Last week in brief... Deals and fundraising for mezzanine funds seemed to be the flavour of the week, last week. But we'll get to those in a second. The biggest transaction of the week was a private equity infrastructure deal pulled off by African Infrastructure Investment Management on behalf of their third fund.
AIIM has agreed to buy the 50% stake in West and Central Africa airport concession operator Société d’Exploitation et de Gestion Aéroportuaires or SEGAP owned by the city of Marseille's Chamber of Commerce and Industry. SEGAP holds interests in three concession companies which operate five airports in Cote D’Ivoire, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo, handling over 4 million passengers between them annually.
It's expected that AIIM will complement the operational and technical expertise provided by Egis Group, the owner of the other 50% of SEGAP and an experienced airport operator with a long track record in Francophone Africa, by contributing additional strategic support to the business and providing access to capital for further expansion. This will allow SEGAP to capitalize on growth opportunities as the African aviation sector matures and opens up for private sector investment in airport infrastructure.
Back to the Mezzanine funds. In fundraising news, Obviam is making a commitment to Ethos Mezzanine Partners 3, a $150 million generalist fund which launched in February last year. The Swiss development finance institution is investing $10 million to the fund, which will back mezzanine and quasi-equity growth, acquisition and replacement financing opportunities in companies in southern and sub-Saharan Africa.
On the mezzanine investment front, Vantage Capital is making its first investment in Mauritius by backing a mixed-use, residentially focused real estate development on the island’s west coast. Vantage is providing $10 million for the development of Cap Tamarin, a “Smart & Happy” Village which is being promoted by Trimetys who have been developing projects in Mauritius since 1998.
The investment is Vantage Capital’s eighth transaction for its 280 million mezzanine Fund III which has a 55% allocation to countries outside South Africa.
Heading North to Kenya, Taaleri is making its fourth investment in projects sourced and developed by Cytonn Investments. The Finnish wealth management firm is providing KShs 2.1 billion or approximately $20.8 million in mezzanine funding to Cytonn via its second Africa private equity real estate fund. The capital will be used to to finance Cytonn's active and planned Kenyan developments. The deal brings the total amount invested by Taaleri in Cytonn over the past 4 years to about $50 million.
Alta Semper Capital has announced its third African healthcare deal, this time in Morocco. The London-based private equity firm is investing an undisclosed amount of capital in Oncologie et Diagnostic du Maroc or ODM, a specialist healthcare platform n=based in Morocco. The infusion of fresh capital will be used to support the continued growth of the firm both in Morocco as well as in a few select geographies in North and Sub-Saharan Africa. The firm’s strategy involves making bolt-on acquisitions to create a network of best-in-class treatment centres.
Apis Partners and Crossfin Technology Holdings are reportedly partnering together on a new payments venture, Crossfin Apis Transaction Solutions. Both entities will provide significant support to the new platform, with Apis investing an undisclosed amount of capital on behalf of its first fund, the $287 million Apis Growth Fund I, while Crossfin is committing its stakes in two payments companies to form the core of the new venture.
Apis and Crossfin's goal is to build a transformative payments company for sub-Saharan Africa. As well as leveraging capital and connections to develop the platform’s product and service offering further, the new venture will also look to expand via acquisitions where appropriate.
That's it for this week. As always, you can review these and other stories by clicking through to this week's 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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