Last week in brief...We start this week's issue with news of an Egyptian private equity deal. Ezdehar Management announced yesterday that it's acquiring a share of one of the country's larger logistics and auto services businesses. The Cairo-based private equity firm is taking a 30% stake in Family Group, a company founded in the 1980s which over the years has pulled together a fully integrated transport logistics company from 5 separate businesses.
Family Group plans to use the fresh capital to make significant investments in its technology and make improvements to its network of maintenance centers. It aims to increase the size of its fleet to over 2,000 technology-enabled vehicles and start offering third party fleet maintenance services by the end of next year.
A double-digit return for investors in African Capital Alliance's real estate fund. The private equity firm announced that it has successfully sold its stake in Cornerstone Tower, an A-Grade office building in Lagos, to Everty, a global real estate development firm. Construction work on the 13-storey building which is located in Victoria Island began in 2015 and was completed in April this year.
Silvertree Holdings has made its first foray into a consumer sector investment backing SKOON., a South African skincare business, with growth capital. The company produces and sells skincare products made of natural, non-toxic ingredients via its website as well as through several well-known retail outlets. While it's not clear how much capital Silvertree is putting to work in the deal, we've been told that the private equity investor is now the SKOON.s' largest stakeholder, owning a significant minority stake in the firm.
Ethiopian private equity firm Cepheus Growth Capital is $10 million closer to its $100 million goal for its first fund. Cepheus Capital Growth Fund has landed an additional commitment from the Soros Economic Development Fund for the planned SME fund which is now more than halfway to its final close goal. Its other commitments have come from a mix of development finance institutions, family offices, and high net worth individuals.
Another private equity investor with another first-time private equity investment vehicle. Aruwa Capital Management launched a permanent capital co-investment vehicle last week, which, once closed, will have $20 million to invest in SMEs in Nigeria and Ghana. The private equity firm, which was founded and is led exclusively by women, has already raised some of the capital from West African and international family offices and high net worths and continues on the fundraising trail for the moment. They anticipate closing the raise within the next 6 months.
And finally, Helios Towers listed on the London Stock Exchange last week. The offering raised almost $365 million at a valuation of $1.15 billion which will be used to expand the company's services in both current and new markets. A few of the company's existing shareholders used the IPO to sell down part of their holdings.
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.
cloud technology
ONEtoONE Asset Management ha realizado su quinta inversión fuera de n...
