Sanlam backs JAB Dried Fruit, LGC Capital's House of Hemp stake, EAIF in Bugoye refinancing deal

July 24th, 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...

Deals in Africa tended to be on the small size last week. The agribusiness and power sectors saw most of the activity, although there were a couple of financial services sector items of interest.

Sanlam Private Equity announced that it is acquiring a 60% interest in JAB Dried Fruit Products, a processor and distributor of dried fruits and nuts for markets in South Africa and overseas. A family-owned business, JAB was founded in 1979, and processes a broad range of fruits sourced from across South Africa at its 17,000 square metre processing facility in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Another agribusiness deal involving a 60% stake also made the news last week.

LGC Capital, a Canadian investor, in partnership with AfriAg, a South African specialist agribusiness, have agreed to acquire a 60% stake in House of Hemp in a deal valued at approximately $4.1 million. The deal forms part of LGC's Medical Cannabis initiative, a 50/50 joint venture with AfriAg to develop a fully-regulated cannabis growing and processing industry in the southern African region for export to certified and regulated end users world-wide.

In a renewable energy debt deal, Emerging Africa Infrastructure Partners and Dutch DFI FMO are jointly lending $29.3 million of senior debt to the 13MW Bugoye hydro-electric power plant, situated in Western Uganda, which is owned by the Africa Renewable Energy Fund (AREF), Berkeley Energy's $200 million fund. The proceeds of the refinancing will be used to repay the balance of EAIF's original loan to the project as well as construction loans made by AREF. In addition, some of the capital will be used to fund repair works for the power plant, which has been producing electricity for Uganda's national grid since 2008.

The European Investment Bank is evaluating the possibility of making a commitment to Denham Capital's International Power Fund which targets opportunities in energy and renewable energy generation projects in Africa, South East Asia and Latin America. As yet, the size of the potential commitment remains undisclosed. The Denham International Power Fund's strategy will be to invest in projects via five to eight platforms, backing experienced project developers and management teams who have strong knowledge of the markets in which they operate.

In what looks like sgnificant competition for Atlas Mara and Arise, Milost Global, a private equity firm based in New York announced the launch of Milost Bank Africa Ltd, or MBAL, a new financial services company which will seek buyout opportunities in the banking industry on the continent. The firm seems to have a significant war chest, with more than $25 billion in committed capital, primarily for buyouts, but also for alternative capital, mezzanine finance and alternative lending solutions to companies across a wide range of industry sectors around the world.

As part of its strategy to expand its asset management business, EFG Hermes, the Egyptian investment bank, is paying $21.5 million for a 50% stake in Frontier Investment Management Partners or FIM Partners, a Dubai-registered asset manager with $1.6 billion in assets. The deal, which is being executed via the investment bank's subsidiary EFG Hermes UAE Ltd., raises the value of EFG's public and private market assets under management to $4.5 billion. In order to realize some of the synergies promised by the deal, EFG plans seek client consent over the next six months to roll over its regional, non-Egyptian, portfolio and funds into FIM Partners.

And finally, in some people move news, Phatisa announced last week that it is promoting Rinolan Moodley to the position of Deal Partner with the firm. Moodley, who joined Phatisa in September 2013, was previously a Senior Deal Principal focused on deals in the food and agribusiness sectors. In his new role, Moodley will lead a team sourcing and executing new transactions for Phatisa Food Fund II, a planned $300 million fund which will target opportunities in the food and fast moving consumer goods value chain in sub-Saharan Africa.

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

EAIF and FMO agree $29.3mln refinancing deal for Bugoye hydro-electric power plant

Deals and Deal News...

Private Equity

Sanlam Private Equity acquires control stake in JAB

// africacapitaldigest.com

Sanlam Private Equity has acquired a 60% interest in JAB Dried Fruit Products, a processor and distributor of dried fruits and nuts for markets in South Africa and overseas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.