Last week in brief...While it was quiet week generally, deal-wise, in Africa last week, we did see one of the largest private equity-related exits in a long while. At the tail end of the week it was announced that Vitol and Helios Investment Partners have raised £548 million or almost $742 million from the sale some of their interest via Vivo Energy's IPO on the London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges. It's anticipated that both companies are expected to retain their remaining partial interests in the company following the expiration of the 6-month lock-up period.
The offering values Vivo Energy at $2.7 billion, making it both the largest IPO listing in London so far this year and the largest UK-listed African IPO of the last thirteen years.
Vivo Energy is an operator of Shell-branded gas stations selling Shell’s fuels and lubricants which was formed in 2011 following the sale of assets to Vitol and Helios. By the end of this year, it's expected that Vivo Energy’s footprint in Africa will cover more than 2,100 service stations in 24 African markets.
Two financial services sector-related deals rounded out the private equity investment activity of the week. In the first of the two, CFG Bank, a Moroccan investment bank, is being backed by AfricInvest and Amethis Finance. The two private equity firms are acquiring a minority stake in the business for an undisclosed sum, having previously invested MAD300 million (or a little over $32 million at today's exchange rates) in the bank in 2016.
The fresh capital will be used to support CDG's next plans to digitalize its services while maintaining its high-touch service for its 5,000 customers through its branches. In addition, the bank will look to execute its plan to implement an innovative and disruptive commercial banking model structured around its multi-channel network of cashless branches, mobile and internet banking and smart ATMs.
The second of the two financial sector deals took place in South Africa. Stellar Capital Partners, a JSE-listed investment holding company primarily invested in unlisted assets announced that it has sold its subsidiary Cadiz Asset Management to Warwick. According to Stellar's CEO Peter van Zyl, the decision to sell Cadiz came following a strategic review of the future direction that the broader Stellar group is embarking on.
Proparco has announced it's making a follow-on investment in Enda Tamweel, a Tunisian microfinance institution, The French DFI loaned Enda Tamweel €8 million in local currency in 2016 and is now investing an additional €5.9 million (approximately $7 million) as part of a€24.3 million ($29 million) reserved capital increase being provided by a group of five international investors.
Swedfund, the Swedish DFI, is backing TLG Capital's Credit Opportunities Fund with $10 million. The fund, which was launched in early 2016, looks to invest debt in high quality small and medium-sized enterprises across sub-saharan Africa. Since then, the fund has invested in four businesses in the healthcare, retail, telecoms and fintech sectors, including MyBucks, successfully listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
In venture capital news, BasharSoft, an Egyptian software development firm, has raised its Series B round from a group of international investors. The company behind online recruitment platforms Wuzzuf and Forasnia has received a total of $6 million of capital from a group led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with participation from Vostok New Ventures, Endure Capital and Kingsway Capital.
BasharSoft plans to use the fresh capital to help the sites grow their operations in and out of Egypt as well as pursue research and development initiatives such as incorporating Artificial Intelligence am Machine Learning in connecting job hunters with available jobs.
Finally, Jean-Charles Douin has been promoted to the position of Managing Director, Private Capital for EMEA at the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. has been with Ontario Teachers' since 2008, when he joined the $189.5 billion pension plan's (then) new London office following a career in investment banking and private equity.
As always, you can review these and other stories by clicking through to this week’s preview issue of Africa Capital Digest.
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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