The
weekly roundup of Africa's Private Capital news
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Here's the latest weekly wrap of the most interesting Africa-related private equity, infrastructure and venture capital deal stories, market opinion articles and information pieces.
Thanks you being a reader and we look forward to continuing to keep you informed on the private capital investment themes, deals and fundraisings in Africa.
We'd be delighted if you shared it with any interested colleagues and/or partners. If they would like to receive their own weekly copy, they're more than welcome to sign up here.
As always, if you have any tips, suggestions or questions, please reach out to Allan Cunningham at
[email protected]
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This week's issue supported by...
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The consumer opportunity dominated deal news in the private equity and venture capital space in Africa last week. In what was otherwise a relatively quiet week for deal activity, there were a couple of interesting transactions and the passage of an important piece of U.S. legislation that will, in all probability, boost private capital investment activity on the continent.
On the deal front,
Amadeus Capital Partners
made its first direct foray into Africa when it led a $40 million investment in Travelstart, a South African online travel agency. The company, which had revenues of $200 million in 2015, has a 75% share of South Africa's market and has already established itself in a number of other countries having grown rapidly in response to strong consumer demand for travel from the continent's expanding middle class. The deal is one of South Africa's largest venture investments of the past 5 years. Travelstart provides travelers with real-time access to thousands of flights from all carriers and serves 2 million monthly users.
Satya Capital, meanwhile, through S2 Africa, its joint venture investment vehicle with Portugal's largest supermarket retailer
Sonae Distribuição, is reportedly acquiring the Extra supermarket chain from ADC, a joint venture between Mozambican food retailers Africom Limitada and Delta Trading. The report, by Zitamar News, stated that the deal has been announced internally to ADC's staff, ahead of a handover to S2 Africa late last week.
In venture capital investment news,
Total Energy Ventures, the $150 million corporate venture capital arm of French energy giant Total, has secured stakes in Off-Grid and Powerhive, two US-headquartered solar power startups with significant operations in Africa. Both provide African consumers with access to affordable, renewable solar power.
Terms of neither deal were disclosed, but Reuters reports a spokesperson as saying that each deal "would typically be worth between $1 million and $5 million" and involved no more than 15% of either company.
Continuing with the power theme, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Electrify Africa Act last week, sending the bill to the White House for signature.
The bill requires the U.S. Government to create a multi-year strategy to encourage the efforts of countries in sub-Saharan Africa to implement national power strategies and develop an appropriate mix of power solutions to provide access to sufficient reliable, affordable and sustainable power. Now that a framework for Public-Private Partnerships has been established, the volumes of private capital targeted at this opportunity should expand.
The largest fundraising news for the week came from XSML Capital, the Dutch private equity firm that invests in the central african region. They announced the first close for African Rivers Fund, their second fund, at $45 million, having attracted commitments from all three of the investors in their first fund as well as a raft of new investors. These included
the Belgium Investment Company for Developing Countries, the Dutch Good Growth Fund and FISEA, the investment fund held by Agence Française Développment. The International Finance Corporation, the Lundin Foundation and Dutch development bank FMO are the aforementioned repeat backers of XSML.
AfricInvest and Siparex, the French private equity fund manager, are to manage a new private equity fund set up by French public investment bank Bpifrance and Tunisia's Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations. Fonds du Co-Localisation Franco-Tunisien, a cross-border midcap fund dedicated to growth transactions in both countries, held a first close at €20 million last week after each of the public institutional investor committed €10 million to the fund.
And finally,
Vox Telecom, the South African telecoms operator, has concluded a deal that gives it a majority stake in Everlytic, the Vumela-backed enterprise marketing cloud company. The Vumela Fund, which is managed by Edge Growth and FNB will retain the minority stake it acquired in 2013. While no seller or valuation data was provided, the company has been on a significant growth trajectory, growing over 600% in the past 5 years and heading the leaderboard of Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 Africa awards in 2014.
To read more on these and other stories from the last week, please scroll down for the abstracts and links.
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Online travel agency Travelstart lands $40 million in deal lead by Amadeus Capital
Image Credit: Reuters/Thomas Mukoya
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Private Equity
Amadeus Capital backs Travelstart in $40m deal
In its first direct investment foray into Africa, Amadeus Capital Partners, is leading a $40 million growth investment round in Travelstart, an online travel agency. The investment is being made through the London-based technology investor's Amadeus IV Digital Prosperity Fund. As part of the deal, Andrea Traversone, a partner with Amadeus, will take up a board set on Travelstart's board.
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Private Equity
Satya Capital takes stake in Mozambique supermarkets
S2 Africa, a retail-focused buyout vehicle established by London-based private equity fund Satya Capital and Portugal's largest supermarket retailer, Sonae Distribuição, is reportedly acquiring the Extra supermarket chain from Africom Delta Corporation or ADC, a joint venture between Mozambican food retailers Africom Limitada and Delta Trading. The report, by Zitamar News, stated that the deal has been announced internally to ADC's staff, ahead of a handover to S2 Africa late last week. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
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Private Equity
Amwal AlKhaleej exits Sarwa Capital
Saudi Arabian private equity fund, Amwal AlKhaleej, has sold its stake in Egyptian consumer finance company, Sarwa Capital, the parent company of Contact Auto Trading, to U.S. Government-backed investment fund, the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund in an undisclosed deal. Amwal originally acquired a 56.7% stake in Contact Auto Trading through its second fund in 2008, prior to the company becoming a subsidiary of Sarwa Capital,
Egypt's largest private sector entity engaged in consumer finance.
