Quintin Primo gives his insight into why he loves investing in Africa. According to Mr. Primo: “In 2008, when the rest of the world was contracting, Nigeria, for instance, grew at 6%, so … modern portfolio theory dictates that you diversify your portfolio and hence reduce risk. So investors that are exclusively in the United States, for instance, I would argue, are taking too much risk”.
Mr. Primo makes some pretty insightful statements on investing in Africa, particularly about the outsized investment returns relative to what one gets in the West. However, he makes some rather careless exaggerations, for instance, when he comments, with regards to Nigeria, that “There is no supply of anything here”, which clearly is not factually correct. Anyway, Mr. Primo is a good example of a pioneering investor in a frontier market who thinks outside of the box and is clearly ahead of the curve. Smart man.
Quintin Primo co-founded Capri Capital Partners in 1992. Mr. Primo has 28 years of real estate investment experience including serving as Managing Director, Q. Primo & Company, Inc. and Vice President, Citicorp’s Chicago commercial real estate lending team. Quintin Primo has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. degree (Finance with Honors) from Indiana University.
According to Forbes, Mr. Primo is one of the top 10 richest African-Americans, with a net worth of $300 million. According to a Forbes’ May 2009 article, titled the “The Wealthiest Black Americans”, Quintin Primo III, a minister’s son grew up in Chicago. He earned his MBA at Harvard in 1979 and took a job in Citicorp’s real estate lending division. Primo founded Capri Capital in 1992 with childhood friend Daryl Carter and achieved initial success extending mezzanine loans to small borrowers that larger firms neglected to serve. Today Capri’s portfolio is larded with apartment complexes; the firm’s assets under management have swelled to over $4 billion. Last June Capri announced it will invest $2 billion in a Saudi venture, building hotels, office towers and condos in one of King Abdullah’s anointed “economic zones.” Primo also plans to invest $1 billion in distressed assets and half-built construction projects in the U.S. with financing from the U.S. Treasury.
Capri Capital Partners, based in Chicago, USA, is a multi-billion dollar global real estate investment and development firm with $4.2 billion of assets under management. According to Capri’s website, “Capri continues to seek investment opportunities in markets that are underserved or imbalanced with respect to capital availability and/or real estate demand/supply fundamentals”.
Visit Capri Capital Partners’ website …
Read Forbes’ May 2009 article: “The Wealthiest Black Americans” …
This clip was aired on CNBC on May 21, 2009.
