Absa Capital Boosts Equity Investments Team

22 October 2008 Absa Capital

Infrastructure Equity Investments and Private Equity to benefit

In line with their objective to attract the best talent available in investment banking, Absa Capital today announced three appointments to further boost their Investor Services and Equity Investments team. Both the Infrastructure Equity Investments and Private Equity businesses will benefit from the appointments.

Thando Mhlambiso has been appointed as Managing Principal to head up the Infrastructure Equity Investments business while Gareth Druce has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of Absa Capital Private Equity (Pty) Ltd. Charmaine Padayachy will join the Private Equity team as a deal executive.

Mhlambiso, a law and business graduate from Columbia University has extensive experience in private equity having held various posts at Sanlam Private Equity, Sanlam Investment Managers and Kagiso Ventures Private Equity.

Prior to joining Absa Capital Mhlambiso established and lead an investment firm that specialized in acquiring strategic equity stakes in companies in the infrastructure space – skills vital to a team who recently announced acquiring stakes in the likes of Dark Fibre Africa, the Gautrain and SADC’s new head office in Botswana.

Absa Capital Private Equity has also recently been in the news with the announcement of its offer to take up the entire share capital of the JSE listed Enviroserv Ltd, and for having concluded six of the top ten private equity transactions in South Africa in 2007.

Druce, a chartered accountant, has joined the team from KPMG where he was Chief Operating Officer of the Private Equity Group. Druce has held various positions in corporate finance at both BHP Billiton and KPMG.

Padayachy, also a chartered accountant, joined the Private Equity team, as a deal executive, from Ernst and Young in London where she was a senior executive within the private equity and transaction advisory services team. Prior to Ernst and Young, Padayachy was in leveraged finance at Standard Bank.