ADC accelerates execution of its strategy to build a leading pan-African Banking

ADC accelerates execution of its strategy to build a leading pan-African Banking Group within the next 3-5 years - Investment focus shifting from minorities to majorities - Management strengthened

• ADC accelerates execution of its strategy to build a leading pan-African Banking Group within the next 3-5 years

• Investment focus shifting from minorities to majorities

• Management strengthened: Jyrki Koskelo, former IFC Vice President Global and George Manyere, CEO of Brainworks Capital Management and ex-IFC joins ADC operating ma-nagement team, and Pierre Lorinet, CFO of Trafigura joins ADC Supervisory Board to facilitate the expansive growth strategy

ADC African Development Corporation (ADC) has decided to accelerate its successful growth and aims to build the leading pan-African Banking Group within the next 3-5 years. ADC intends both to increase its shareholdings in the existing portfolio companies and to acquire new stakes in leading national and regional African banks. ADC will not rebrand the investee banks into its ADC brand name, but intends to go on investing into the respective leading local or regional banks and keep the respective bank's identity, management and independency. As a strategic shift, ADC intends to acquire majorities where possible and is therefore also in talks with the existing portfolio banks to increase the current stakes. ADC's market capitalization is targeted to grow to US$1 billion within the next 3 to 5 years as we imp-lement our enhanced strategy.

To achieve this aggressive growth strategy, ADC is expanding its top management team.

Jyrki Koskelo, former IFC Vice President Global, joins ADC as of April 1st 2012 as Co-CEO. Together with CEO and Co-Founder Dirk Harbecke, he will be responsible for shaping and implementing ADC's new strategy.

'We are glad that Jyrki has decided to join ADC. His investment and emerging market experience, his global network and his contacts in the African banking community and especially in the world of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and Sovereign Wealth Funds will be crucial for ADC to achieve the goal of building a leading banking group in sub-Saharan Africa in the coming years. Jyrki is a huge asset for ADC, and our team and myself are very much looking forward to work with him', comments Dirk Harbecke.

Jyrki Koskelo, a Finnish national, served until July 2011 as Vice President Global at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. He joined IFC in 1987 as an Investment Officer in the African Investment Department and, in 1999 was appointed Director of Special Operations managing the restructuring and recovery operations of IFC during the Asian, Argentinean and Russian crisis. He played a critical role in the expansion of IFC's operations in financial markets, and acted in several regional vice positions covering Africa, Europe and Latin America before assuming his Global Industry role. Prior to joining IFC, he spent more than 10 years in senior management positions in the private sector. Mr. Koskelo holds a Master of Science degree in International Management/Finance from Sloan School of Management/MIT and a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Helsinki, Finland.

'Africa offers a unique investment opportunity, and ADC is ideally positioned to develop into one of the leading Pan-African banking groups. I am very pleased to become part of the team, that has done an amazing entrepreneurial job starting from scratch and building up one of the strategically best positioned financial services platforms in SSA. I also look forward to working with several friends, and African entrepreneurs and bankers who have shown me at IFC that Africa offers opportunities far beyond its reputation. ADC is here to facilitate new opportunities for Africa' comments Jyrki Koskelo.

Together with Jyrki, top management is being further strengthened and a new supervisory board member is also joining the ADC team.

George Manyere, IFC's first professional African based senior financial market Investment officer and today CEO of ADC portfolio company Brainworks Capital Management, will become Head of ADC's newly created M&A department to push ADC's acquisition speed. In this function, he will also support ADC's recently created Advisory Business arm, that offers merchant banking and advisory services to African corporates that want to expand internationally, and to international corporates that want to have high level access to Africa. For 2012 ADC already expects an additional income of EUR 3-5 mio. out of this newly created business. On a 3-5 year horizon, this business shall contribute to at least EUR 10 mio. income per year.

George, a Zimbabwean investment banker, has significant experience in executing deals in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to founding Brainworks Capital Management in 2008, George was an investment professional with the IFC, investing in excess of USD 600m in sub Saharan Africa. He also managed a portfolio of investments in excess of USD 400m and represented the IFC on several investee company boards.

