The 5 most popular stories on Africa Private Equity News this week
Here are summaries of the five most widely read stories this week on Africa Private Equity News.
1. Gulf Capital exits BPO company
Private equity firm Gulf Capital has exited its investment in business process outsourcing (BPO) company iSON Xperiences. Verod Capital and AfricInvest earlier this month announced that they have partnered to acquire a majority stake in iSON. AfricInvest first invested in iSON in 2018.
Gulf Capital and AfricInvest had invested around $50 million in iSON to accelerate the company’s growth. During the partnership period with Gulf Capital, iSON completed three bolt-on acquisitions that allowed the company to expand its geographic coverage across Africa including Egypt and South Africa, in addition to expanding its product offering and capabilities.
2. BluePeak Private Capital fund reaches final close
BluePeak Private Capital – an alternative asset manager firm supporting the growth of scalable businesses in Africa through privately negotiated and structured debt-like instruments – has reached final closing at $156 million for its inaugural private capital fund, BluePeak Private Capital Fund.
BluePeak has secured backing from the African Development Bank (AfDB), British International Investment, the European Investment Bank, the US Development Finance Corporation, FMO, SwedFund, and the “Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations” CDC Tunisia.
3. Mediterrania to help Spanish agri solutions company grow its business in Africa
Private equity firm Mediterrania Capital Partners has announced that, together with the Italian investment club BIC Capital, it has taken a majority stake in Técnicas Sanjorge (TSJ), a Spanish agricultural solutions company.
The investment will enable TSJ to accelerate its development, as well as its international expansion, an area in which Mediterrania has extensive experience and where it can provide added value through its network of offices in Africa, a continent where the agricultural sector is experiencing strong growth. The objective is to offer the industry solutions with which to develop smarter and more sustainable agricultural practices in a sector where basic resources such as water and human capital are becoming increasingly scarce.
4. AAIC Investment fund receives further backing from Japanese entities for second close
AAIC Investment has secured participation from the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), QR Investment (the corporate venture arm of Hokkoku Financial Holdings Group), and TOPPAN Holdings, among others, for its Africa Innovation & Healthcare Fund (AHF2).
AHF2 has, so far, invested in 15 firms, predominantly in digital healthcare.
5. South Africa: RMB Corvest backs Switch Telecom
South African private equity firm RMB Corvest, in partnership with Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) investment vehicle Shalamuka Capital, has acquired a minority stake in Switch Telecom, a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telecommunications service provider.
The current transaction will see RMB Corvest, through Shalamuka Capital, acquire an effective 30% stake in the business, significantly strengthening the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) scorecard of the business.
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