Newsletter #10
April 2021
Editorial by Luc Rigouzzo, President of the Africa Club of France Invest
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Dear members and friends of the Africa Club,
Firstly, I hope that all our members and your teams are doing well in this unprecedented period for African private equity.
The COVID crisis has impacted negatively or positively our portfolio companies, their employees and has affected all African economies. But, as Club members pointed out during the webinar organized by France Invest in January, the African continent has proven to be relatively resilient facing the Covid-19, especially if we compare the number of deaths per million inhabitants with other regions of the world (69 in Africa vs. 956 in Europe, 1064 in Brazil in early 2021). It seems that the youth of the continent, prevention and the rapid application of measures to close borders at the earliest stage of the crisis has made it easier to manage. Although they were affected in 2020 at both the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels, African economies show positive growth prospects in 2021, especially the most diversified North African and sub-Saharan economies that are less dependent on raw materials.
“The concern of European governments and companies to reduce their excessive dependence on Asia may lead to a new dynamic of trade regionalization, strengthening Europe-Africa axis.”
“To encourage the emergence of new players to strengthen the market, create bridges between European and African private equity, and demonstrate the relevance of investing on this continent that delivers a double gain, in terms of growth but also impact.”
The private equity industry on the African continent has maintained a high level of activity, but the number of players is still too limited. I believe it is also the mission of the Africa Club to encourage the emergence of new players to strengthen the market, create bridges between European and African private equity, and demonstrate the relevance of investing on this continent that delivers a double gain, in terms of growth but also impact.
We hope to see you continue to join the Africa Club and will use all our resources to continue to offer you qualitative content throughout the year. In 2021, several events are on the agenda, including webinars on Digital & Venture Capital in Africa, infrastructure, health sector financing, a launch event for the African Development Guide, as well as interventions at the well-known conference, Ambition Africa, which is due in November.
See you soon
Luc Rigouzzo,
President of France Invest’s Africa Club
The Guide 2020 to business development on the African continent is online !
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Why develop business in Africa?
How do i choose my destination?
How do i set up in Africa?
How can i make my business development in Africa sustainable?
Check it out now!
Our thanks to Luc Rigouzzo (Amethis), Hervé Schricke (SOFIA FIDES), AbdelNor Chehlaoui (AM|Capital Partners), Amaury de Féligonde (Okan Partners), Boris Martor (Bird & Bird), Cédric Sinarinzi (Natixis Investment Managers International), Daniele Batude (BM&A), Jean-Brice Touye (Société Générale), Jean-Marc Mesure (Société Générale), Johann Le Duigou (Sparring Capital), Khaled Benjennet (AfricInvest Group), Kiné Seck Mercier (Egon Zehnder), Marc Petitier, Mehdi Boumedine (Linklaters), Pascale Lacombrade (Société Générale), Pedro Novo (Bpifrance), Rodolphe Baudeau (Altai Consulting), Sofien V. Sidhoum (Investment Specialist) & Stan Andreassen (Bird&Bird).
Private Equity in Africa News and References
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Bpifrance and Proparco are launching Averroès Africa, their new fund of funds to promote the development of the private equity industry in Africa. Find out more.
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Bpifrance will organize on June 2, in Abidjan the event Inspire & Connect Africa, to better connect the new generation of entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors and support structures in Africa and France. Find out more.
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Save the date - Choose AFRICA Economic Forum, n Montpellier on July 8, 2021: the entrepreneurial event of the New Africa-France Summit. Find out more.
Launch of the FISEA+ facility: a new €210 million investment capacity for African SMEs as part of the Choose Africa initiative. Find out more.
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Amethis invests in Naivas, Kenya's leading retailer with over 60 stores in the country. Find out more.
Amethis realizes the partial exit of Mutandis, an industrial group specialized in the distribution of consumer goods in Morocco and Africa.. Find out more.
Best Health acquires Mabiotech, a Moroccan specialist in the distribution and installation of medical equipment for hospitals and clinics in Morocco and Tunisia. Find out more.
Amethis and Naivas launch a solidarity project to support Kenyan communities facing Covid-19. Watch the video. Find out more.
Amethis receives the Best Private Equity Impact Investing Team for Sub-Saharan Africa 2020 award from Capital Finance International. Find out more.
Amethis invests in Nouvelle Minoterie Africaine (NMA), Senegal's leading food company. Find out more.
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First investment for AF IV - The Pan-African Fund - through the acquisition of a minority stake in Fidelity Bank Ghana, the largest private bank in Ghana. Find out more.
Closings in 2020. Despite the difficult environment, AfricInvest has been able to realize three closings in the last few weeks of previous funds: Hydrosol Fondations, Icosnet and Esprit. Find out more.
Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund : Investments in 2020 including artificial intelligence, agriculture technology, a VTC platform and a pan-African music streaming platform. Find out more.
Fonds Franco-Africain 2 : First closing in late 2020. AFE completes deployment of the €40m FFA1 dedicated to the strategy of investing in French SMEs with a stake in Africa. Find out more.
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Participate in the 2021 Deloitte Africa Private Equity Survey! A global pandemic has adversely affected lives and livelihoods on the African continent over the last 12 months, as such, the purpose of the survey is to provide valuable insights into how private equity practitioners view the next 12 months in these uncertain times.
(5min survey, 20 questions, confidential treatment of data)
For any queries or concerns regarding participating in the survey, please contact Hana Choyakh, (Senior Manager Financial Advisory)
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Publication of the Partech Africa 2020 Report: The African tech ecosystem continues its strong acceleration with 359 equity fundraisings in 2020 (+44% compared to 2019) for a total financing of US$ 1.43bn (-29% compared to 2019). Find out more.
Tugende secures $3.6M fresh equity from Partech and Enza to help meet intense demand for productive asset finance. Find out more / Find out more on Tugende
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Meridiam and Raxio Group partner to deploy sustainable data centers in Africa, promoting local economies and the region's digital transformation. Find out more. Find out more.
Meridiam - Conclusion of the first class of the AIFP program. After more than two months of intensive training on public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the field of infrastructure, the first edition of the Africa Infrastructure Fellowship Program (AIFP) ended on December 10. Find out more.
Webinars: replays are online!
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How is Innovation transforming Africa?
Webinar co-organised by the Africa Club and AfricInvest on March 11, with Vivian Nwakah, Co-founder & CEO of Medsaf, Adebola Omololu, Director Corporate Development of KaiOS, Benji Meltzer, Co-founder & CTO of Aerobotics, Karim Beguir, Co-founder & CEO of InstaDeep, Khaled Ben Jilani, Senior Partner at AfricInvest
New growth sectors for private investment in Africa
Webinar in French organised by the Africa Club on January 22, with Jean-Michel Severino (Investisseurs et Partenaires), Luc Rigouzzo (Amethis), Isabelle Bébéar (Bpifrance), Thierry Deau (Meridiam), Damien Braud (Proparco) and Stéphane Colin (Africinvest).
Contact the Africa Club!
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Interested in joining the Africa Club in 2021?
Download and complete our membership form (only in French. For English speakers, contact support.club-afrique@franceinvest.eu )
Information, for any request to the Africa Club or contribution to this newsletter:
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