Last week in brief...North Africa was the setting for some of the most notable items of deal and fundraising news on the continent last week. Tana Africa Capital made its second investment in Egypt, backing AHI, majority owners of Mabaret Al Asafra Group, a hospital operator in Alexandria. The deal gives Tana Africa's second fund a minority stake in the business. Mabaret currently operates two hospitals and a laboratory but has plans to launch a new hospital in central Alexandria by the end of this year.
Two funds managed by North Africa-based fund managers received commitments fromDFC, the US government's reconfigured development finance institution. The two commitments form part of a slew of investments totaling more than $1 billion being made by DFC in funds and institutions across the developing world.
The larger of the two commitments, (by just $5 million), is being made to AfricInvest's latest fund, AfricInvest Fund IV. Ultimately, Tunis-headquartered AfricInvest is looking to raise $500 million for the fund. Technically sector-agnostic, last week's DFC statement indicates the fund will prioritize investments in businesses in developmental sectors such as healthcare and financial services.
The second of the two investments is a $25 million commitment to SPE Capital's Africa Industrialization Fund which is now very close to its $200 million final goal. The generalist fund will target midcap opportunities in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Jordan, typically businesses with enterprise values ranging from $30 million to $80 million.
In other deal news, Inspired Evolution is backing the buyout and reconfiguration of Building Energy's Africa and Middle East business, creating Red Rocket, a new independent power producer headquartered in Cape Town. For its investments, the specialist investment firm earns a significant majority stake in the IPP, with Red Rocket's management holding the balance of the business.
Once again this week, venture capital deals were a feature. CNBB Venture Partnersannounced a multi-million euro investment in Wyzetalk a couple of weeks ago. The investment in the South African headquartered employee communication solution used by large organizations to connect with their frontline workers is the first Africa-related deal for the Rotterdam-based venture firm, which will work with its new portfolio company to grow its business presence in Europe.
Platform Capital is making an investment in East Africa, backing a technology-driven consumer credit platform based in Nairobi. The startup, Lipa Later, uses data analytics to judge the creditworthiness of consumers, allowing retailers to sell their goods and services on credit with minimal risk and be paid back in affordable monthly installments. Lipa Later company has ambitious expansion plans, reaching out beyond Kenya into Uganda and Tanzania this year before penetrating markets in Nigeria, Ghana, and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2021.
Back in South Africa, BusyMed, a healthcare sector app developer headquartered in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, has raised capital from LionPride Agility, a 12J VCC impact investment vehicle managed by LionPride Investments. The deal, which was announced last week, gives LionPride a minority stake in the business and two seats on the startup's board.
Standard Chartered has announced the promotion of a senior executive who has been with the bank for almost 17 years. Abbas Husain, who joined the international banking group in 2003, has been made the Bank's Head of Corporate Finance for Africa and the Middle East. As well as taking on the new role, he retains responsibility for an expanded Project and Export finance business at the Bank. Having successfully led Standard Chartered's project and export finance teams in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, he assumes responsibilities for additional geographies, adding sub-Saharan Africa and Europe to his brief.
And finally, we finish with one more item of job change news. Following the appointment of Johannes !Gawaxab to be Governor of the Bank of Namibia, Nicole Maske has taken over the role of Managing Partner at Eos Capital. She co-founded the private equity investment firm with him at the very beginning of 2015, serving initially as the firm's CEO and then as a "value add" Partner beginning in late 2018.
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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