Salt Capital and DEG exit to Imperial, Berkeley Energy delivers strong first close, AIIM and others back MetroFibre again, and more...

Here's Africa Capital Digest's weekly wrap - would you like to receive our weekly preview newsletter for free? If so,?sign up here.

Last week in brief... We start with a couple of exits for some of Africa's private equity investors last week. Both were trade sales. The bigger of the two, (probably), sees multinational firm Imperial Logistics agreeing to buy Deep Catch Namibia Holdings outright for R633 million, (or about $43 million) from its existing shareholders. They included DEG, the German development finance institution, and Salt Capital, the London-based fund manager, who backed the business in 2016 as well as Deep Catch's founders and members of its senior management team.

Starting out as a two-man seafood exporter in 2007, Deep Catch has evolved into a vertically integrated supply chain business employing 480 people engaged in the wholesale, distribution, and cold storage of poultry, fish, and dairy products in the Southern African Development Community region. For the financial year ending on June 30th, 2020, the business reported an EBITDA of $7 million from revenues of $72.2 million.

Staying in South Africa, EXEO Capital's Agri-Vie Fund I announced its latest exit, selling the 62.7% stake it held in Cape Olive Holdings, one of South Africa’s largest table olive suppliers. The buyer is Imibala, which is significantly expanding its existing stake in the business with this stake acquisition. Representatives declined to share how much Imibala paying for the fund's holding. Agri-Vie Fund I first backed the firm in 2013 but never made any follow-on investments.

There was news of a major fund close for the first time in several weeks. Berkeley Energy's second African renewable energy fund announced its first close last week, winning commitments totaling €130 million (or approximately $154 million) from seven development finance institutions. These included CDC, CDP, FMO, Proparco, Swedfund, African Development Bank's SEFA, and the Clean Technology Fund. African Renewable Energy Fund II (or AREF II)'s investment team has built up a strong pipeline of potential deal opportunities across sub-Saharan Africa, particularly run-of-river hydro, wind, and solar projects, along with some battery storage opportunities.

Back to last week's deals. Having backed MetroFibre Networx with R1.5 billion (or $98 million), African Infrastructure Investment Managers, South African Housing & Infrastructure Fund (SAHIF), and STOA are buying another 25.8% share in the fibre business, this time from Sanlam Private Equity and African Rainbow Capital. Look for the deal to close in the second half of the year once regulatory approvals and other conditions have been met.

In another potential follow-on deal, IFC is considering an equity investment in TradeDepot, a SaaS platform for FMCG distribution that's based in Lagos. If the deal is approved, it will be the second investment in the startup by the DFI following its participation in TradeDepot’s most recent $10 million capital raise?in July last year. The five-year-old startup would use the $15 million investment to support its expansion plans within Nigeria and more broadly across the continent.

The Vital Impact Relief Facility, (or VIRF),?approved loans to two companies with operations in East Africa last week. The two loans are being made to Sollatek, a manufacturer of solar and voltage control products, and Privamnuts, a processor and exporter of macadamia nuts. Vital Capital set up the debt facility at the end of last year to provide financing to viable African businesses in needing support to weather the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis.

In company news, Gemcorp Group's management team has acquired the emerging markets asset manager from its seed investor, paying an undisclosed amount for the London-headquartered business which was launched in 2014.?The firm’s management, which is led by its founder and CEO, Atanas Bostandjiev, now owns the business outright.

Since it was established, Gemcorp has grown rapidly and now employs nearly 140 people and has operations in 9 cities in Europe and Africa. The firm is made up of three distinct business units – Gemcorp Capital, Gemcorp Commodities Trading, and Gemcorp Energy. The first, Gemcorp Capital, invests in debt and equity opportunities and has backed deals valued in excess of $6 billion since it began in 2014.?

And finally, among the announcements emerging from the G7 meetings held in the United Kingdom earlier this month is the commitment by the participating countries’ development finance institutions and their multilateral partners to invest as much as $80 billion into Africa’s private sector over the next 5 years. The initiative is the first partnership commitment made by the G7 DFIs related to Africa.

That’s it for this week. As always, you can review these and other stories?by?clicking through?to this week’s preview edition of the newsletter.

To subscribe to?Africa Capital Digest's full service?and receive a special time-limited 0ffer to the service with news, perspective, and information on Africa's private capital markets, please take a moment?to sign up here?today.