Last week in brief...There were a couple of "firsts" in Africa's deal landscape. Enko Capital Management sold its stake in AMI Logistics, marking the first exit for the firm's first private equity fund. The realization came courtesy of a trade sale of the firm to CEVA Logistics. AMI's founders also exited alongside Enko.

Following the fund's investment in AMI in 2017, Enko had held a significant minority stake in the business, but what returns they earned for the fund's LPs were not being shared, The fund has 6 remaining businesses in its portfolio, although plans are apparently well underway to dispose of another of them in the near future.

South Africa was the venue for another first - this time in the venture space. The SA SME Fund is anchoring a new venture fund, Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs Africa, which, as its name suggests, has been set up by a group of the country's more successful entrepreneurs to invest in other startups ion South Africa.

So far the new fund has raised about $8 million but wants to raise much more. As its 6 founders had already been mentoring other entrepreneurs, it has a robust pipeline of potential deals, two of which have been provisionally approved by the fund's investment committee.

Staying in South Africa, Vantage Capital has agreed a mezzanine deal with Alleyroads Group, a black-owned property developer. The financing will be used to complete the development of Kayalane Heights, an affordable housing project in the country's Limpopo province. It's the 29th deal for the mezzanine investor, this time on behalf its third, $288 million fund.

Feronia has now come up with a plan to restructure itself. The palm oil agribusiness which counts some DFIs and private capital investors among its backers is selling the rest of its core business - three plantations and associated processing facilities - to one of its existing investors for a minimal amount and the assumption of the company's debt. The deal includes commitments of fresh capital to the business which has struggled with the slide in palm oil prices as well as debt restructuring agreements with its current lenders.

KawiSafi Ventures is backing BioLite. The New York-based startup sells its off-grid products - stoves, solar panels, and lighting equipment - to two markets; the outdoor recreational market in the USA and Europe and, through distributors, consumers in emerging markets. That makes it a fit for KawiSafi's focus on backing companies that deliver affordable renewable energy to both consumers and businesses in East Africa.

100x Ventures led a Series A round for VALR last week. The cryptocurrency exchange startup now has an extra $3.4 million in hand which it will use to develop its product and service mix, hire more people, and tap new markets. Other investors in the round include 4Di Capital, US-based company Bittrex, and FNB's former CEO, Michael Jordaan.

In people news, LeapFrog Investments announced the promotion of 3 of its executives, all of whom played a part in the successful close of the impact investors third consumer fund last year. The three - Karima Ola, Fernanda Lima, and Frances Holliday - take up places on the firm's management committee or management board.

The African Enterprise Challenge Fund has confirmed interim CEO Victoria Sabula as the non-profit investor's permanent CEO following an extensive, year-long recruitment process. She joined AECF as interim CEO from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in August last year.

And finally, Dara Owoyemi has come back to AVCA as interim CEO following Michelle Kathryn Essomé's departure last month. Owoyemi has previously served as the association's COO and a member of its board from 2011 to 2017 before leaving to set up her own advisory firm, Integral Growth Partners.

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

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


Subscribe to Directory
Write an Article

Highlight

Axon moves into Cloud Technology

by Axon Partners Group

cloud technology axon

Estrategias de Negociación con Inversor...

by Foro Capital Pymes

La negociación con inversores es un paso crucial y a menudo intimidan...

Photos Stream