global economies. Today, ECP has an eight-year track-record of
investing in Africa. For more information, please see www.ecpinvestments.com.
SOURCE Emerging Capital Partners LLC

Jennifer Gill, of FD for ECP, +1-212-850-5691, jennifer.gill@fd.com