Last week in brief... Asset management businesses and tower companies feature largely in this week's private capital-related news from Africa. African Rainbow Capital, a financial services investment firm, is investing in a new Sanlam entity set up to own the insurance giant's Sanlam Investments unit holding the insurance giant’s South African third party asset management business. For its R815 million (or approximately $47.5 million) investment, ARC is getting a 25% stake in the as-yet-unnamed Sanlam subsidiary, which will rank among the largest asset management businesses in South Africa.
In another asset management sector-related deal, Infinitus, a mid-market focused investment holding company, has agreed to sell Bridge Fund Managers, a portfolio holding it acquired in early 2017, to fellow-South African investment management firm Counterpoint Asset Managers. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, The deal is Counterpoint's second acquisition in the sector this year, and lifts the value of assets managed by the combined group to R12 billion or almost $700 million.
IHS Towers, one of Africa's largest private capital-backed tower operators has announced that it is exploring a possible IPO on an exchange in the United States. Plans are at a very early stage as the volume, pricing, and timing of any offering has not yet been determined. Should it go ahead, the IPO would be one of the more valuable listings related to Africa in recent years.
A tower company that went public last year, but still counts a number of private equity investors among its stakeholders, has reported a deal of its own. Helios Towershas agreed to acquire passive infrastructure assets from Senegal’s second-largest mobile operator, Free Senegal, for $189 million. The transaction adds 1,220 sites to Helios’s tower portfolio as well as another 400 new build-to-suit sites that the two parties have agreed will be built across the country over the next 5 years.
Sticking with infrastructure-related deals, Meridiam's planned Kinguélé Aval Hydroelectric Power Plant is being considered by the IFC for debt investment. The DFI would invest up to $51.5 million in the project, which represents about a third of the debt portion of $154.4 million required. IFC will also mobilize the balance of the debt needed from some fellow-DFI investors.
Aerobotics, one of the higher-profile South African startups currently, is in line for an equity investment from Dutch development bank, FMO. The DFI is considering a $2.5 million investment in the six-year-old agritech business which will be used to support its ongoing development and expansion plans. How big a stake FMO would end up with should the deal take place has not been disclosed.
IFC has signed off on a debt investment in one of its existing investees. Ciel Healthcare, a platform company the DFI first backed in 2015, is working on plans to finance a potential liquidity shortfall at International Medical Group caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. IFC is providing $4 million in debt while Ciel Healthcare’s other shareholders - Ciel Group, the Investment Fund for Healthcare in Africa, Proparco, and Kibo Capital Partners - are providing a total of $2.5 million in equity. The loan will be used to refinance IMG’s existing debt and secure a longer tenor and grace period.
In career move news, Helios Investment Partners has appointed a new ESG Director to expand the scope of the Africa-focused private equity firm's sustainability framework and policies. Phil Davis joins the firm's portfolio operations group in London from The Carlyle Group where he had served as Head of Sustainability for the EMEA region for the past year.
And back to the IFC, once again, to wrap things up this week. Josiane Kwenda has taken up the reins as IFC Country Manager for several West African countries in the latest step of her 11-year career at the World Bank's DFI. Based n Dakar, she assumed responsibility for the organization's activities in Senegal, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, and The Gambia earlier this month.
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
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