Sandown Capital

CEO and CIO Andy Smith leads investment decisions, supported by an Investment Committee chaired by Oyama Mabandla, the former chairman of Vodacom. The committee also includes Ayo Salami, CEO of the Africa-focused EMIM fund, Anders Einarsson, CEO of Promasidor Francophone, and Stephan Burger, an energy executive with sub-Saharan building experience. Lord Bellingham, a former UK Minister for Africa, chairs the general partner.

Sandown targets control acquisitions of mid-cap companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange that trade at deep discounts to intrinsic value, then injects growth capital to drive operational improvements. The firm focuses on three verticals: consumer, financial services, and clean energy industrials. It explicitly excludes companies linked to weak corporate governance.

Its immediate pipeline draws on a strategic partnership with Peresec, a leading South African stockbroker that provides insight, equity trading, execution, legal, and brokerage services. Sandown also applies a narrow, deep-dive screening process using advanced analytics to identify public-to-private candidates across sub-Saharan Africa.

The firm targets investments through a transparent fund vehicle registered in Guernsey. Its registered office is at Cambridge House, Le Truchot, St Peter Port, with its main operating base on Katherine Towers, 1 Park Lane, Wierda Valley, Sandton, South Africa.

The firm operates as a direct private equity manager acquiring controlling interests in listed mid-caps, not as a fund-of-funds. It deploys capital directly into platform companies and supplements those acquisitions with further growth capital injections, targeting a minimum 20% net IRR.

CEO Andy Smith was a top-ranked investment analyst at Citi and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, later becoming Head of Investment Research and a portfolio manager at Citadel LLP and Millennium LLP. The wider team combines over 250 years of aggregate experience across fund management, research, law, finance, and corporate governance.

Sandown targets a maximum Guernsey fund size of $300m with a minimum commitment of $10m per investor. The firm forecast a first close during the first half of 2024. Copies of the private placement memorandum and subscription agreement are available upon request from the firm.