2. The Company
Barak Fund Management Ltd.
Company Overview and Strategy
Barak Fund Management, founded in 2008, is a niche
fund management company whose main purpose is
to provide investors with unique commodity-focused
investment opportunities via trade finance assets across
more than 30 African countries. Barak’s core investment
pinpoints sub-Saharan Africa and is related primarily to
the soft agricultural commodities and food product-
related sectors.
The company seeks to generate quasi-equity (or equity-
like) returns in capital-constrained markets with relatively
low volatility and limited correlation, as compared to the
broader global markets. Barak’s strategy focuses on fully-
funded debt in the African growth and expansion capital
finance arena, with no equity correlation, using asset-
backed loans supported by various forms of security
collateral.
The Barak investment approach is based upon the
principles of discipline, diversification, collateralization
and downside-case scenario valuation. The company
acknowledges that African investments encompass a
certain degree of risk given the nature of investing in a
continent whose primary markets are influenced by a
multitude of volatile factors. Each investment is thus
approached with a stringent on-boarding process –
using both desktop and on-the-ground due-diligence
processes – in order to determine the viability of a
potential project’s funding.
Regulators: FSB, FSC & CIMA
THE TEAM
The Investment Team’s skill set reflects over 50 years
of combined experience in Asset Management on the
African continent, principally in the commodity derivative
and physical commodity trading environment – offering
the following key advantages:
• An extensive knowledge of volatile
markets where experience is of paramount
importance in order to successfully adapt
to changes and broach new challenges.
(However, while taking cognisance of
volatile equity markets, we maintain no
correlation to them.)
• Well-established and long-standing client
relationships provide positive exposure for
repeat business, reinforcing Barak’s growing
reputation and progressive performance in
Africa.
• A broad, reliable network of professional
investors off which to leverage project
funding and repeatable global exposure
within Barak’s existing and prospective
investor bases.
• A team of enthusiastic Fund Advisors
who recognise that an on-the-ground
investment presence is paramount to the
success of any project.
3. The Company
FUND MANAGERS
Prieur du Plessis
Chief Investment Officer
Prieur is a co-founding member of Barak, with more than
15 years of experience in the commodities trading and
financial services arena. During his career he headed the
structured trade and commodity finance division at Absa
Bank, a subsidiary of Barclays Bank Plc, as well as the soft
commodities origination team for Standard Bank.
Before becoming involved in a structured commodity
finance deal-making role at Rand Merchant Bank (of
the First Rand Group), Prieur initially managed the
treasury operations of the bank’s commodities trading.
During his tenure at Rand Merchant Bank, he was a key
member of the team that completed the first successful
grain securitization in the world, and led the team that
established the third largest crop insurance company in
Africa. He was part of the Standard Bank team responsible
for the launch of a three-year Jatropha production
finance product – the first bio-fuel finance product of its
kind.
Prieur is a qualified chartered accountant and completed
his public training with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Jean Craven
Director
Jean has more than 18 years of experience in building
and managing commodity trading businesses at leading
South African financial institutions. His commodities
business was one of the first active participants in the
South African Commodity Futures Exchange and Jean
served on the South African Futures Exchange advisory
panel for many years.
Prior to co-founding Barak with Prieur, Jean built and
led a new team at Standard Bank that covered structured
commodity finance, physical and derivative trading as well
as agricultural and bio-fuel project finance. Previously,
Jean worked for Rand Merchant Bank (of the First Rand
Group) heading up a team that completed the world’s first
successful one billion US dollar grain securitization. This
same team also set up the third largest crop insurance
company in Africa to mitigate weather risk on farmer
production loans for the First Rand Retail Bank.
Jean holds an accounting degree from the University of
Stellenbosch in South Africa.
Vincent Freemantle
Chief Operations Officer
Vincent is a CA (SA) with the South African Institute
of Chartered Accountants. He has contracted to the
JohannesburgStockExchangeandworkedattheFinancial
Asset Services Custody division of the Standard Bank of
South Africa, where he qualified with both the STRATE
Equities and Bonds Compliance Officers Examinations
(2006) and held the position of Risk and Compliance
Officer. He later held the position of Financial Officer for
BoE Stockbrokers (Pty) Ltd.
Vincent qualified as a stockbroker and member of the
South African Institute of Stockbrokers in his own right
in 2010.
Prior to joining Barak, Vincent was Vice President, Financial
Accountant and initial CFO for Credit Suisse Securities
(Johannesburg) (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of the global Credit
Suisse (AG) group, where he performed a wide range of
financial-related activities within the business as well as
the wider industry.
Kevin Ramsamy
Chief Financial Officer
Kevin is a member of the global Association of Chartered
Certified Accountants (ACCA) with over 10 years of
experience in the banking sector in Mauritius.
