Stanlib?s trump for Africa is engineering its own exit

Roberto Ferreira, fund manager of the Stanlib Africa Direct Property Development Fund. Picture: STANLIB

STANLIB?s pilot African property development fund that launched in May has expanded its core focus from Nigeria and Kenya to also include Ghana and Uganda ? as the asset manager gears up for its investments into direct African real estate.

The Stanlib group, which is the product of a merger between Standard Bank Asset Management and Liberty Asset Management, has more than R500bn worth of assets under management and is increasingly offering more African exposure to institutional investors.

The asset manager?s direct African property development fund has $50m seed capital from Liberty and is targeting a capital raising of $100m from predominantly European and Middle Eastern investors, while it will also raise debt finance from commercial banks and development finance institutions.

The fund is targeting between six and eight developments, and can exit its developments between years four and eight. Roberto Ferreira, fund manager of the Stanlib Africa Direct Property Development Fund, says one of the most compelling features of the fund is its ability to "engineer its own exit", given that most other development funds on the continent are highly illiquid.

Stanlib is focusing on developing domestic real estate investment trusts (Reits) in the markets it is targeting, and is playing an instrumental role in formalising pension money in those markets, he says. It also intends to develop an income fund. Mr Ferreira says the group has the ability to create development funds (such as the Stanlib Africa Direct Property Development Fund ) and sell the stock "into either income funds to be created by Stanlib and Liberty or in local capital market instruments such as Reits".

"The biggest challenge for any private equity investor in Africa is your exit opportunities and how you identify them. Our strategy is to create these income funds and domestic products and present our investors with these opportunities." He says that while property assets are an obvious target for pension funds in countries such as Nigeria, "there are so few quality assets of collective investment schemes that they can actually target, so we think that?s an opportunity for us".

Stanlib intends to identify and commit to the portfolio within the first two years so that it can begin exiting from years four, five or six, he says. The fund will have a minimum of 50% retail exposure but is targeting 70%-80% retail. The balance would be office and hospitality exposure. Mr Ferreira says while the fund would welcome local retailers in the target countries, "at the end of the day we are following South African retailers to make the investment case work".

The four targeted countries are high-growth countries that remain underserviced from both a retail and office perspective. Furthermore, Stanlib can leverage off the skills and know-how that Standard Bank and Liberty already have in place in those countries.

The assets being developed, mostly in metropolitans and capital cities, "would theoretically fit into an income fund ? so Stanlib would seek to extend its economics in this by managing that as well, and also managing the domestic capital market instruments like Reits". Stanlib would also look to create a much larger African property development fund at a later stage, Mr Ferreira says.

Stanlib?s main competitors include the likes of Actis, RMB Westport and Novare. In the listed property space, Resilient Property Income Fund and Hyprop Investments are growing their African exposure ? with Hyprop co-investing in the Atterbury Group?s Atterbury Africa property investment company. P roperty developer Billion Group, which is also the asset manager of JSE-listed Rebosis Property Fund, is targeting retail developments on the rest of the continent, which may be listed separately in the future.

Generally, JSE-listed firms have avoided African real estate, choosing to focus more on Europe and Australia.

Source: http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/property/2013/07/26/stanlibs-trump-for-africa-is-engineering-its-own-exit

cell phone jammer g8 summit netanyahu aipac vanessa minnillo super tuesday epidemiology

#BREAKING: The U.S. Park Police in Washington say the Lincoln Memorial is tempor...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151839156585695&set=a.313326575694.184845.10505090694&type=1

Daniel Inouye steelers scarlett johansson peter frampton Sandy Hook Elementary School Colors Victoria Soto nbc sports

Year?s First Human Cases of West Nile Reported in California

(Los Angeles Times)

At least seven people have been diagnosed with West Nile Virus in California, the first confirmed cases of the disease this year, state and county health officials said Thursday.

The Los Angeles County public health department reported that two adults were hospitalized this month and three other blood donors were found to have infected blood.

State public health officials said two other confirmed cases ? from Glenn County and Sacramento County ? were also infected.

All three patients are now recovering, health officials said.

State officials have not yet confirmed the L.A. County cases.

Click here to read the full story on LATimes.com.

