Novare Equity Partners boosts its African capabilities with new appointments

Novare Equity Partners, the private equity fund manager focused on investment in sub-Saharan Africa, has announced the appointment of Dave Bennie as Head of African Leasing, and Chris Coetzee as Project Manager in Nigeria.

The company has a fast growing portfolio of property projects in Africa, and Bennie will be responsible for all of the leasing requirements for various projects in the region.

He has some 13 years of experience in the property industry, managing and leasing large scale shopping malls in South Africa and the Middle East. In 2006 Bennie joined Broll Properties as head of leasing for the Western Cape and Namibia regions. He later became a divisional director of Broll and a director of Broll Nigeria.

In 2010 Bennie headed up leasing for Broll in Africa, which involved properties in Mauritius, Nigeria and Ghana. He has also been involved in developments in Angola, Kenya, DRC, Zimbabwe, Zambia and India.

With 28 years’ experience in the property development market, Chris Coetzee began his career at H Lewis Trafalgar as sectional title development manager. In 1992 he joined Shoprite Properties as retail property manager responsible for a portfolio of South African shopping centres.

Coetzee was promoted to senior development and project manager in 1996 with a focus on developing shopping centres in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa, including Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique.

Derrick Roper, CEO of Novare Equity Partners, commented: "It is a pleasure to welcome Dave and Chris to the team. Our growing portfolio of African projects will benefit from their years of experience in property development on the African continent.”