Last week in brief...It's been a while since we last saw some of the firms who made news last week do a deal. So, while the volume and value of activity may not have been as heavy or as high as the week before, the participants more than made up for it.
LeapFrog Investments made their first Africa-related deal in a while. The "profit with a purpose" investor is backing the Pyramid Group, a distributor of specialist medical products and equipment in several countries on the continent. By some estimates, Africa's pharmaceutical market is set to reach $62 billion by 2024, while its medical devices market is expected to hit $7 billion over the next few years. Pyramid aims to double the number of its customers on the back of these trends.
North of the Sahara, BPE Partners announced it's taking a majority stake in the Gourmet Group, an Egyptian food manufacturer and retailer. The deal is actually being transacted by B Investments, the publicly-managed investment platform managed by Cairo-based BPE Partners. Immediate plans for the capital include expanding the firm's production capacity.
In the venture world, L'Oréal is making a commitment to Partech Africa. The investment is the latest in a series of commitments to venture capital funds by the French beauty giant, part of it initative to build relationships with the start-ups and entrepreneurs active in developing products and building companies that facilitate access to consumers in remote areas or informal environments.
In other fundraising news, Investisseurs & Partenaires have held the final close for their second impact fund-of-funds. Commitments totaling €21 million or $24.4 million have come from a diverse mix of about 20 investors ranging from large institutional investors and development finance institutions to philanthropic foundations and private individuals. Since it's launch three years ago, IPDEV 2 has launched five new funds, and has plans for another five in the next few years.
Helios-backed Vivo Energy has restructured and completed its cash and share deal to take a stake in Engen International which was announced late last year. The restructure allows the original deal to proceed in respect to eight of the nine markets originally encompassed by the planned transaction. Engen's assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo are no longer part of the investment, which means that Vivo now adds 225 rather than 300 new locations to their retail service service station network.
A couple of fund-related items also caught out eye last week. Sources tell Reuters that Actis has been picked to take over the management of Abraaj's Africa-focused funds. We'll have to wait for confirmation before laying out the new lay of the land.
And TPG is reportedly about to set off on the fundraising trail for its second social impact fund. Their $2 billion Rise fund is reportedly about 75% invested and investor demand for a second fund has been strong.
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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