Westbrooke Raises 750 Million Rand for South African Fund

Westbrooke Alternative Asset Management raised 750 million rand ($53 million) for a fund that gets tax breaks for investing in asset classes like student accommodation, movable-asset rentals, hospitality and asset- backed operating businesses.

The closing of the fund brings to 2.3 billion rand that the firm has raised since 2016 in so-called Section 12J funds inSouth Africa, an industry with an estimated 5 billion rand in assets, the Johannesburg-based firm said in an emailed statement on Monday.

“We see increased growth each year from our now more than 700 passive investors,” Westbrooke Alternative Asset Management fund manager Dino Zuccollo said in the statement. The firm has invested more than 900 million rand into small- and medium-sized business across South Africa, he said.

Section 12J funds aim to entice investments into projects and businesses to lift economic growth and encourage job creation in a country where more than one in four people are without work. The incentive gives individuals, companies and trusts the ability to write off all of the investment against their taxable income in the year they invest — giving them as much as 45 percent in immediate tax relief, enhancing returns. Source: Bloomberg