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 deal, fundraising and exit announcements that came across our desk in May 2019.

DEALS

DekelOil, the West African focused agricultural company, has announced its investee company, Pearlside Holdings, has successfully completed an equity investment with Concordia Corporation, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm. The equity proceeds will be used by Pearlside’s wholly owned subsidiary Capro CI SA to assist with the development of a large-scale raw cashew nut processing project in Côte d’Ivoire.

South African health and wellness group Ascendis Health is to sell the Efekto, Marltons and Afrikelp businesses within Ascendis Biosciences in a management buy-out led by RMB Ventures and Nedbank Private Equity for R480 million ($33 million). The sale forms part of Ascendis Health’s divestment of non-core assets and businesses announced in September 2018.

The Rise Fund, a global impact investment fund managed by TPG Growth, has announced its investment in Zipline, a drone delivery company active in Rwanda and Ghana. Zipline is a provider of next-generation, precision drone delivery for healthcare services, which is combined with cold-chain inventory management and software-driven automation of the delivery process.

DOB Equity, a Dutch family-backed impact investor in East Africa, has invested in Jibu Tanzania, a producer and distributor of clean drinking water, to support the company’s rapid growth of a replicable franchise store concept in major cities in the country, starting from Arusha.

Fund manager XSML, through its African Rivers Fund, has increased its investment in SOS Médecins de Nuit (MDN), a healthcare clinic based in Kinshasa, DRC. In 2011, MDN was one of XSML’s first investee companies in DRC and has grown tenfold over the last seven years, having built a new clinic, and adding two more locations, while extending its offering from emergency healthcare to a full-fledged range of services and procedures, including maternity, an operating theatre and intensive care unit and state of the art laboratory and imaging equipment.

Investec Asset Management portfolio company wiGroup, a leader in mobile-transacting software, has completed a follow-on growth equity round. All of wiGroup’s institutional investors – Crossfin, Virgin Money, Smollan, and Investec Asset Management – have committed additional capital to the round. Investec Asset Management remains the largest shareholder in the company.

FUNDRAISING

Helios Investment Partners is targeting $1.25 billion in third-party commitments for its Helios Investors IV, L.P. fund, a Cayman Islands exempted limited partnership. The fund’s investment strategy is to make mid-to-large cap growth equity investments for significant minority and control positions in market-leading, diversified platform companies in Africa.

LeapFrog Investments’ third fund has surged past its $600 million target to reach $700 million. The fund invests in healthcare and financial services companies, tapping into the demand from billions of emerging consumers in Asia and Africa. This fund alone targets reaching 70 million emerging consumers.

The IFC has indicated it is considering an equity investment of $10 million in CardinalStone Capital Advisers Growth Fund. The fund will invest in SMEs in Nigeria and Ghana across sectors such as consumer goods, healthcare, education, financial services, industrials and agribusiness. The fund is seeking to raise $100 million in capital commitments. The sponsor is CardinalStone Capital GP Limited, led by Yomi Jemibewon and Femi Ogunjimi.

The IFC is furthermore mulling to commit up to $12 million in Accion Quona Inclusion Fund, a private equity fund that seeks to make equity or equity-equivalent investments in early- and growth-stage companies that develop or provide products, services or technology to expand financial inclusion in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The fund will be managed by Quona Capital Management Ltd.

Generation Investment Management LLP closed its $1 billion Generation IM Sustainable Solutions Fund III. Past African-focused investments in Generation’s portfolio include off-grid solar company M-Kopa and Andela, the engineering-as-a-service business enabling fast-growing global enterprises to access Africa’s top software engineering talent.

EXITS

Development Partners International (DPI), a pan-African private equity firm, has announced the sale of its funds’ total holdings in Eaton Towers Holdings to American Tower Corporation. Eaton Towers owns and operates over 5,500 telecoms towers across five African markets. The sale will give Eaton Towers an enterprise valuation of approximately $1.85 billion, subject to customary closing adjustments. The other institutional shareholders, Capital Group, Ethos Private Equity of South Africa and Standard Chartered Private Equity, are all fully divesting their stakes.

RENEW’s Impact Angel Network (IAN), one of the most active equity investors in Ethiopia with an expanding presence in East Africa, has successfully exited two investments to a regional private equity fund and a family office. RENEW is an impact investment firm that manages and serves the IAN, a global network of investors who seek to make both social impact and financial returns on their investments in Africa. RENEW and the IAN provided two rounds of angel financing to support the launch of an Ethiopian production company that exports to international markets. With the recent buyout of these positions, these investments realised gross internal rates of return (IRR) of 26.70% and 17.58%, respectively.

Verod has completed a full exit of its ownership of Rotoprint Limited, a flexible packaging company based in Nigeria. Rotoprint was the last company held in Verod’s pioneer portfolio. With this exit, the portfolio of eight investments has delivered a gross dollar MOIC of 4.0x and IRR of 50.8% to its investors.

Mediterrania Capital Partners has sold a significant stake in Cash Plus, the largest independent money transfer company in Morocco, to Groupe Richbond, a Moroccan industrial and property conglomerate. In 2014 Mediterrania entered Cash Plus’s equity by acquiring a 49% stake.

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.