Source: http://ktla.com/2013/07/25/years-first-human-cases-of-west-nile-reported-in-california/

wiz khalifa 2013 Grammys kelly clarkson Lumineers The Lumineers grammys frank ocean

Royal Baby Name to Inspire Baby George Wave in UK, Beyond

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/07/royal-baby-name-to-inspire-baby-george-wave-in-uk-beyond/

shepard fairey is snooki pregnant snooki pregnant gbc hedy lamarr kowloon walled city ronda rousey vs miesha tate

House GOP considers food stamp work requirements

WASHINGTON (AP) ? About 47 million Americans received food stamps last year, but only a relative few are required to work or look for a job as a condition of receiving the aid.

Now, House Republicans are considering whether the work requirement should be strengthened as they seek cuts to the $80 billion-a-year program, which has doubled in cost over the last five years. One in seven Americans used the federal food aid last year.

A small group of GOP lawmakers met Wednesday to discuss trimming the program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. One approach discussed in the meeting was a proposal by Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., that would allow ? but not require ? individual states to test work requirements.

The push to pass a food stamp bill came after House GOP leaders stripped the domestic food aid from a farm bill that passed the chamber earlier this month following the defeat of a combined food-farm bill. Conservatives had demanded greater cuts in the food stamp program, so GOP leaders said they would take up the issue separately. But it's unclear if they will be able to find enough consensus within their caucus to move on the issue quickly ? or at all.

After the meeting, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., indicated that there is a good chance the food stamp debate will be pushed to the fall as Republicans try and decide their course.

The House has already voted in favor of the Southerland proposal, which was offered an amendment to the combined farm bill that was eventually defeated. But a more far-reaching amendment that would have cut $3 billion a year from the program and required most able-bodied adults to work to receive benefits was rejected. Many moderate Republicans opposed that amendment, proposed by Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.

Before the meeting Wednesday, Southerland said his work requirement proposal makes sense because it is optional for states and doesn't cut dollars for the program.

"I think you have to have moral reformation before you have fiscal reformation," he said.

The concept of requiring work for some SNAP recipients is not new. The 1996 welfare law laid out food stamp work requirements for some able-bodied adults who don't have dependents. However, the 2009 stimulus law and waivers later allowed by the Obama administration have suspended those requirements in most states.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday that in looking at deeper work requirements, Republicans are ignoring who actually gets food stamps. He said 92 percent of recipients are children, the elderly, disabled or people who are already working.

Vilsack called the Southerland amendment "arbitrary" and said it would make more sense to improve state employment and training programs that help food stamp recipients find and keep jobs.

Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., said the lawmakers in Wednesday's meeting discussed the Southerland proposal and whether work requirements should be voluntary or mandatory for states. She said the group floated other ideas such as drug testing recipients and reducing automatic food stamp eligibility for people who are enrolled in other benefit programs. Similar provisions were included in the version of the farm bill that was defeated.

She said there were no final decisions and the idea was "not to think so much in terms of dollars saved, but what is good policy."

Another proposal favored by some Republicans, including House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, is to turn all of the federal SNAP money over to the states and cap it. Ryan's budget also proposed a cut of around $13 billion a year to food stamps. But those so-called "block grants" to states may be too much of a cut for the more moderate members of the GOP caucus.

Regardless of the approach, any bill passed by the conservative House will be difficult to reconcile with the Senate version of the farm bill, which keeps all of the programs together and makes only a half-percent cut to food stamps. Strong objections in the Democratic-led Senate chamber and in the Obama administration will make it difficult for anything the Republicans propose to become law.

If the two chambers cannot agree, which seems a very possible scenario, Congress may have to extend current farm law ? and current levels of spending for food stamps ? a second time when it expires at the end of September. The law originally expired last September and was extended as part of a larger New Year's deal on the so-called fiscal cliff.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., have said the Senate will not pass another extension. But it may be the only option for farm programs that would be eliminated otherwise.

In remarks on the House floor last Friday, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., would not say how he expects leaders to proceed on a food stamp bill, except to say they were working on it.

"We intend to proceed deliberately, looking at policies that make sense in reforming these programs in the vein of trying to get to those most vulnerable the relief they need, at the same time paying cognizance to the fact that we have fiscal challenges we must deal with," Cantor said.

