RMI and Nedbank's multimillion dollar Entersekt deal, Metier seals Astrapak exit, Adenia IV hits $257mln hardcap

June 12th, 2017

The weekly roundup of Africa's Private Capital news

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Here's the latest wrap of Africa's key private equity, infrastructure and venture capital news which were reported over the past 7 days. As always, we'd be delighted if you shared it with any interested colleagues and/or business partners. If they would like to receive their own weekly copy, they're more than welcome to sign up here.

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The Week in Brief...

There were a number of private equity transactions in Africa last week, but getting more precise information on the terms of the transactions proved somewhat difficult.

In what was being described as a "multimillion dollar deal", Rand Merchant Investment Holdings and Nedbank Private Equity have each taken undisclosed minority stakes in Entersekt, a financial technology company that has developed push-based authentication and app security technology.

The Stellenbosch-based company's patented solution creates a secure channel between enterprise and user that not even Entersekt themselves can intercept, with banking clients seeing up to a 99% reduction in mobile fraud losses since implementation.

In the second set of exit news in as many weeks, Metier's exit from Astrapak completed last week. Last week, we reported on the South Africa private equity firm's agreement to sell Inhep to Assa Abloy. Metier first backed Astrapak in 2008 and owned a 30% stake in the plastic products manufacturer which has been sold to RPC Group in a $106 million deal.

As part of the deal, three non-core assets of the business have been carved out and will be listed on the AltX of the JSE under the name of Master Plastics. Metier retains an undisclosed interest in this new entity.

AfricInvest is backing International Community School, a private school in Ghana, in a preferential share deal. The investment is the sixth for AfricInvest's third private equity fund, which is now 50% deployed. The capital will be used to upgrade the school's facilities and help support its expansion plans within Ghana as well as the broader West African region. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In a private debt deal, the IFC and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) are behind a $55 million financing package for the development of a 40.5 MW solar photovoltaic plant near Mocuba in Northern Mozambique. Of the $55 million, $19 million is being provided from the IFC's own account, $19 million being provided by Climate Investment Funds and up to $17 million being provided by EAIF.

Adenia Partners has held the final close for its fourth fund, hitting its hard cap of 230 million euros or $257 million in an oversubscribed fund raise. The fund, which was launched in November 2015, held a first close a year later, garnering 180 million euros on commitments from a mix of international institutional investors, regional and European individual investors, entrepreneurs, family offices and foundations.

A little over 70% of commitments were made by investors in Adenia's prior funds, all of whom increased the size of their allocations, while 25% of the commitments were made by several LPs new to the firm. Adenia's directors and principals hold 4% of Adenia Capital IV between them.

Meanwhile, the African Development Bank's Board of Directors has approved a $5.6 million commitment to I&P Developpement 2, a fund-of-funds being sponsored by French impact investor, Investisseurs & Partenaires. The fund aims to finance ten impact funds in ten African countries over the 10 years of its life and will provide up to a third of the capital required by each African fund as well as catalyze financial resources from African business angels and other private investors.

In company news, Kuramo Capital has teamed up with Nile Capital Management to launch a new investment platform focused on Africa's public market opportunities. Kuramo Nile Capital, as the new partnership will be called, hopes to leverage the combined market expertise and presence of both entities to deliver good returns to a client base of retail and institutional investors.

And finally, the White House announced that President Trump is nominating Ray Washburne to head up the Overseas Private Investment Corporation or OPIC. Washburne's nomination will require Senate confirmation. If successful, he will replace Elizabeth Littlefield, an Obama appointee, who has led the development finance institution for almost 8 years.

His nomination is being interpreted by many that the future of the agency, which the Trump administration had indicated it wanted to be wound down, is now safer. The thinking is that the President would not appoint a supporter whom he had considered for a cabinet position to a post overseeing the dismantling of an agency.

That's it for this week. As always, you can review these and other stories by scrolling down and clicking through to them below.

South African private equity firm Metier completes exit from its 30% Astrapak stake
Image Credit: Astrapak

Deals and Deal News...

Private Equity

RMI and Nedbank back Entersekt in undisclose deal

// africacapitaldigest.com

Rand Merchant Investment Holdings and Nedbank Private Equity have each taken undisclosed minority stakes in Entersekt in a multi-million dollar deal. The capital will be used to support the fintech company's international expansion plans as well as its ongoing research and development activities.