He worked for HSBC (Mauritius) in the Finance
department from 2006 till late 2010, with responsibilities
in management and regulatory reporting. From 2011
to 2015 he was Business Manager to the CE while also
fulfilling the position of Acting CFO for Standard Bank
DRC in 2015. After being Company Secretary for Standard
Bank Ltd Mauritius, and prior to joining Barak, Kevin
accepted the chairmanship of the Standard Bank Pension
Fund.
He holds a BSc (Honours) in Economics and Finance from
York University as well as an MSc in Management Science
and Operational Research from Warwick University.
4. The Company
Derek Postma
Fund Advisor
Shortly before joining Barak, Derek was a tax specialist
at Stanlib where he was involved in the resolution of tax
treatment of extraordinary transactions within the pension
and life funds as well as in the Collective Investment
Schemes.
Prior to this he was a tax consultant for Liberty Group
after gaining significant accounting experience at Moore
Stephens while auditing companies operating within the
agricultural sector. Derek graduated from the University
of South Africa with both a Bachelor and Honours degree
in Accounting Sciences, majoring in accounting, tax,
finance and auditing.
He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and member of
The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants,
and completed his public training with Moore Stephens.
Matthew Robinson
Fund Advisor
Matthew joined Barak’s origination team to specialise in
West African commodity-backed transactions.
He completed a Politics, Philosophy and Economics
(PPE) degree from Stellenbosch University, followed by a
Business Administration Program (PDM) at Wits Business
School. Thereafter, he spent five years at Investec Bank
on their International Finance Team – whose activities
consisted of portfolio management and business funding
for exceptionally high net worth individuals and families.
Clayton Taylor
Fund Advisor
After obtaining his BCom Accounting (Honours) degree
from the University of Johannesburg, Clayton completed
his articled training at PricewaterhouseCoopers and is a
registered Chartered Accountant with SAICA.
Clayton fulfilled the role of commercial financial analyst
with Akzo Nobel in London, returning to South Africa as
a senior financial analyst with Mondelez International
covering the FMCG sector in emerging markets in sub-
Saharan Africa. His interest and experience in emerging
markets facilitated his move to Export Trading Group, a
Singapore-based emerging market agricultural supply
chain company focussing on Africa. It was with ETG that
Clayton received invaluable exposure to sub-Saharan
African commercial transactions within the corporate
finance sphere.
Nayen Kavia
Fund Advisor: Kenya-based
Nayen’s career spans more than ten years in corporate
finance and private equity. He has executed a number
of transactions across the FMCG, real estate, financial
services and agri-business sectors.
Nayen embarked on his career in 2002 as a Summer
Analyst with Deutsche Bank and then joined Deloitte,
after which he set up a boutique advisory firm focused
on sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently deeply involved
with Africa-focused fund management and was also
previously engaged on the deal team of a leading pan-
African food and real estate private equity fund.
Nayen is an alumnus of the London Business School.
Celestin Gakuba
Fund Advisor: UAE-based
Celestin has over 16 years of experience in Business
Development Management, 12 of which were spent in
Structured Trade Commodity Finance focusing on sub-
Saharan African markets. He commenced his banking
career with Standard Chartered Bank in London in 1999.
Celestin then joined Eastern and Southern Trade and
Development Bank in Nairobi-Kenya (widely known
as PTA Bank), where he was a Trade Finance manager
involved in the origination and structuring of some of
the largest and most lucrative trade finance deals for the
bank. In 2008, Celestin moved to Dubai.
He is a graduate of Business Administration from Damelin
College in South Africa and holds a Master’s degree (MA)
in Business Law, from the University of Portsmouth in the
United Kingdom.
Erik Viljoen
Fund Advisor
Erik joined Barak in an origination capacity. With a career
background heavily invested in this market segment, he
brings a wealth of experience to the firm’s flagship fund
strategy of structured trade and commodity finance.
Having completed his postgraduate studies in Agricultural
Economics at the University of Stellenbosch, he joined a
large African-focused investment bank.
Prior to joining the Barak team Erik was responsible for
structured finance for Africa at a leading global trading
house.
5. Barak firmly believes in a hands-on approach for all
clients. This includes mandatory site visits during the
investment evaluation process to gauge all aspects
necessary for a functioning business operation. Barak
is the only Fund Manager with an African advisory team
based in South Africa and Kenya, and venturing into
West Africa. The company is also in the enviable position
of being the only fund with strategic access to 480
commodity storage warehouses across Africa, providing
physical on-the-ground security for trades. In addition
to this hands-on investment approach, Barak has over
the years established strong partnerships with specialists
in its countries of operation. These relationships foster
continuous operationally-efficient projects.
