Bob Geldof urges financiers to invest in Africa

Former Boomtown Rat makes case for private equity as 'major vehicle for positive change in this world'

Bob Geldof, once the unlikeliest face of capitalism, has extolled the virtues of private equity for spurring development in Africa. The former singer urged a gathering of leading financiers to invest in the continent before they lose out to China. "I have learned that private equity … can be a major vehicle for positive change in this world," Geldof said in Berlin. The former Boomtown Rat has come to embrace business enterprise so vigorously that he chairs a private equity fund called 8 Miles, named after the shortest distance between Europe and Africa.