They show lack of faith in your own policies' TIME Warner, the world's largest media company and owner of Time magazine, CNN and Warner Brothers films, is taking a second look at South Africa. Time Warner disinvested from South Africa in 1989 when it sold control of Tusk Music to local interests. Parsons joins a number of other high-profile investors in the fund, including the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller family, IBM's pension fund and the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. Private equity funds channel shareholder funds to small and medium-sized, mostly unlisted, businesses and provide management and strategic skills via the fund managers.
Equity funding is ideal for South Africa.
The fund invests up to R15million in one company and currently finances five businesses, including the expansion of small retailer Shoe City. Like many foreign investors, Parsons does not view crime as a major obstacle to investment. He welcomes government's recent strategy for growth, but warns that South Africa is just one of the many countries competing for funds. You need to market yourself far more effectively and extensively if you want to have a chance against countries in the Far East. Parsons was previously chairman of Dime Bancorp, a large thrift institution in the US, and is a director of Philip Morris, Citicorp as well as Time Warner.