___

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-gop-considers-food-stamp-requirements-200741717.html

Miami Heat Harlem Shake Harlem Shake Miami Heat dr seuss History Channel The Bible alex smith alex smith The Bible History Channel

Anker 12,000mAh battery changes multiple devices

With Anker‘s latest Astro3 external battery, you can charge up to three devices simultaneously. ?The 12,000mAh battery has plenty of power to keep Android, iOS, or any other USB-chargeable devices going no matter how long your day is. ?Anker says the Astro3 is a “versatile external battery pack with three USB ports including a Smart [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/07/25/anker-12000mah-battery-changes-multiple-devices/

Robert Ebert chelsea handler hannibal Lena Headey roger ebert north korea Daddy Yankee

Egypt: Army chief seeks mandate to fight violence

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's military chief on Wednesday called on his countrymen to hold mass demonstrations to voice their support for the army and police to deal with potential "violence and terrorism," a move that signals a stepped up campaign against supporters of the ousted Islamist president.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, addressing a graduation ceremony for a class of military cadets, urged Egyptians to take to the streets Friday, saying a massive turnout would give him a "mandate" and an "order" to do what is "necessary" to stop bloodshed.

Since the military removed Morsi three weeks ago, the ousted president's Islamist supporters have taken to the streets vowing to continue protests until he is restored. Clashes have erupted multiple times between the Islamists and Morsi opponents or security forces.

Each side accuses the other of starting violence. Dozens have been killed, mostly from the pro-Morsi side.

Throughout, the military and its allied media have depicted the protesters as a dangerous armed movement. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and its allies say their protests are peaceful and have decried what they call military "massacres" against them.

At the same time, Islamic militants have stepped up attacks on security forces in Sinai Peninsula since Morsi's fall, killing nearly 20 soldiers and policemen and raising fears of a wave of militant violence. On Wednesday, suspected militants killed a soldier and wounded another in two separate attacks in Sinai.

In the early hours Wednesday, a bomb went off outside the main police headquarters in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, wounding 19 people. Presidential spokesman Ahmad al-Musalamani called the attack an act of terrorism.

In his speech in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria, el-Sissi called for rallies Friday to be as large as those on June 30, when millions took to the streets to demand Morsi's ouster, and July 3, when millions again celebrated his ouster. He promised police and troops would guard the rallies.

The call for demonstrations is likely to be matched by similar calls by Morsi's supporters, raising the specter of violence.

"On Friday, every honorable and honest Egyptian must come out. Come out and remind the whole world that you have a will and resolve of your own," el-Sissi said. "Please, shoulder your responsibility with me, your army and the police and show your size and steadfastness in the face of what is going on."

El-Sissi cautioned that his call for mass demonstrations should not be taken as an invitation to violence.

Commenting on el-Sissi's address, Essam el-Erian, a senior leader of the Islamist group from which Morsi hails, made it clear that the Morsi camp intends to stick to its guns. "There is no solution except rescinding the coup and the return of legitimacy," he told Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday boycotted the inaugural session of a reconciliation conference sponsored by interim President Adly Mansour. The session was chaired by Mohamed ElBaradei, Egypt's top reform campaigner who was named vice president after Morsi's ouster.

The July 3 coup that ousted Morsi followed four days of mass protests by millions of Egyptians demanding that he step down.

Morsi's supporters insist he must be reinstated, branding his ouster as a coup against democracy. The former president was Egypt's first freely elected leader, but his opponents say he concentrated too much power in his own hands and his Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

El-Sissi said on Wednesday that he had no intention, "not a for a second," to go back on a political road map he announced the day he ousted Morsi, which entailed parliamentary and presidential elections by early 2014 and a referendum before that on a new constitution or amendments to the one drafted by Morsi's Islamist backers.

He promised foreign observers from the U.N. and the European Union would be invited to monitor the elections. "We are ready for an election to be supervised by the whole world," he said.

El-Sissi was a member of the military council that ruled Egypt for nearly 17 months after the ouster in 2011 of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. He was the chief of military intelligence at the time. Morsi named him defense minister and military chief in August 2012.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-army-chief-seeks-mandate-fight-violence-101906312.html

Kordell Stewart cesar chavez Wichita State hbo Buckwild Steve Alford Phil Spector