Last week in brief...Phatisa came out with news on the second investment for its second food fund last week. The South African private equity firm is leading a group of investors acquiring a majority stake in Farming and Engineering Services or FES, a Malawi-based business founded more than 50 years ago. As is common, the terms of the deal were not disclosed, although we were told that the fund has now deployed some 40% of its committed capital.
One of the larger funds of the year held its final close last week. Mediterrania Capital Partners wrapped up the fundraising for its third fund and ending up with €286 million in total commitments from over 30 LPs from across the whole spectrum of investor profiles backing Africa-focused private equity funds. The fund's original final close target was €250 million so the end result was a 14% higher.
Reservoir Capital, a Canada-based clean energy investment platform, announced that it had completed a deal to acquire Olocorp Nigeria in a stock swap deal. The transaction values Olocorp at about $6.65 million and lifts Reservoir's net operating capacity from 42.7MW to 46.3MW.
South Africa's Competition Commission has given the go-ahead to a potential retail sector acquisition by Old Mutual Private Equity. The deal, should it go ahead, would see the private equity unit buy The Crick Group, leveraging the synergies between the business and Old Mutual PE’s existing South African retail assets - Footgear, Edgars Active and the High Key store chain - which Old Mutual acquired last year.
In venture capital news, Sinequanon, a behavioral analytics firm with operations in South Africa, is on the hunt for $25 million for its Series B round. The Zurich-headquartered firm plans to raise the capital over the next 12 months which the firm will invest in developing its suite of digital products for the human resources market.
Savannah's latest venture fund looks to be in line for a commitment from the IFC. Under the direction of Mbwana Alliy and Paul Bragiel, the planned $25 million Savannah Fund II will source deal opportunities in early-stage technology companies in eastern and southern Africa.
And finally, a couple of interesting people moves to report on. Africa Finance Corporation has a new Chairman along with some new directors for its board. Kingsley Obiora takes over as Chairman of the Board from Joseph Nnanna who is retiring after three years at the helm. In addition, Anastasia Proxenos, Batchi Baldeh, and Henry Oroh are all joining the board in a non-executive capacity, bringing their extensive collective experience to bear on AFC’s strategies.
CDC has tapped a former Goldman Sachs executive as its new Chief Risk Officer. Jonathan Hughes brings extensive operational risk experience gleaned from an extensive career, twenty-two years of which he spent at Goldman Sachs, ending up as deputy global head of the financial services group’s operational risk function.
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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