A couple of exits featured among the private capital deals that took place in Africa last week. Of the two, the larger comes to us courtesy of Phatisa. The South African private equity firm has fully exited its controlling stake in Meridian, an agricultural inputs business it originally backed in 2014. The buyer of the stake is a fully-owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabian resources company Ma'aden, who will be paying for the stake in cash.
Vantage Capital announced the latest exit for its second fund last week. The South Africa-based mezzanine debt fund manager is fully exiting its investment in Thebe Timrite, a black-controlled mining support products and services supplier, which it first backed in 2013. Following this transaction, Thebe Investments, which manages over $420 million of assets, becomes the sole owner of the Gauteng-based business.
In North Africa, CDG Capital Private Equity is backing a private healthcare provider of oncology and radiology services in Morocco. The deal, which is the sixth for CDG's Capmezzanine II SCR fund, gives the SME-focused private equity investor a minority stake in the firm, Group Oncorad, which opened its first facility in Casablanca in 2000. The capital increase will allow the firm to expand its services, both geographically and in terms of specialty medical services it offers its clients.
African Rainbow Capital has added another business to its portfolio of financial services investments, buying a majority stake in QED, a more than 20-year old actuarial advisory business headquartered in South Africa. The deal, the terms of which remain undisclosed, gives the investment holding company two board seats, one of which could be the Chairperson.
There was another IPO involving a private equity-backed African company last week. In what's being described as the most important floatation on the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) since its founding in 1998, Oragroup, the financial services group backed by, among others Emerging Capital Partners, made its debut. The company's existing investors retain 80% of the group's capital. Emerging Capital Partners still holds more than 50% of the company.
Acumen Capital Partners has announced that the for-profit fund it sponsors, KawaSafi Ventures, has held a $70 million close. The fund, which has already made several investments, will catalyze companies that deliver clean, affordable renewable energy to low-income consumers and businesses on the continent.
Earlier this month, Dubai-based Nimai Capital announced the launch of a new private equity fund and a deal sourcing and development partnership with Kenya's Victoria Commercial Bank. The fund is aiming to raise $150 million to invest in financial services businesses in Africa and Asia. Initially, the fund will look for African opportunities in Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania.
In other fundraising news, PAPE Fund Managers has landed an additional commitment for its latest fund. The South African private equity investor has raised an additional R150 million for PAPE Fund III from the 27four Black Business Growth Fund. The commitment brings the total amount raised for the fund so far to R680 million (or $48 million), a little over 50% its final close target of R1.2 billion.
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 media company focused on the private capital opportunities in emerging and frontier markets. Mr. Cunningham holds a Bachelors degree from Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.
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