Last week in brief...One of the larger deals of the year came to light last week, courtesy of government privatization. Emerging Capital Partners has teamed up with Axian Group, a Madagascar based conglomerate to acquire a majority stake in Togocom, the state-owned telecommunications company in Togo. The deal marks the final phase of Togocom's privatization process which began late last year.

While the precise terms of the deal were not disclosed, the enterprise value ascribed to the transaction suggests the deal's US dollar worth is in the low 9-figures range. As well as the initial investment, Agou Holding, the vehicle set up by the consortium to make the investment, plans to inject about $271 million into the company over the next 7 years.

The MENA region saw both deal and fundraising activities last week. Ezdehar Management sold part of its stake in AluNile to Ekuity Holdings, one of Kuwait Investment Authority's investment holding companies. Ezdehar originally backed AluNile through the fund manager's Egypt Mid-Cap Fund in March 2017, acquiring 100% of the company alongside Ahmed Guindy, its current chief executive.

In MENA-related fundraising news, Modus Capital is opening up its maiden MENA venture fund to outside investors. The hybrid venture capital investor is looking to raise a total of $75 million to invest in early and growth-stage companies across the Middle East and North Africa. To date, the fund, which has already made 8 deals since it began operations a year ago, has been capitalized by private anchor investors.

The European Investment Bank signed off on an investment in a new fund being sponsored by Amethis. The development finance institution has agreed to commit €20 million (or about $22.3 million) to Amethis MENA Fund II which will back private equity opportunities in the MENA region. EIB has previously supported Amethis's earlier funds.

A second Amethis-managed fund benefited from a DFI commitment last week. The Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets or SIFEM is investing €7 million in the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation fund, a pan-African venture fund that landed a commitment from FMO last week.

Private equity deal news centered on South Africa last week. Phatisa's offer to buy the outstanding shares of Rolfes Holdings has been recommended to shareholders by the JSE-listed company's board. Once it completes, the deal will be transacted via Phatisa's Packaging Solutions Africa, a special purpose vehicle backed by the private equity firm's $400 million Phatisa Food Fund II. One of the conditions of the deal is that that the company should be delisted once the deal completes.

EXEO Capital is selling HIK Abalone Farm, one of South Africa's most established abalone farming companies to Africa Pioneer Group, a black-owned investment company. It's the fifth exit for Agri-Vie Fund I which first backed HIK Abalone eight years ago. According to EXEO Capital partner Izak Strauss, the sale has earned the fund "...an excellent return, that is in line with expectations for private equity investments."

Finally, a high profile upcoming job change for you. Having spent almost 20 years building up Goldman Sach's franchise in South Africa and the broader sub-Saharan region, Colin Coleman is retiring at the end of the year. In January he joins Yale University as a Senior Fellow and Lecturer at the university's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

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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