3 December 2014, Washington, D.C. – EMPEA announces the launch of its newly formed Frontier Markets Council, an advisory body comprised of and dedicated to fund managers, institutional investors and industry advisers active in the frontier markets. Peter Tropper, Senior Advisor at EMPEA, will chair the group.

The Council will provide a forum for its members to collaborate, share best practices and steer EMPEA’s frontier markets-related research and programming.

Commenting on his appointment as Chair, Peter Tropper said, “I am honored to help lead this initiative and to work alongside my fellow Council members, each of whom has a wealth of frontier markets experience and knowledge to share. Together we look forward to working with investors, fund managers and other stakeholders to advance the industry understanding of the private capital opportunities in frontier markets.”

EMPEA counts among our members numerous private equity fund managers and service providers who are active in the frontier markets, and recognizes that the term “frontier markets” invokes multiple meanings to various audiences. For the purpose of this council, EMPEA considers frontier markets to be the subset of emerging markets with the least developed economic and political institutions. The private equity market within these countries is characterized by a limited number of private equity deals per year, and a few, if any, private equity firms with offices in-country. Most countries that meet this definition are located in South East Asia, Central and Western Africa, the Sahel, Central Asia, the Middle East ex-Gulf, South Asia ex-India, and Central America and the Caribbean.

Despite the disparate geographies in which they operate, firms active in frontier markets encounter similar operational and macroeconomic issues. EMPEA’s mission is to help develop private equity in exactly these circumstances, and the Council will support the organization’s efforts in engaging members and industry stakeholders through content, programming and advocacy efforts that best address the specific needs of these frontier markets.

Robert van Zwieten, EMPEA’s President and CEO, elaborated on the Council’s launch, “The formation of the Frontier Markets Council is a natural step for EMPEA as we move to engage more closely with our members around the globe. We look forward to working closely with the Council in supporting the ongoing development of the asset class and in enriching our coverage of these dynamic markets.”

The Council will initially be comprised of seventeen leading fund managers and service providers who are active in one or more frontier markets, as identified by EMPEA. The Council held its inaugural meeting last month in London alongside EMPEA and the Financial Times’ Private Equity in Emerging Markets and Private Equity in Africa leadership summits. EMPEA will provide further updates on Council developments as they begin to execute on specific initiatives introduced during their first meeting.

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About EMPEA:

EMPEA is the global industry association for private capital in emerging markets. We are an independent non-profit organization. As EMPEA celebrates our 10th anniversary in 2014, we have over 300 member firms, comprising institutional investors, fund managers and industry advisors, who together manage more than US$1 trillion of assets and have offices in more than 100 countries across the globe. Our members share EMPEA’s belief that private capital is a highly suited investment strategy in emerging markets, delivering attractive long-term investment returns and promoting the sustainable growth of companies and economies. We support our members through global authoritative intelligence, conferences, networking, education and advocacy.

EMPEA Frontier Markets Council

Peter Tropper (Chair), EMPEA
Eldar Abdrazakov, Centras Capital
Sulaiman Al-Rubaie, Global Capital Management
Stuart Bradley, Phatisa
Stephen Cashin, Pan Africa Capital Group
Jake Cusack, CrossBoundary
Jean-Marc de Tove, Cauris Management
Arnold Dhlamini, ABC Stockbrokers
Sharif El-Akhdar, Beltone Private Equity
Theophilus Emuwa, Aelex
Paul Kavuma, Catalyst Principal Partners
Jeremy Kloiser-Jones, Bagan Capital
Leith Masri, Foursan Group
Kerian McManus, DynCorp
Tara O’Connor, Africa Risk Consulting
Dominic Scriven, Dragon Capital
Geoffrey Tassinari, Madagascar Development Partners