(Bloomberg) -- John Oliphant, who left as principal executive officer of South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund after a year-long suspension, has started Gaia Investment Partners to benefit from African infrastructure projects.

Oliphant’s firm intends by March to complete 1.3 billion rand ($113 million) of funding for South Africa’s renewable energy program, with a “significant deal pipeline” for the rest of 2015, he said Wednesday in a statement.
Oliphant was suspended from the GEPF, Africa’s biggest pension fund, in October 2013 after allegations that he breached policy on payments to suppliers, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP report obtained by Bloomberg News. A chairman of the disciplinary hearing found him guilty in October last year and intended to dismiss him. Pretoria-based Oliphant, who denied the charges and initially said he would appeal against the finding, said Wednesday he has “decided to move on instead of engaging in an expensive legal process.”
Gaia will team up with Fieldstone Africa, an independent investment advisory firm, according to the statement. Fieldstone started in 1990 with a focus on energy and infrastructure, with offices in New York, London, Johannesburg, Berlin, Kuala Lumpur and Hyderabad, according to its website.
“Gaia will provide complete funding solutions to infrastructure challenges across the African continent with an initial focus on the South African market,” Oliphant said. He expects to formally open the doors at his new business in March.
To contact the reporter on this story: Renee Bonorchis in Johannesburg at rbonorchis@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net John Viljoen