The African Opportunities for Footballers Fund, domiciled in Luxembourg, will primarily invest in African markets.
“Africa is at the heart of the investment thesis and we believe that African footballers have a big role to play in further developing the continent,” Zin Bekkali, group chief executive and CIO, said.
According to the company, the idea behind the fund is to help African football players benefit from growing African markets while building a savings plan for their post-career financial needs.
As part of the strategy, former Arsenal player Kolo Toure is collaborating on the new fund, working with the investment team that includes 11 different African nationalities across the continent.
"Kolo is keen on investing in Africa. So we discussed if we could create a fund structure," managing partner Baldwin Berges said.
Toure is currently the lead investor of the fund, with others expected to start investing. While mainly targeted at African footballers, the fund is open to other high net worth investors.
Initially the asset allocation of the fund is skewered towards equities but that could change over time, Berges added.
The fund invests in 10 stock markets across the continent, including Morroco, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritius and Tunesia. Typical companies in the fund are in the mass consumer space such as banking, telecoms and food.
“African footballers now finally have a solution that not only allows them to invest their assets in investment opportunities they understand, but also lets them make a difference back home,” Malick Badjie, head of investment solutions, said.
Over a one year period, the fund has seen a cumulative performance of 0.2% compared to the Fixed Interest Global inedex which saw a -2.6% performance in the same period, according to FE Analytics.
