U.S. Businesses, Investors Bullish on Post-Apartheid South Africa, Group Finds : World trade: While expressing some concern over Mandela’s government, portfolio and corporate investors are boosting their profile, Washington-based research center says.

South Africa has attracted a marked increase in American business and investor interest since the dying days of apartheid and sanctions, a Washington-based research group said this week.

The Investor Responsibility Research Center said a survey of 69 U.S. pension funds and other institutional investors found that more than half were investing or planned to invest in South Africa in the next year.

These relatively bullish attitudes were expressed in August or September, before South Africa had even obtained formal risk assessments from leading American credit-rating agencies Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, and the Japanese agency Nippon.

They also preceded its inclusion in various prominent emerging market investment indexes, it said in a report released in Johannesburg.

The center made no mention of the Mexican financial crisis that erupted in December and its potential impact on attitudes toward South Africa as investors reviewed emerging market risks and rewards. However, it did say that U.S. portfolio and corporate investors, while gradually showing more enthusiasm, still had questions and concerns.

“Representatives of several U.S. institutional (portfolio) investors that are not yet investing in South Africa told IRRC that they are waiting to see how the new government’s policies will work, or that they do not have enough knowledge of South African investment conditions,” it said.

It said U.S. corporations were nevertheless boosting their profile in South Africa, adding that this month 183 had direct investment or employees in the country.

This was a 36% jump since Nelson Mandela, now president, called for the lifting of sanctions in September, 1993, several months before last year’s historic all-race elections.

It counted 498 companies with non-equities ties, such as licensing, franchise or sales agreements, with South Africa.

This, according to figures released last month, compared with 598 non-American multinationals with direct investments or employees in South Africa, and 442 with sales or licensing deals.

U.S. companies that have returned after disinvesting in the 1980s include Coca Cola, CPC International, IBM, PepsiCo and Sara Lee. Ford has repurchased equity in its manufacturing operations.

U.S. companies that have entered South Africa for the first time include Apple Computer, Morgan Stanley and Hyatt International.

The trend was especially significant given the force of the sanctions movement in the United States in the 1980s and early ‘90s, the report said.

“At the high watermark--just before Mandela’s call for the lifting of sanctions--181 localities had sanctions of one kind or another. Today, just 12 localities have such policies on their books,” said Meg Voorhes, director of the center’s South Africa program.