Last week in brief...Egyptian companies were the subject of two of Africa's private equity deals last week. One involved AfricInvest, a fund manager which has been particularly active in deal making of late. On this occasion, the Tunis-headquartered private equity investor is backing Masria Digital Payment for the €194 million Maghreb Private Equity Fund IV's fourth deal. The financial details of the deal are not being disclosed, but AfricInvest confirmed that the fund now holds a significant minority stake.

Cairo-based Ezdehar Management also announced a deal last week. Based in Cairo, the private equity firm has finalized a deal to buy a majority stake in Rich Food Industries, the convenience food producer of chilled and frozen beef, turkey and poultry consumer products under the Rich and El Leheimy brands. How much is being invested is again not being disclosed, but Ezdehar's Emad Barsoum and Ahmed Sobhy tale seats on the company's board.

Possibly the biggest private equity deal of the week comes courtesy of African Infrastructure Investment Managers. The Old Mutual affiliate is spending $54 million to acquire interests in Nigerian gas assets owned by Savannah Petroleum. AIIM's $320 million third infrastructure fund is taking a 20% stake in Seven Uquo Gas, an entity with stakes in the Uquo gas field in southeast Nigeria as well as 20% of Accugas, an operator of processing and distribution infrastructure. The deal is the tenth for the fund.

On the fundraising front, Metier has held the first close for its second sustainable capital fund. You might remember we reported last week that the African Development Bank had signed off on a $20 million commitment to the fund. Well, this week, French DFI Proparco announced it was investing $10 million in the fund, with both helping investments helping the fund to a total of $113 million for the first close. The amount is the equivalent of about 75% of the fund's final close target of $150 million which is expected to take place before the end of the year.

In news of another fund's first close, responsAbility's newly-launched private debt fund has landed $151 million from a large group of public and private financing institutions. The new fund will invest in businesses that provide electricity to households lacking power as well as businesses that seek cleaner, cheaper and more reliable energy solutions. responsAbility anticipates holding a second close with additional investors by the end of this year when it could have grown to $200 million in size.

Finally, a high profile private equity lawyer is moving jobs. Scott Nelson is joining Rooney Nimmo from Baker McKenzie where, as a global partner, he split his time between London and Johannesburg advising a roster of Africa-focused private equity funds and their sponsors on transactional and fundraising issues. Prior to that, he had headed the private equity practice at ENS Africa. He'll be based in Rooney Nimmo's Edinburgh office.

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 markets. Mr. Cunningham holds a Bachelors degree from Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.

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