You're an investor in Africa oil, which is upstream oil exploration, and then you also own Vivo Energy, which I believe is the largest downstream gas station operator in all of Africa. We make very, very good margins on the fuel. British Investment firm, Helios Investment Partners, has offloaded its 60 per cent stake in Telkom Kenya, making the company a fully owned state parastatal. HFP is a Canadian-based pan Africa-focused alternative investment manager. [11:07] Topes deep connection with law school as an institution I don't think it'll be any sort of fund backed entities. So, if you have a great company that is doing something in an industry that matters in a part of the continent that matters at scale and is well run and well governed, ultimately there's an exit for it. My question is what happens to Chelsea and are we going to find that Tope Lawani is the next owner of Chelsea after Roman Abramovich ends up selling it? But you know, MIT actually happens to be a fairly international place and also happens to have among those sorts of large kinds of research and institutions among the highest sort of rates of kids who are first in their family to go to college, it's an unusually high percentage. It was a very small place, but I would say that it was to my mind, at least, it seemed to be a relatively short bet because, you know, Bonderman, Coulter and Price, in my humble opinion, I think from a pure investment capability standpoint, I think they're as good as they are out there. Tope Lawani: Yeah. Willy Walker: Was there anything at that time watching Bonderman, Coulter and Price building TPG Tope, that you saw, and thought was distinct from the other PE firms and that you took that to the establishment of Helios? So, the reason you might take a company public might not be because at some point You have a company that has maybe $20 million of EBITDA when you buy it right and then you could do great and it's sort of $80 million of EBITDA when you're ready to sell it. Then the country grinds to a halt. And then you've got a real question to ask, well, not only there, because then no other private equity firms specialist who might be buyers, although increasingly firms like TPG, Blackstone, et cetera, depending on the kind of business you might be interested in, but by and large, not really. Australia. When I was reading about it, I was trying to figure out how you do this, but they're laying 12,000 kilometers of undersea cable from France to Kenya and up to Pakistan to basically connect Europe and the Middle East via this cable. Therefore, the location of the towers was distinct. We won five in a row since all this drama began all on the road, by the way. [37:28] The future of telecommunications and the internet in Africa The reasons actually that we felt despite the dependence on the commodity price that you can't predict, you can't really, truly hedge in any real way. Your relative market share goes up, interconnect is a big source of revenue shift between one carrier and the other. I have sat in your seats at Chelsea which are incredible seats. They don't spend that much money on chocolates, beer, and cigarettes, as they do in the US. I feel it was quite transformational for me. I've learned lessons about that, too. Willy Walker: So, after being so successful in the Towers business, both in Nigeria as well as in your broader Helios Tower Company, which I believe are in seven countries, you decided to invest in Telkom Kenya a fully integrated landline cellular internet provider. They sort of hemmed and hawed and we said, Well, forget buying existing towers. So, you just put your money in the bank account and it's just there, you earn a bit of interest. So, like the International Finance Corporation (IFC) OPIC at the time, which is now called DFC. Solevo Group (Solevo),a leading African distribution platform for specialty chemicals, today announcedits acquisitionby Development Partners International (DPI),an investment firm focused on Africa, alongside minority co-investorsSouth Suez and European development finance institution, DEG. They've been great partners and it's been announced that there's a deal for them to buy it. Now the BUT at the end of it is that there are limits to the scalability of that. So, credibility is at a real premium. There were 16 countries, but there was no company there. Tope Lawani: I remember saying this to an investor some years ago that, if private equity existed in the U.S. in the mid-19th century, all of the Vanderbilts and the Carnegies and the Rockefellers, et cetera, wouldn't have existed. Tope Lawani: For sure and there's a BUT at the end of it. Founded in 2004, Helios Investment Partners is a private equity investment firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. And then also is the realization through the capital markets rather than through operating companies buying it just because of the nature of the market and so few competitors? I went to school with the kids from all strata of society. And so, it was a bit like a big brand in a small company. Crew catalog, but I want to know the story about the buyout of J. Nigeria has always been a very strong force of gravity for us. Willy Walker: Do you have any relationships with your law school classmates? Mr. Lawani received a B.S. And then that same cable kind of comes out of Kenya and goes all the way down to South Africa. In some countries, it's actually quite a bit higher than that. It's one thing to say, Hey, I'm going to go take everything I learned to TPG and have been doing it TPG in London, doing European buyouts and U.S. buyouts and say, I'm going to raise Tope Lawani Fund One to do what I was doing at TPG on my own. But now all of a sudden you say, We're going into Africa'', and up until that point, I think I'm correct in saying nobody else had a dedicated buyout fund focused on Africa. A key part of that thesis hasn't transpired. in Chemical Engineering (with a Minor in Economics) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Juris Doctorate (cum laude) from Harvard Law School and an MBA from Harvard Business School. So, I think going to the university in the states was kind of always on the cards. I'm really quite involved with the law school. And I think because the American buyers understand the business of sports, I think better than most and they in particular understand the business of stadium redevelopment, which Stamford Bridge needs and has a great opportunity to seat 42,000 people. [19:41] How Tope appeared in a J.Crew catalog Willy Walker: We did not get to talk about the NBA and your partnership with the NBA. 2023 PitchBook. The only group of institutions that were actually in the business of investing in Africa and maybe in funds that might do things in Africa, et cetera were development finance institutions. Willy Walker: So as I think about you not having done an upstream oil deal in quite some time, it makes me think about the fact that your funds and being focused on Africa and sustainability and all of the things that are attracting so much capital these days, if you will, the Helios funds are sort of in position 1-A as it relates to where sustainable capital, socially conscious capital would like to go. Tope Lawani: Statistically it was not uncommon if your parents were fortunate