Pretoria, South Africa – March 17, 2010 – The Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund (SAEDF) today announced that it will privatize the Fund and turn over the management of its portfolio companies to an approved management company.

“We are all immensely proud that SAEDF has matured enough to reach this important milestone,” said Ambassador Carl Masters, SAEDF’s Vice Chairman and Chairman of its Privatization Committee. “This development is the culmination of SAEDF’s 16 years of partnership with the U.S. government. We are especially gratified that, with privatization, the Fund’s groundbreaking work can continue for generations to come.”

Created in 1994 with the help of Presidents Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela, SAEDF has provided more than $80 million in financing to indigenous private businesses in southern Africa. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) formally approved the privatization, and the SAEDF Board voted unanimously to privatize the Fund effective April 1, 2010. The action ensures the continuation of SAEDF’s critical mission—to support, through equity capital, small- and medium-sized businesses in southern Africa.

“Our deepest thanks and appreciation go to the U.S. Congress, USAID and successive Presidents who have helped to make SAEDF’s vision and goals a reality,” added Ambassador Masters.

SAEDF is one of 11 enterprise funds the U.S. government has created around the world to support economic development in emerging markets. Other enterprise funds in Eastern Europe and in the former states of the USSR developed and followed this same model of privatization, leaving in their regions successful businesses, thousands of jobs, international investment capital, a generation of trained financial professionals and a culture of private investment.