South African Enterprise Development Proprietary Limited (“SAED”) is a specialised investment company focused on providing growth capital to unlock the potential of smaller companies with great opportunities.

It is a well known fact that smaller businesses face significant challenges to raise debt (and especially equity funding) in the risk-averse market conditions the world finds itself in. In addition, banks have increasing capital adequacy requirements, making it very challenging for them to provide equity funding.

Furthermore, SAED understands that smaller companies and their shareholders have an aversion to debt. We therefore seek to minimize or eliminate acquisition debt, making provision for the business to have the optimal level of working capital and asset-based finance.

In order to protect shareholder value and ensure sustainability within any business, it is essential that succession management is established, corporate governance is entrenched and processes to capacitate organic and acquisitive growth is formalized. Smaller businesses in particular face challenges in releasing / achieving these objectives and the experience and involvement of SAED alleviates this.

Without a doubt, Enterprise Development enhances competition and entrepreneurship, which in turn is critical to economic growth, making a meaningful contribution to social upliftment. As the employment ratios in smaller businesses are typically more labour intensive than in large businesses, investing for growth and expansion represents much needed employment creation and poverty alleviation.