George Manyere comments: 'ADC's strategy is unique. As we own stakes in leading local banks, our investment structures will ensure that there is a strong alignment of interests with key local partners and management, thereby ensuring that we are considered a local bank with committed and aligned partners. We will further push this strategy and expand in additional countries in Africa in the coming years. In addition, this strategy opens up numerous interesting investment and business opportunities in sectors like natural resources, construction, energy etc. that we would like to share with our shareholders and Advisory Business clients. Actually, we follow the classical Merchant Banking model in order to create wealth for local communities, ADC shareholders and our advisory clients.'

The new ADC strategy will also require the strengthening of the Board.

This week, Pierre Lorinet, of Trafigura, will join ADC's Supervisory Board following Ron Braverman's resignation and subsequent appointment to ADC's Advisory Board. Pierre Lorinet is the CFO and the Director of Trafigura, ADC's strategic shareholder and partner since 2011. Trafigura is one of the world's leading international commodity traders, specializing in the supply and transport of crude oil, petroleum products, coal, refined metals, ferrous and non-ferrous ores and concentrates. Trafigura shares with ADC and ADC's parent company Angermayer, Brumm & Lange Group (ABL), the very positive view on the African continent. Pierre joined Trafigura in 2002 following a career in banking with Merrill Lynch in London and Banque Indosuez in Bahrain. He is also a Supervisory Board member of GDE, France's second largest scrap recycling company, and an Executive Committee member of the GTSA (Geneva Trade and Shipping Association). He graduated from Ecole de Commerce Supérieure de Paris and holds a MSc in Finance, with distinction, from Britain's Lancaster University.

With the expanded team, ADC plans to enter at least three more significant new or add-on investments in banking in 2012 that will change ADC's balance sheet significantly. Furthermore, ADC has started to broaden its view beyond Africa: Based on the experience and network of the new and the existing team members as well as the network of ADC's parent company ABL, ADC has expanded from its European origins and started talks with Latin American, Middle East and south-east Asian partners, who wish to enter the African markets via ADC. With this move, ADC aims to play a key role in the increasing trade and investment activities between emerging markets in the southern hemisphere, the so called South-South-Trade and Investments.

'The balance of trade between countries in the southern hemisphere is massive and completely overlooked by investors in the northern industrial nations. As Africa is in the center of these trade activities, our strategic position on the continent allows us to facilitate and support these relationships in the near future', explains Dirk Harbecke.

Furthermore, ADC is also exploring several business opportunities with ADC's strategic partner Trafigura to profit more from the natural resources boom of the continent.

Christian Angermayer, CEO of ADC's parent company Angermayer, Brumm & Lange Group and Chairman of ADC, concludes: 'We welcome Jyrki and the other new members of the expanded management team and looking forward to work with them in order to create value for our shareholders. With this team and the current strategic set-up, ADC has the unique opportunity to become the leading banking group in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of size and profitability and to build bridges not only between Germany and Africa , but also between the whole of Europe and Africa and especially between the key countries in the southern hemisphere. We would also like to thank Mr. Ron Braverman for serving on ADC's Supervisory Board. Ron has influenced ADC's strategy extensively and has always been a valuable banking expert and risk advisor contributing to ADC's business. We are very pleased that Mr. Braverman accepted our invitation to join the Advisory Board of ADC and the Advisory Board for ABL Group of Companies.'

About ADC
ADC African Development Corporation, ISIN DE000A1E8NW9 (ticker symbol: AZC.GR), a member of the Angermayer, Brumm & Lange Group (www.abl-group.de), was established in September 2007 and quickly positioned itself as one of the leading investors for banks and insurance companies in the above-average growth markets of Sub-Saharan Africa. The company's success is primarily due to its local management team, which follows international best practice principles to further develop banks and implements conventional international processes to increase their profitability. As the second international emerging market investor in the world, ADC was integrated into the insurance solution offered by the Multila-teral Investment Guarantee Agency ('MIGA'), a member of the World Bank Group, primarily due to its strong operational approach and adherence to the highest ethical standards. This insurance offers protection against a variety of political risks, in particular the risk of radical political change.

Contact:
Investor Relations
investor-relations@african-development.com
T +49 69 719 12 80 119

This release was published on openPR.