Paris-headquartered private equity firm Amethis leads the deal parade this week with its acquisition of a minority stake in VLH, a resort and leisure business in Mauritius. The business has been operating for 40 years and has built up a portfolio of seven hotels, serving over 50,000 guests annually through both its upscale and mid-range leisure brands, Heritage Resorts and Veranda Resorts. How much Amethis is paying for the minority stake is not being disclosed, but VLH will put the fresh capital to work supporting its additional development plans for the Bel Ombre region of the Indian Ocean island.
The biggest fundraising close of the week comes to us courtesy of Inspired Evolution. The specialist renewable energy investor has closed the fund with commitments totaling $216 million which, while being more than double the size of its $90 million predecessor, falls short of its original final close goal of $250 million. The fund will make equity and equity-related investments in clean and sustainable development and project finance infrastructure opportunities as well as growth equity investments in energy and resource efficiency businesses.
Adenia Partners' planned deal to acquire Kenyan supermarket chain Quick Mart has been given the green light by the country's competition authority. The transaction, which will be effected through Sokoni Retail Kenya, a special purpose vehicle set up by Adenia in August last year, is the second Kenyan supermarket chain to be backed by the Sokoni platform following the acquisition of a controlling stake in Tumaini Self Service last December. The plan is to merge the two companies and operate the combined firm under the Quick Mart brand.
Apis Partners has gone ahead and bought a majority stake in Tutuka Software, a payments software company. South Africa's Competition Commission approved the deal in June. A representative declined to disclose the precise of the stake or the amount invested by the private equity firm. The deal is the first investment for Apis's second fund, a planned $400 million fund which targets equity and quasi-equity investment opportunities in Asia and Africa’s financial sector.
ENGIE, a French utility, has acquired Mobisol, a provider of off-grid solar systems in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania which filed for preliminary insolvency proceedings under self-administration in its home country of Germany earlier this year. The price paid by the listed acquirer has, as yet, not been disclosed.
Mobisol had attracted capital investment from several high-profile investors in the past, raising between $80 million and $90 million of debt and equity capital since its founding in 2011. To what extent their investments were negatively impacted has not been disclosed.
A trio of European DFIs are investing in Maarifa Education, a private tertiary education holding company backed by Africa-focused private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners. The capital from IFU, Finnfund, and Proparco will be used to improve the quality of programs and student services at the universities Maarifa operates currently, as well as support its plans to acquire and add additional academic institutions to its platform.
Accion Venture Lab is expanding the amount of capital it has available for fintech investments significantly. Its original sponsor, Accion, is committing an additional $10 million to the seed-stage investment initiative which is also setting up a $23 million co-investment fund with a number of third party impact and institutional investors. When combined with the $10 million invested by Accion when Accion Venture Lab was set up, the fintech investor now has $43 million under management.
Staying with the fintech sector, Duet Private Equity and EMEA Capital are joining forces to back Moneybaba, an online lender to emerging markets consumers. The company plans to use part of the fresh capital to launch its services in new countries, especially in Africa. The investment is part of a wider institutional round, the details of which the firm says it will reveal in the near future.
There were two private debt deals this week. TLG Capital and Medical Credit Fund are investing debt in Express Pharmacy, a Nigerian pharmacy retail chain. The financing is the first stage in a plan to scale the business significantly.
And PEG Africa has raised debt financing from a European Union-led impact investment facility. The deal sees ElectriFi invest subordinated junior debt in the solar home distributor which the business will use to support its growth plans within its existing markets of operation.
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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