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THE STREET VIEW Covid-19

Welcome to this special edition of The Street View. Given global circumstances with many of our markets in varying degrees of lockdown, this edition provides both the “street view” and “a view of the street”. Despite these challenging times, there has been no lockdown in our activity set at Actis and, just as importantly, our portfolio companies are working hard to deal with challenges in the current environment. In this edition we highlight results from Actis surveys of our portfolio companies undertaken by Ed Williams and David Kunzmann, from the Private Equity Value Creation Group.

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Street view or “View of the street”?

April 30, 2020

Ewen Cameron Watt, Editor-in-Chief, Macro Forum, Actis, London

Despite these challenging times, there has been no lockdown in our activity set at Actis and, just as importantly, our portfolio companies are working hard.

Emerging Markets and Covid-19: Crisis or opportunity…or both?

April 30, 2020

Ewen Cameron Watt, Editor-in-Chief, Macro Forum, Actis, London

Do reserve losses, foreign exchange depreciation and recessions in Emerging Markets mean that investors should exclusively focus on developed markets.

Currencies and COVID-19

April 30, 2020

Ewen Cameron Watt, Editor-in-Chief, Macro Forum, Actis, London

Currency plays a central role in global investing. Major trends over time influence portfolio outcomes both in terms of actual currency values.

Actis asks: COVID-19 survey

April 30, 2020

Ed Williams, Director, Head of Value Creation Group, Private Equity, Actis, London

David Kunzmann, Principal, Private Equity, Actis, London

Actis surveyed the senior leadership of its portfolio companies and its own professionals in early March 2020, and again six weeks later.

Actis in action: Interventions taking place at portfolio companies

April 30, 2020

Shami Nissan, Partner, Sustainability, Actis, London

At Actis, we have always had a very practical and hands-on approach of working in partnership with our businesses.

Guest view: Chinese production redistribution across Asia – progress, winners and losers

April 30, 2020

Simon Ogus, CEO, DSG Asia

As 2020 began, sentiment had been boosted, at least temporarily, by a time-out in the US-China trade war.

COVID-19 chronicles in China

April 30, 2020

Max Lin, Partner, Actis, Beijing

While the rest of the world is in the midst of the most difficult period of the global pandemic of COVID-19, China is eager to get back to business.

COVID-19 chronicles in Hong Kong

April 30, 2020

Thomas Liu, Partner, Head of Greater China, Real Estate, Actis, Hong Kong

With 17 years behind us, SARS should have been a distant memory. However, back in 2003 Hong Kong was the epicentre of the outbreak.

COVID-19 chronicles in Korea

April 30, 2020

Julian Kim, Principal, Real Estate, Actis, Seoul

Despite significant turbulence in the early stage of the outbreak in Korea, life now has mostly reverted to normal.

COVID-19 chronicles in India

April 30, 2020

Pratik Jain, Private Equity, Actis, India

With 1.3 billion people and a significantly under-funded and ill-equipped public healthcare system, the rapid spread of the virus could potentially have a catastrophic impact.

COVID-19 chronicles in The Gulf

April 30, 2020

Naeem Kola, Group CFO, Actis

COVID-19 has spread across the Gulf region. As Governments around the globe grapple with stopping the spread of the virus.

COVID-19 chronicles in the MENA

April 30, 2020

Sherif ElKholy, Partner, ALLIF, Actis, Cairo

The COVID-19 global pandemic is a crisis unprecedented in the last 100 years. It has hit an under-prepared world.

COVID-19 chronicles in South Africa

April 30, 2020

David Cooke, Partner, Private Equity, Actis, Johannesburg

The image of him in the boxing ring in his younger years is common place in any collage of Madiba photographs.

COVID-19 chronicles: Africa Energy

April 30, 2020

Lisa Pinsley, Partner, Head of Middle East & Africa, Energy Infrastructure, Actis, Johannesburg

The beginning of the lifecycle of an African power plant is inherently global. Imported development skills, capital, equipment and contractors combine with local ingenuity.

COVID-19 chronicles in Nigeria

April 30, 2020

Funke Okubadejo, Director, Real Estate, Actis, Lagos

Low oil prices exposes fiscal vulnerabilities in addressing COVID-19. Nigeria felt the impact of COVID-19 even before it confirmed its initial case.

COVID-19 chronicles in Mexico City

April 20, 2020

Alberto Estefan, Partner, Energy Infrastructure, Actis, Mexico City

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Mexico was reported on 28th February. While the situation deteriorated in China throughout February, then Italy.

COVID-19 chronicles in Kenya

April 30, 2020

Michael Turner, Director, Private Equity, Actis, London

Global victory over the COVID-19 pandemic will not be declared until a solution is found in Africa, the last continent to be struck by the virus.

COVID-19 chronicles in Brazil

April 30, 2020 We saw this wave coming. From a health perspective, the measures taken to mitigate the spread of COVID 19 are supported by research and scientific data.