The deal was inked in 2007, and at the time it garnered little attention. The New York–based private equity firm Blackstone Group Holdings had cobbled together a group of financiers to put up US$120 million for a two-thirds stake in a dam on the White Nile in Uganda.
Any way you looked at it, the move was risky. The hydroelectric project had kicked off more than a decade earlier and had languished ever since. Progress had been hindered by construction delays, cost overruns, corruption, and even pirate attacks. Nonetheless, Blackstone decided to take a chance.
