This article is published in association with Africa Private Equity News, a one-stop source for industry-related information. Stay up to date by downloading the free Africa Private Equity News app: Android | iOS | Scan QR code from desktop. Subscribe to the monthly newsletter here.

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A selection of private equity deal, fundraising and exit announcements that came across our desk in November 2019.

Deals

The Rise Fund, a global impact investment fund managed by TPG, invested in Pearl Dairy, the largest dairy processor in Uganda, with installed processing capacity of 800,000 litres of raw milk per day.

Cepheus Growth Capital Partners acquired a shareholding in Tabor Ceramics, Ethiopia’s leading domestic producer of ceramic products. With this investment, Cepheus Capital will hold a significant minority ownership stake and provide strategic, managerial, and operational support to the company.

South Africa’s Ethos Private Equity, together with Ethos Capital, the independent listed entity and investor in Ethos Private Equity funds, last month announced a strategic equity partnership with Brait SE. Brait is an investment holding company with interests in Virgin Active, Premier, Iceland and New Look.

Mediterrania Capital Partners, the private equity firm focused on growth investments in SMEs and mid-cap companies in North and sub-Saharan Africa, took a stake in Akdital Holding, which operates five clinics in Greater Casablanca, Morocco.

Nigerian edtech learning platform uLesson closed a $3.1 million seed-level round led by TLcom Capital with participation by Sim Shagaya, the founder, to address infrastructure and learning gaps in Africa’s education sector. Targeting secondary school learners across the West African region, uLesson will launch officially in February 2020, having been in development and beta testing for 12 months. The seed round allows the team to take the product to market in West Africa, before looking to develop educational content and a product for the East African market.

Zoscales Partners’ maiden fund, Zoscales Fund I, invested in Ahadukes Food Products, a producer of mainstream and premium biscuits for the Ethiopian domestic and export markets. The demand-supply gap is continuously growing in Ethiopia as a result of a rapidly growing young population. Ahadukes was founded in Ethiopia by Ahadu PLC, a local company with interests across several industries. In 2013, Vasari Global, a UK based investment group, joined Ahadukes.

Fundraising

Germany’s KfW Development Bank, together with Allianz Global Investors, has set up a fund of funds that will provide financial resources for African private equity and venture capital funds. The aim of the fund, known as the AfricaGrow Fund, is to finance 150 innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups in reform-oriented African countries through local funds by 2030 in order to promote sustainable economic and social development.

Development finance institution FinDev Canada has announced an investment of $7.5 million in the Africa Forestry Fund II, a growth equity fund focused on acquiring and developing environmentally-friendly forestry value chain assets across sub-Saharan Africa.

IFC and IFHA-II Coöperatief U.A., a private equity fund focused on healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa, launched a $115 million holding company to acquire and integrate targeted healthcare service businesses in East and Southern Africa.

The European Investment Bank approved a €20 million investment in the Amethis Mena Fund II, a closed-end private equity fund targeting investments in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and midcaps active in the Middle East and North Africa.

Dutch development financier FMO is evaluating a $35 million investment in AfricInvest Fund IV, managed by private equity firm AfricInvest. The fund has a target size of $500 million. AfricInvest aims to make growth-capital investments in mid-cap African companies that are well positioned in their local markets and are poised to scale up operations as they expand outside their borders to become regional champions.

Exits

Private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners signed an agreement to partially sell its shares in Oragroup to the Social Welfare Institute – General State Pension Fund (IPS-CGRAE) of Côte d’Ivoire, which would become the main shareholder of the pan-African banking group with 61.45% of the capital. The agreement also includes several institutional shareholders of Oragroup (Proparco, DEG, BIO and BOAD) with a partial sale of their shares.

Vantage Capital, Africa’s largest independent mezzanine fund, announced this week that it successfully exited its $18.5 million mezzanine investment in Genser Energy, a management-owned, independent power producer. Genser provides distributed power generation solutions in Ghana to multinational industrial and mining companies.

Agri-Vie Fund I, the Africa food and agribusiness investment fund managed by private equity firm EXEO Capital, announced its exit from South African abalone farming company, HIK Abalone Farm, concluding a partnership which has significantly expanded the business over eight years. The Agri-Vie interest was sold to African Pioneer Group, an investment company with other interests in the fishing sector.

Private equity fund manager Ezdehar, through its Ezdehar Egypt Mid-Cap Fund, sold a 30% stake in Nile Aluminum and Metals Company (AluNile) to Ekuity Holding, an investment holding company wholly owned by the Kuwait Investment Authority. AluNile is a designer, fabricator and installer of architectural aluminium and glass systems catering to residential, commercial, and large-scale development projects.

This article is published in association with Africa Private Equity News, a one-stop source for industry-related information. Stay up to date by downloading the free Africa Private Equity News app: Android | iOS | Scan QR code from desktop. Subscribe to the monthly newsletter here.