WHY LCP

The name Lorax Capital Partners (“LCP”) was inspired by one of Dr. Seuss’ famous children’s books, the LORAX. As a father of two girls, I have enjoyed reading this inspirational book to my kids. The story’s main character is the LORAX, the protector of trees and mother earth. One of my favorite quotes in the book is when the LORAX says: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

So what does this have to do with the business of managing funds and deploying private capital? Well, we firmly believe that abiding by the LORAX’s morals will allow LCP not only to implement an investment philosophy that adheres to high social and moral standards but simultaneously strive to achieve high risk-adjusted returns.

How will this be reflected in our investment philosophy? We will look at sectors that address “real” problems in our society (e.g. financial services to the current unbanked majority, clean energy, logistics, infrastructure and healthcare) or sectors driving real economic growth and employment (e.g. consumer, retail and manufacturing) . All of the above sectors in Egypt are underdeveloped and highly underpenetrated, while being fueled by an emerging middle class seeking more sophisticated products and services. This paves the way for a superior growth trajectory as these sectors converge to global emerging market norms. Within these sectors, we will only commit to an investment if the management team shares our values and beliefs. Generally speaking, assets with these criteria are very scarce so we will be patient until we find the right opportunity. However, once we find a suitable target, we plan to be very aggressive in pursuing it.

We believe that our team has an unmatched track record in sourcing, executing and managing transactions in Egypt with over US$ 46 billion in combined transaction value executed to date. We take a lot of pride in what we do and are excited about our future prospects. We thank you for your interest in LCP and look forward to updating you on our progress in the near future.

Ashraf M. Zaki