The Development of Metier
Metier is a proven leader in the area of private equity, alternative assets and related advisory services. The company was founded in 2003 and raised South Africa’s largest private equity fund in terms of third party local commitments. It has an established team which ranks amongst the largest and most experienced in the industry. Metier has a strong track record in private equity investing and selective M&A advice that confirms its leadership status.
From inception, our initial Sandhurst offices were a reflection of the brand - open, welcoming, and independent of spirit. 20 years later Metier’s entrepreneurial team continues to raise successor growth and sustainable capital funds committed to the future of the African continent. This challenged us to refresh and grow into new premises that like us are accessible, modern and relevant while remaining true to the traditions of our brand and its founding philosophies.
Initially the company focused on providing strategic advice and undertaking niche private equity club deals, while simultaneously developing plans for new private equity funds. The team called on well established relationships and caught the recovery wave as performances and valuation multiples escalated from post-2000 lows. Our historic returns of 30%-IRR-plus were matched and exceeded in these early years, helping Metier confirm the out-performance in the history of its founding group.
Metier was designed to remain free from public ownership, to promote a partnership-style culture and to use a long-term investment approach that is sceptical of fast money. The Metier founders have worked together for over three decades favouring a culture that emphasises hard work, intellectual freedom and solid family values.
Our experience over the years has helped Metier to build an institutional memory that allows us to discern the difference between fanciful promises and real returns. We have had the privilege of working with talented entrepreneurs and business leaders, many of whom have the potential to dominate their sector.
Letter from the Founders
Welcome to our world and thank you for your interest in Metier. Our business continues through all the economic cycles, fund vintages and economic waves, unabated! We have been at it through more than three decades and have stuck to our core endeavour – focussed on African private equity fund investing for institutional and development finance investors, coinvesting with them and selecting entrepreneurial teams in mid-market equity where we can bring more than money.
Each decade somehow seems more volatile and traumatic than the last but through all of it we have found good people with passion, ideas and a partnering ethic both within our family-style team and in portfolio companies that join our journey for their own step changes. And through every cycle we have managed to make a difference, make money for our investors and partners and hold onto our precious reputation for being loyal, fair and enterprising partners. We hope the pages in our website give you a flavour of this world and invite you to share with us your own time, plans, ideas and ambitions.
The COVID-19 years have tested our culture and value in a way we could never have planned for. We moved into beautiful new Johannesburg offices in Oxford Parks on the Rosebank/Dunkeld border six months after the first lockdowns only to be challenged to get ourselves and our portfolio partners through unprecedented economic and health crises from our laptops at home. We have adapted in ways we could never have imagined and have concluded deals in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Mali with partners in London, Europe and Africa and built up our team presence in Mauritius, Kenya and the United Kingdom. We also got every portfolio company through the worst recession in a century without a write-off or material emergency funding. We could have imagined none of this leading into 2020.
We have also gone beyond securing survival to laying foundation stones for the future across both core areas of our business – we have completed a final closing at $156 million of our Metier Sustainable Capital ll Fund in 2021 in the clean energy and infrastructure practice, and have established a solid bridge to our third fund in the growth capital arena with announcing a first close at $182 million in September 2023 with three completed transactions and a strong pipeline. Our ambition for the next decade is to further our pan-African reputation of private equity leadership.
We hope that our website introduces you to our family of team members and portfolio partners. We are truly proud of the balance, diversity, talent and enterprise in each and know that our brand and legacy are secure for more decades ahead.
Yours
Thierry, Paul and Anthony
Why investors choose Metier
Our investors expect us to deliver real value growth for the longer term, and to resist mere surface-level improvements. We like to see our businesses outperform from an earnings point of view and to offer long-term value enhancement and positive impact. To do this, we facilitate the necessary change to scale up and create sustainable businesses over five years and longer.
Our team of dedicated and passionate professionals offers investors access to a wealth of experience and expertise in the field of private equity. Metier is committed to transformation, good governance and sustainability and provides investors with access to investments that grow through market cycles.
Our investors can trust that we will deliver focused access to an important asset class in a manner more likely to yield success than they can do on their own. To compensate for the reduced liquidity of private assets and the fund format, our returns need to outperform over the longer term, something Metier has done time and again.
Through our dedicated focus on the alternative asset class, and co-investment of our personal capital, we are able to ensure that our interests are fully aligned. At Metier, we understand that this is also not a one-day game - we are in it for a decade-long cycle per fund and thus building long-term capacity, succession and talent is fundamental to what we do.
Why entrepreneurs choose Metier
Entrepreneurs choose Metier for more than the money. At Metier we go further, being an active partner to our portfolio companies and their management teams. Without taking on executive responsibilities, we bring much more than money to the equation. We see our role as a sounding board for senior management, as a key driver of shareholder activism and necessary change as well as a contributor to executive team development, transformation, environmental responsibility and corporate governance.
In growing their businesses, management teams seek fellow entrepreneurs as their partners. We prefer to be closer to the day-to-day running of the operations of our portfolio companies, providing guidance where necessary without restricting or second guessing our management teams. The people of Metier choose to work outside corporate and institutional structures, offering a bridge between capital providers and strong entrepreneurial teams capable of building new market leaders. Who better to bounce ideas off than people who understand what it takes to turn ideas into strategies, and strategies into leading businesses?
For each rand or dollar we have made for our investors, our management team also generates relatively higher returns for themselves, so it's in our interest to partner winners, growing alongside them. In the same mix, Metier provides risk capital, takes steps to improve empowerment and governance, and also provides a model for long term sustainability. Together with our partners we choose a financial structure and share a strategic vision that is matched to optimise growth and returns without taking on risks that can compromise the future.
Reflecting on 20 years

© 2024 Metier. All Rights Reserved. Metier Private Equity (Pty) Ltd, Lereko Metier Sustainable Capital Managers (Pty) Ltd, Metier Sustainable Capital Managers (Pty) Ltd and Metier Capital Growth Fund III Manager (Pty) Ltd are licenced Financial Services Providers (Licence No: 44882, Licence No: 44430, Licence No: 48547 and Licence No: 53015 respectively) in terms of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 37 of 2002 and have Conflict of Interest Management Policies as required in terms of Section 3A of the General Code of Conduct.