Last week in brief...We lead with the news that The Carlyle Group's Africa-focused senior executive team is leaving to set up a new, independent buyout firm. Alterra Partners, as the new firm is called, is being launched by Eric Kump, Carlyle's former Africa head, Genevieve Sangudi, who heads the firm's South African office, Idris Mohammed, who leads the firm's Nigerian office and Bruce Steen, a senior investment executive based in South Africa who's been at Carlyle for the past nine years. While Carlyle will hold no ownership interest in Alterra, it will still provide the nascent firm with deal referrals, advice and take part in co-investment opportunities. As part of the arrangement, Alterra assumes the management of Carlyle's $698 million Sub-Saharan Africa Fund as a sub-advisor.

Obviam announced the launch of a new impact investment fund, anchored with a commitment from Fondation Botnar, one of Switzerland's largest foundations. The fund, Obviam Impact Investing ICAV, will source sustainable investment opportunities in developing and emerging markets small and medium-sized enterprises and fast-growing local businesses that will be found using Obviam's trusted network of local partners in each geography.

The Public Investment Corporation, manager of South Africa's Government Employees Pension Fund, has made an investment in a Moroccan real estate platform. The fund manager is acquiring a 13% stake in Aradei Capital in a mix of fresh equity and through the acquisition of a block of shares owned by the EBRD. For the most part, the portfolio is concentrated in several retail segments including malls, strip malls, and retail parks but the firm is actively looking to diversify into Morocco's industrial, office, and other commercial real estate sectors.

SPEAR Capital announced the second South African investment for its second fund, SPEAR Africa Holding II. The investor is backing online fashion retailer RunwaySale with R100 million or approximately $5.5 million. With this deal, almost half of SPEAR Africa Holding II's capital has been deployed and the fund does not expect to invest in any new deals in South Africa, reserving the balance of the fund instead for opportunities in the neighboring countries of Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

RMB Corvest is selling its stake in a business it first backed almost twenty years ago. The private equity investor is fully exiting its holding in Plush Professional Leathercare as part of the acquisition of the company by Adcock Ingram Healthcare, a pharmaceutical conglomerate listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. With no overlap with Adcock's current subsidiaries, the Plush deal represents an ideal investment opportunity for the healthcare firm to enter the home care products market where it can leverage its existing customer relationships.

Pearl Capital Partners has made its latest investment for the Yield Uganda Investment Fund, bringing the number of assets in the fund's portfolio to seven. The fund s investing approximately $1.2 million in NASECO, a producer, processor, and distributor of seeds in Uganda and the broader East African region.

In the first of two venture capital deals we covered last week, CRE Venture Capitalhas led a seed round for Carry1st, a new gaming platform. The capital will be used to fund Carry1st's next stage of development. The firm aims to attract more unique content to its platform, both helping game developers cross the finish line and signing up strong games to exclusive deals.

Goodwell Investments has led a group of investors providing the first tranche of investment in Inclusivity Solutions' Series A round. Between them, the investors are providing $1.5 million to the firm which will use it to continue its expansion into more markets through partnerships with local insurance companies and distribution agreements with mobile operators, banks, and partners.

And finally this week, a couple of job changes were announced. The Public Investment Corporation has appointed the Principal Executive Officer of its largest client, the Government Employees Pension Fund, as its new CEO. Abel Sithole takes up his position once negotiations around his exit from the GEPF have been finalized.

Open Capital Advisors has announced the appointment of a former PwC Partner and one-time transaction lead in East Africa to be the firm's new Head of Capital Markets. Tibor Almássy started with the Africa-focused management consultancy and financial advisory firm last month, tasked with extending Open Capital's work in capital markets, helping more global clients engage with Africa's markets, and supporting African businesses and investors across a wide range of sectors.

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.

Subscribirse al Directorio
Escribir un Artículo

Destacadas

Axon moves into Cloud Technology

by Axon Partners Group

cloud technology

Indexa Capital Group aumenta sus ingreso...

by Indexa Capital

Indexa Capital Group, sociedad matriz de Indexa Capital AV, Bewater As...

Diapositiva de Fotos