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Showing posts from March, 2015

Dashen Birra - Sidama Bunna

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Rock Star Bob Geldof Spearheads U.S. Private-Equity Push Into Ethiopia

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—A generation ago, this African nation was a magnet for Western charity. Today, some of America’s richest deal makers are delivering something new: investment. A number of high-profile investors have recently shown up here.  KKR  & Co., the New York-based private-equity firm, last summer  bought control of a rose farm , Afriflora, for about $200 million, its first investment in Africa.  Blackstone Group  plans to build a $1.35 billion pipeline to bring gasoline to the capital, Addis Ababa. Hedge-fund manager  Paul Tudor Jones  is backing a $2 billion geothermal power project. The investors are following in the footsteps of Irish punk rock singer turned activist Bob Geldof, whose Live Aid concerts 30 years ago this summer raised about $145 million for the victims of a devastating Ethiopian famine. Mr. Geldof now chairs 8 Miles LLP, a London-based private-equity firm that invests in Ethiopia. 8 Miles raised a $200 million fund in 2012; Mr. Geldof put in a f