Last week in brief... Two important items from Helios Investment Partners, one of Africa's higher-profile private equity investors, feature in this week's digest. In the first, the London-based firm has acquired a 35% stake in BIM Maroc, the Moroccan subsidiary of BİM Birleşik Mağazalar, a Turkish grocery chain. The deal values the Moroccan business at more than $200 million, making it the largest transaction of the week on the continent. The chain has a 500-store footprint in Morocco and its market position and operational strength make it a good platform for future expansion into other markets on the continent.
The second deal featuring Helios was the completion of the merger between the fund manager's holding company, Helios Holdings and Fairfax Africa, the listed investment holding company subsidiary of Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial. The deal has now completed following a special meeting of Fairfax Africa shareholders ten days ago. We first covered this story in July when it was first announced, noting the deal adds a major new player to Africa's private capital eco-system. The investment holding company has been renamed Helios Fairfax Partners Corporation and remains listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol HFPC.
There was news of a significant fund close last week. It was reported that Stanlib has raised almost 70% of its final close goal for its second infrastructure fund from a range of South African institutional investors. The fund has received commitments totaling R5.5 billion so far and is aiming to raise another R2.4 billion in time for its final close in February next year.
Following the news that Ethos Capital was trimming its holding in Channel VAS, we now know who the acquirer was. Convergence Partners, a specialist communications private equity investor in South Africa and an existing investor in Channel VAS acquired the stake, adding it to the shares held by its second fund, the $200 million Convergence Partners Infrastructure Communications Fund which is now almost fully deployed.
Inside Capital Partners has made its sixth investment for its first fund, Inside Equity. The private equity fund manager is taking a controlling stake in WeCycle, a waste collection and recycling company based in Mauritius. The fresh capital will be used to buys tricks to increase the firm's collection capacity as well as start building its won recycling capability. Currently, it exports the waste to recycling companies overseas.
In venture capital news, Energy Access Ventures has led a group of investors backing a Series A round for SunCulture, a solar-powered irrigation business. Between them, the investors are putting $14 million to work which the firm will use to hire more people to push sales in its home country of Kenya, invest in more product development initiatives, and continue to expand into new markets. With only 4% of Africa's farmers having access to irrigation, the startup's market opportunity is significant.
Aerobotics, another venture capital-backed business from Africa, has landed a couple of new investors as part of its $16.5 million Series A round. Cathay AfricInvest Innovation and FMO are both participating in the round which was led by Naspers Foundry. The firm will use the capital for technology development as well as for expansion in its overseas markets. The startup's service combines drone imagery and artificial intelligence to help farmers detect disease and pest threats to their crops.
In portfolio company news, Adumo, an Apis Partners and Crossfin Technology Holdings backed payments platform has acquired a specialist hospitality sector payments firm. The acquisition is GAAP, a provider of payments products and services to companies in the hospitality sector which counts several leading international and South African brands among its clients.
And finally, news of a successful exit. TLG Capital has exited its debt investment in BAJ Uganda, an operator of fuel stations in Uganda. The debt has been refinanced by an as-yet-unnamed private equity investor and has earned TLG's Credit Opportunities Fund a return in excess of 30% in US dollar terms.
That's it for this week. As always, you can review these and other stories by clicking through to this week's preview edition of the newsletter.
Allan Cunningham is a senior media executive who has spent the last 15 years of his career working for some of the world’s most respected M&A and Private Equity media companies including Dow Jones’s publications Private Equity Analyst and VentureWire and most recently, The Deal. He has built a number of successful digital and event content businesses, both subscription and sponsor-supported, delivering information and content-marketing services to clients in the M&A and broader deal ecosystem. He recently struck out on his own and launched Rowayton Press, a multi-platform
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