GLOBAL investment company Kingdom Zephyr has invested $20m in South African power infrastructure and heavy building materials company Buildworks.

The investment, through Kingdom Zephyr’s second private equity fund, Pan-African Investment Partners II (PAIP II), represents a 30% stake in Buildworks, with the option to raise it to 35%. “We are pleased to be partnering with Buildworks. We believe the company is ideally suited to benefit from the growing electricity sector in Africa,” Panos Voutyritsas, a partner at Kingdom Zephyr, said this week.

This strategic minority stake was PAIP II’s first in SA.

“The mutual goal is to expand Buildworks’ business lines within the power sector, enhance its footprint on the African continent, and explore potential growth opportunities in the Middle East through our extensive relationships in that region,” Voutyritsas said.

Buildworks CEO Raoul Gamsu said the investment represented a vote of confidence and a long-term commitment to the South African and African infrastructure space.

“We welcome Kingdom Zephyr’s investment. They have an excellent track record of investing in profitable, multi-country African companies and we are delighted to be part of this story.”

Gamsu said the capital injection would boost the company’s balance sheet and help fund growth and acquisitions.