Mauritius’s largest fund administrator Cim Global Business, which provides corporate and trust structuring and administration services, has opened a representative office at Nelson Mandela Square, in Sandton.

The company, which currently employs about 250 people at its Mauritius office and ten people at its Singapore office, aims to expand its footprint on the continent by working with countries where there is exponential gross domestic product growth, such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Speaking to Engineering News Online during a telephone interview, Cim Global Business development head Shamima Mallam-Hassam said that the local office would also work to develop the South African market.

“There is a lot of opportunity here that we have yet to tap into,” she added, noting that the company would work in particular sectors, including the agriculture, construction and fast-moving consumer goods sectors.

Cim Global Business will be targeting South African private equity, hedge and mutual funds, as well as multinational companies and asset and fund managers, including development finance institutions, institutional investors and family offices.

The company will also aim to domicile local companies in Mauritius, as it is considered Africa’s jurisdiction of choice in assisting multinationals in establishing pan-African operational, administrative and financial headquarters.

Mallam-Hassam explained to Engineering News Online that the island’s globally recognised business, technology and legislative environment were conducive to the optimal management of private equity, hedge and mutual funds in Africa.

Willem van der Berg will be leading Cim Global Business’s African strategy out of Johannesburg. “Cim Global Business’s strength in structuring the administration of crossborder companies in and from Mauritius or Singapore adds an exciting new capability to how South Africans engage with Africa.”

To this end, Cim Global Business is proactively developing new products to leverage African opportunities, such as professional services, outsourcing solutions, or Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and Common Reporting Standard services.

Twenty-five per cent of Cim’s business currently stems from the continent – with more than half coming from South Africa, but, said Mallam-Hassam, the company aimed to expand this by a further 10% to 15% by the end of the year.