RMI Investment Managers and Royal Investment Managers (RIM) will, as the RMI & RIM Consortium, acquire a 30% interest in private equity investment firm Ethos Private Equity through a series of transactions.

The transactions will include a vendor-facilitated black economic empowerment component that will ensure that 25% of the company continues to be owned by a broad base of historically disadvantaged shareholders, including black Ethos executives, staff and the Ethos Educational Foundation Trust.

Ethos on Tuesday said the capital raised through these transactions will enable it to accelerate the execution of its strategy of building a significant alternative asset management business in sub-Saharan Africa.

For us to accelerate the firm’s growth in a sustainable way, we recognised the significant benefit of attracting strategic investors that would share our vision. The RMI & RIM Consortium’s endorsement of our strategy will enable us to accelerate the realisation of our vision by opening new investor networks, providing asset management expertise and a focus on the accelerated transformation of our firm. Together, we share a vision of matching the best capital solutions with the best business ideas,” commented Ethos CEO Stuart MacKenzie.

“We are excited about the future of the alternative asset management industry in South Africa as the savings pool looks for ways of generating uncorrelated investment returns and we look forward to supporting Ethos’s alternative assets growth strategy into exciting new areas.  We are proud to be partnering Ethos in the next phase of its growth and adding our expertise to their legacy as the premier private equity firm in South Africa,” added RMI CEO Chris Meyer. 

RIM CEO Kabelo Rikhotso noted that RIM was excited to be part of Ethos’s transformation from a mono-line offering to launching complementary fund strategies.

As a consequence of the transactions, Ethos’s board of directors will be reconfigured to include representatives from the RMI & RIM Consortium and Ethos executives, and will continue to be independently chaired by Peter Mageza.