enough to be able to afford it for you, you could get an excellent primary school, secondary school education in Nigeria. I mean, really low. And so, we copy pasted found on the internet sort of build to suit agreements, master lease agreement, site lease agreements from the Crown Castle, American Tower, etc. #3 went to Edinburgh in Scotland and then #4 to Virginia Tech and went to grad school at Stanford. Prior to forming Helios, he was a Principal in the San Francisco and London offices of TPG Capital, a leading global investment firm managing private equity, venture capital, credit, and real estate investment funds. You know, we sort of first in discovering many things. So, there was a study done in Malawi and Uganda, it just happened to be in those two countries, but the point applies pretty much everywhere else where they went through a number of banks and sort of figured out what is the cost of a basic savings account. Willy Walker: Well, I was going to say, is there anything that's fundamentally different about that business doing it in Africa versus doing it somewhere like in the states? And that's that saying a lot. So, banking penetration across the whole continent right now is probably 30 odd percent. Or was there a path that would have kept you in Nigeria for your entire career? So, talk a little bit about raising that first fund. But on the other hand, if they shrink the margin to seven and we decide, actually, you know what, we're just going to sell at that price, right? Willy Walker: So, you're already in London working for TPG and you decide to go form Helios. Because you can't be in dirty fuels, if you will, or anything else that sort of says, if we want to continue to raise this type of capital from the large institutions that we have a great track record with, we must be very conscious of what types of investments we're making? Working with new partners, DPI, Solevo will focus on continuing to deliver on its ambitious growth strategies of product and market expansion, in addition to digitalising its supply-chains, to consolidate its position as Africas partner of choice and leading distributor of critical specialty chemical products. Working for TPG Capital from 1996 to 2004taught Tope to be creative, entrepreneurial, hard-working, and empowered. Financial engineering, you can think of it almost as its real estate, which is what it is. Tope Lawani: Hugely, hugely important Willy. How's that transition from going from a boarding school in Nigeria to Boston, Massachusetts, Cambridge and being a freshman at MIT? When the paycheck comes, the employer will essentially take the $20 or whatever is due that month, send it to our Bayport and send the balance to the team member, to the employee that has the paycheck. But I did get paid for it. But at the time, I felt like law school would be just because I found it interesting for some intellectual stimulation, but business school would be to give me the tools of the trade. Tope Lawani: But if I'm going to be in the catalog, you're going to have to pay me. Member of Executive and Investment Committees, Partner, Head of Portfolio Operations Group, Partner, Investment Team and Head of Debt Capital Markets, Managing Director Financial Services/Fintech, Investment Team, Managing Director Digital Infrastructure, Investment Team, Head of Investor Relations, Private Equity, Managing Director Integration, Portfolio Operations Group, Director Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), Portfolio Operations Group. And I'm not saying that will never change. 7501 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 1200E, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. I made the argument at the time that we know Africa and we know investing. And so, I think, other than the workload, which is extraordinary. But I think the lesson that I took away from that was, yes, I think that's the kind of person that you want to have in your firm, but really think hard about physical separation of your deal team. Same reason we don't have to have landlines. Africas Race To The Sun (And Other Alternatives): Who Is Winning? Tope begins by telling his origin story, which seems to be a perfect preparation for his immense contributions today. Tope Lawani: Yeah. It's amazing how substantial the capital they've raised for infrastructure investments is. Willy Walker: Talk for a moment Tope, about TPAY because I find it to be fascinating with a population across the continent that is so underbanked yet over phoned. So that's one difference with the United States even when the towers business was just launching in the U.S. Under Joris and his leadership teams effective stewardship, Solevo has firmly established itself as a pan-African distribution leader, championing companies and local industries across the continent, including local farming communities, equipping them with new technology and the hands-on support they need to scale their businesses. I wouldn't say it was okay with them. Helios Investment Partners is an Africa-focused private investment firm. They were children of the president, the vice president, all the heads of the armed forces. Helios Investment Partners has been in the news this week over its controversial exit from Telkom Kenya. In our market, it's really an operating business because every single tower has maybe or maybe not a grid connection. So, this kind of childhood that I think was a little bit unusual and probably very difficult to replicate in the way the world is these days. I don't recall. And so, you see these companies showing, you know, rapid rates of asset growth, but I'm not so sure what the credit quality is, and I'm not sure when we'll really know whether these algorithms actually work. With more than 76,000 employees, Helios generated sales of 7.0 billion in 2022. Our medical experts are internationally especially renowned in the fields of: Quirnsalud operates 58 . So that's not the problem. Helios Investment Partners 's most notable exits include Fawry, Equity Group Holdings, and Bayport Management. [22:10] The novelty of the strategy and the interest in Africa brought Tope to his first fund It's a pretty diverse place as well. There was a moment when I thought I'd go to university to come here to the UK for university. Tope Lawani: It's a really interesting question, actually Willy, because as you know, I have very close relationships with friends from business school. Tope Lawani: Yeah. During the course of all of that, Emily decided that she needed to have me in the catalog, which was highly embarrassing. And so, with that, it's pretty obvious, that it's really obvious that traditional banks will have a very significant problem because the ability to transact whether its TPAY, whether it's Interswitch, which is another one of our portfolio companies in Nigeria, floury, which is one of our companies, also in Egypt. Thanks, Tope. The short answer is no, actually, because we're quite fortunate in that most of the things that are likely to make money, and to make money sustainably and in a private equity kind of cadence, and to do them in Africa are things that are going to be pretty highly impactful, positively impactful from a social and economic development standpoint. 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