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Venture Capital
Total Energy Ventures secures stakes in solar startups
Total Energy Ventures, the $150 million corporate venture capital arm of French energy giant Total, has secured stakes in in Off-Grid and Powerhive, two US-headquartered solar power startups with significant operations in Africa. Terms of neither deal were disclosed, but Reuters reports a spokesperson as saying that each deal "would typically be worth between $1 million and $5 million" and involved no more than 15% of either company.
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Funds & Fundraising News...
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XSML's ARF holds first close at $45mln
XSML, the Amsterdam-headquartered private equity fund manager, has held the first close for its African River Fund at $45 million, attracting commitments from a number of development finance institutions including all three investors in the fund manager's $19 million maiden fund, the Central Africa SME fund. African Rivers Fund, which has a hard cap of $65 million, will target debt, equity and mezzanine finance to rapidly growing SMEs in Central Africa in deals ranging from $100,000 to $5 million in size.
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AfricInvest and Siparex to manage new €20mln fund
French public investment bank Bpifrance and Tunisia's Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) are backing a new private equity fund, Fonds du Co-Localisation Franco-Tunisien, a cross-border midcap fund dedicated to growth transactions in both countries. AfricInvest and Siparex, the French private equity fund manager, will manage the fund, which announced last week that it has held a first close at €20 million. Each public institutional investor committed €10 million to the fund.
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Projects & Portfolio Companies...
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Everlytic gains new majority shareholder
Vox Telecom, the South African telecoms operator, has concluded a deal that gives it a majority stake in Everlytic, the Vumela-backed enterprise marketing cloud company. The Vumela Fund, which is managed by Edge Growth and FNB will retain the minority stake it acquired in 2013. While no seller or valuation data was provided, the company has been on a significant growth trajectory, growing over 600% in the past 5 years and heading the leader board of Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 Africa awards in 2014.
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Policy, Regulation & Compliance...
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Policy
Congress passes Electrify Africa Act
After almost two years of attempts to shepherd the Electrify Africa Act through the U.S. Congress, last week saw the U.S. House of Representatives pass the legislation and send it over to the White House for President Obama's signature. The bill, which provides a crucial underpinning for the President's Power Africa initiative, establishes the framework for a Public-Private Partnership between the United States and the countries of sub-Saharan Africa to help give millions of people reliable, affordable access to electricity.
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Ownership thresholds for Zim's foreign investors raised
In a bid to spur foreign investment activity in its publicly-listed companies, Zimbabwe's Central Bank announced that it is raising the upper limit of ownership from 40% to 49% for non-domestic investors. The country continues to struggle to attract investment, beset by political uncertainty, a sluggish economy estimated by the World Bank to grow by 1.5% in 2016 and a deflationary consumer pricing environment.
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Chief Investment Officer at Audaces Impact
Based in London, UK
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Director, African Investments at LeapFrog Investments
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa
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Senior Associates/Associates for Quantum Investments
Based in Port Louis, Mauritius
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Senior Private Equity Dealmaker at Investment Bank
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa
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Senior Private Equity Manager at fund
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa
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Associate for South African Private Equity firm
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa
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Investment Manager, Timber & Forestry at QG Investments
Based in Port Louis, Mauritius
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Private Equity Compliance and Governance Officer
Based in Port Louis, Mauritius
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VP, Business Development for Silvertree Capital startup
Based in Cape Town, South Africa
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Senior Project & infrastructure Finance Officer at PTA Bank
Based in Nairobi, Kenya
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Senior or Principal Counsel at IFC
Based in Washington, DC, USA
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Associate Investment Officer at IFC
Based in Conakry, Guinea
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Senior Analyst at Open Capital Advisors
Based in Nairobi, Kenya
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Johannesburg, February 17th to February 19th, 2016
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Investing in African Mining Indaba
Cape Town, February 8th to February 11th, 2016
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Egypt Energy Investment Summit
Cairo, February 16th to February 18th, 2016
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SAVCA's Private Equity in Southern Africa
Stellenbosch, February 17th to February 18th, 2016
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Africa's Investment Prospects - The 2016 Annual Debate
London, April 20th, 2016
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13th Annual AVCA Conference
Addis Ababa, April 25th to April 27th, 2016
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Southern Africa Energy & Infrastructure Summit
Maputo, May 4th to May 6th, 2016
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Africa Financial Services Investment Conference 2016
London, May 5th to May 6th, 2016
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18th Annual Africa Energy Forum
London, June 21st to June 24th, 2016
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We hope you found the digest to be a useful summary of the major happenings in Africa's private capital markets last week. We'd love it if you shared it with colleagues and business partners. They can sign up for free
here.
Best wishes for a productive week - if you have any tips, suggestions, questions or comments, please get in touch.
All the best,
- Allan
Allan Cunningham
Editor & Publisher
AfCD | Africa Capital Digest
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