RE: African Mini-Grids3 Jun 2020 22:20
This bit is potentially Bushie and the main point :)
You mention success stories, let me be clear and say first of all, that none of the mini-grid companies are profitable today. You have to remember that Amazon wasn’t profitable for the first twenty years either. Tesla probably still is not profitable, I don’t think. So my point is, not being profitable does not mean you are not investable, because what these companies are doing, is figuring out a way to create 600-million new African customers.
If you look at all these big energy companies out there, such as ENGIE, Caterpillar and so on, they are making money doing stuff that people have known how to make profitable for a 100 years, the kind of bread and butter energy work. The mini-grid companies, they are the Amazons, they are the Teslas, they are creating new customers. They are investible and creative and interesting that way, but they are not profitable right now. However, investors that come in early on, now, they are going to be part of that story and shaping the history of this continent.