Barak Fund Management monitors global markets closely,
with a spotlight on Emerging Markets in particular, so as to
implement a disciplined, repeatable investment process
which focuses on strict controls, senior liens with strong
covenants, and shorter duration investments. The Risk
Management Culture, which is deeply embedded in every
aspect of an investment, from origination to underwriting
and exit, includes:
THE BARAK FUND PORTFOLIO
Barak currently manages three funds, with cumulative
assets under management (AUM) in excess of
USD 250 million:
• Barak Structured Trade Finance Fund
(click here to view the Fund Fact Sheet)
• Barak Shanta Commodity Segregated Portfolio
(click here to view the Fund Fact Sheet)
• Barak Impact Finance Fund
(click here to view the Fund Fact Sheet)
The Barak Structured Trade Finance Fund was floated in
February 2009, with the other two funds formed in mid-
2014. All three funds focus on consistent, securitised
investments and have returned solid performances since
inception.
Two new funds will be launched in Q2 2016, namely:
• Barak Structured Credit Finance Fund
• Barak Asha Fund (Longer-term Impact)
HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE
The Fund
A Unique Offering
STF IMPACT SHANTA
Rolling 12-Month Return 11% 6.32% 58.55%
12-Month Standard Deviation 0.1% 0.1% 6.78%
Cumulative Return Since Inception 140.62% 9.42% 102.62%
Percentage of Profitable Months 100% 100% 76.47
• Diversification in all aspects of the
investment process – from geographic and
commodity diversification to client and trade
diversification.
• A focus on worst-case scenario analysis prior
to pursuing any investment opportunity.
• A conservative credit approval system which
provides control over portfolio composition
and asset management, enhancing fund
performance.to the success of any project.
6. Barak COMMODITY EXPOSURE
As per the Offering Memorandum, the flagship fund is
prohibited from having an exposure exceeding 20 per
cent with regard to any single commodity. The fund
encompasses agricultural and food-related products,
natural resource commodities, as well as non-agricultural
general goods.
The main categories within the commodity spread are as
follows (but is not restricted to these categories):
Barak COUNTRY EXPOSURE
The countries most represented within the funds in our
portfolio (with a maximum individual exposure of 30
per cent) are as follows, but are not restricted to these
exclusively:
The Fund
Barak Fund service providers
Pricing Agent: Commodity Insight Africa
Collateral Managers: Global Collateral Control (Pty) Ltd, CMI, DRAM, ACE
Custodian: The Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd
Administrator: Admiral Administration Ltd (Part of the Maitland Group)
Auditors: PwC
Legal Advisor – South Africa: Weksmans Attorneys
Legal Advisor – Cayman Islands: Harney Westwood & Riegels
Legal Advisor – USA: Foley Hoag LLP
JSE Sponsoring Broker: J & E Davy
Barak Structured Trade Finance Fund
Barak Impact Finance Fund
Kenya 15%
Mozambique 19%
South Africa 16%
Tanzania 17%
Zambia 17%
Zimbabwe 16%
South Africa 38%
Zambia 14%
Tanzania 9%
Kenya 8%
Mauritius 6%
Zimbabwe 5%
Malawi 4%
Mozambique 4%
Botswana 4%
Uganda 3%
Democratic Republic of Congo 2%
Namibia 1%
Barak Structured Trade Finance Fund
Barak Impact Finance Fund
Grains 22%
Fertiliser 17%
Cement 15%
Wheat 14%
Pulses 12%
Rice 8%
Sesame 6%
Fruit & Raisins 5%
FMCG 25%
Fertiliser 19%
Metals 12%
Pulses 5%
Grains 5%
Minerals 5%
Coal 4%
Rice 4%
Equipment 3%
Soya 3%
Petroleum Products 2%
Fruit & Raisins 1%
Chemicals 1%
Textiles 1%
Cement 1%
Wheat
7. Awards
Winner 2010 & 2012: Specialist Strategies
Special Award 2011: Africa
Winner 2011: Africa Fund of the Year
Nominated 2014: Africa Fund of the Year
Winner 2014 & 2015: Best Alternative
Financier: Sub-Saharan Africa
Nominated 2014: Africa Investment Fund
of the Year
Winner Best Trade Finance Fund 2015 –
Barak Structured Trade Finance Fund
Best African Alternative Financier
Best Alternative Financier 2015:
Best Structured Trade Finance Fund
Barak Fund Management Awards
Marbella Road, Pellegrin,
Trianon, Quatre-Bornes,
Mauritius
T +230 698 0397
contact@barakfund.com
www.barakfund.com
Barak Fund Management Ltd Company registration
number 83597 C1/GBL. Registered with and regulated
by the Mauritian Financial Services Authority. Listed on
the Irish Stock Exchange
contact
The Fund
