Aureos Central Asia Fund holds $67m second closing

The fund has two new investors on board, the Development Bank of Japan and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The focus of the new vehicle is on investments of between $2m and $10m. The first two investments completed are a $10m investment in Leasing Group, a company that provides financial leases for various types of equipment to small and medium-sized businesses in Kazakhstan, and a $5m investment in Ala TV, a Kyrgyzstan-based cable TV operator.

The Aureos Central Asia Fund seeks investment opportunities across Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Georgia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Sev Vettivetpillai, CEO of UK-based Aureos Advisers, which provides advisory services to Aureos Capital, said, 'We are delighted with the performance of the Central Asia Fund at this early stage. Our team is unique in that we have on-the-ground presence and we are able to identify the best investment opportunities as they come up.'

Talgat Kukenov, managing partner for Aureos in Central Asia, based in Almaty, added, 'The demand for private equity amongst potential investee companies is now stronger than ever. The Kazakh banking system in particular has been affected by the limited liquidity in capital markets worldwide. When credit is short the banks often cut down disproportionately on lending to SMEs. SME private equity can very profitably fill that void.'

Tamerlan Hamidzada, partner with Aureos in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijani by origin, commented, 'The expansion of the middle class in many Central Asian economies has created new opportunities in the domestic markets. There is a boom in SME growth, which private equity, when executed well, can help support.'

Aureos, domiciled in Mauritius, specialises in providing expansion and buy-out capital to unlisted mid-cap businesses across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Shareholders in Aureos comprise employees, along with CDC Group, Norfund and FMO which are, respectively, the British, Norwegian and Dutch development finance institutions.

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