{"id":43354,"date":"2014-08-01T10:14:51","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T14:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/?p=43354"},"modified":"2014-08-01T10:14:51","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T14:14:51","slug":"blackstone-backs-black-rhino-to-invest-in-african-infrastructure-and-power-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/08\/2014\/blackstone-backs-black-rhino-to-invest-in-african-infrastructure-and-power-development.html","title":{"rendered":"Blackstone Backs Black Rhino to Invest in African Infrastructure and Power Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New York (HedgeCo.Net) &#8211; Global asset management firm Blackstone (BX) today announced that it has partnered with Black Rhino, an African infrastructure development company, to identify, develop, finance, construct and operate large-scale infrastructure projects across Sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on the energy sector, including power generation, transmission, fuel storage and pipelines.<\/p>\n<p>Formed in January 2012 and based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Dakar, Senegal, Black Rhino is led by Founder and CEO Brian Herlihy, who previously founded and served as CEO of Seacom. At Seacom, Herlihy led a $600 million submarine cable development project to connect fiber optic communications networks from Europe and Asia to 23 African countries. During his career, Herlihy has been involved in over $7 billion of project finance infrastructure development in Africa, including chemical refining, power plant, rail, port and road projects.<\/p>\n<p>The Black Rhino team is comprised of developers, construction project managers and development finance experts. The team will leverage Blackstone\u2019s existing expertise in the energy sector, including its significant experience investing in Africa and in other emerging markets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLong-term capital investment in energy is critical to Africa\u2019s development,\u201d said Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone\u2019s Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder. \u201cBlackstone is pleased to be partnering with Brian Herlihy, Mimi Alemayehou, and the entire Black Rhino team to develop innovative projects with the power to transform economies across Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look forward to partnering with Black Rhino in developing energy infrastructure and power projects in Africa, where the need for investment is enormous,\u201d said Sean Klimczak, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone. \u201cBlack Rhino has a world-class team, extensive experience and a strong track record of working together with local stakeholders, which make them an ideal partner as Blackstone looks to invest in Africa for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Black Rhino\u2019s active project development pipeline includes projects in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and South Africa. Both Blackstone and Black Rhino have a successful track record of working collaboratively with local stakeholders to develop projects in a socially responsible way that creates long-term value for local communities and regional economies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlack Rhino\u2019s development approach has been built around establishing relationships with African partners who share our long-term commitment to safe, sustainable, and socially responsible investments,\u201d said Herlihy. \u201cWe look forward to partnering with governments, civil society, and other stakeholders to create mutual value in each community where we invest in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Through its portfolio company Sithe Global, Blackstone is a lead investor alongside the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development in the 250 MW Bujagali Hydropower Plant in Jinja, Uganda on the Nile River. The facility has reduced the cost of power for Uganda\u2019s national utility by two thirds, nearly doubled the country\u2019s generation capacity with clean, affordable, renewable energy, making the country\u2019s electricity supply one of the cleanest in the world, and helped increase Uganda\u2019s GDP growth rate by 60%. Blackstone is also a founding investor in Kosmos, an oil and gas exploration company. Kosmos has worked closely with the Government of Ghana and the Ghana National Petroleum Company to develop the deep-water Jubilee oil field, one of West Africa\u2019s largest discoveries in the last decade.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Akesson<br \/>\nEditor for\u00a0<a title=\"hedge funds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">HedgeCo.net<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><a href=\"mailto:alex@hedgeco.net\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">alex@hedgeco.net<\/span><\/a><\/span><br style=\"color: #000000;\" \/><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><a title=\"hedge fund\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">HedgeCo.Net<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is a premier\u00a0<a title=\"hedge fund database\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">hedge fund database<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership in\u00a0<a title=\"hedge fund\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">HedgeCo.net<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for\u00a0<a title=\"hedge fund\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Hedge Funds<\/span><\/a>!<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/07\/2014\/hedge-fund-investor-ramius-joins-up-with-state-street-for-managed-futures-fund.html\" class=\"linkwithin_hook\" style=\"color: #000000;\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York (HedgeCo.Net) &#8211; Global asset management firm Blackstone (BX) today announced that it has partnered with Black Rhino, an African infrastructure development company, to identify, develop, finance, construct and operate large-scale infrastructure projects across Sub-Saharan Africa with a focus [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedgeco-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43355,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43354\/revisions\/43355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}