Deal Round-Up: LeapFrog sells stake in Ghanaian pensions trustee

Jack Aldane

6 years ago

Jim Roth, co-founder and partner of LeapFrog Investments

LeapFrog Investments has sold its US$310 million stake in Petra Trust, Ghana’s largest independent pensions trustee, in a secondary buyout deal. The investment aimed to promote financial inclusion in Ghana, where only 19 percent of the population had savings at the time of the initial investment.
Growth capital firm Cephus has raised US$51 million for Ethiopian businesses. Cephus does not identify as impact-focused but does aim to fill the funding gap for Ethiopia’s missing middle-tier of businesses. The fund comprises private-equity capital and will back small and growing Ethiopian businesses with a focus on manufacturing, agro-processing and services.
South Africa’s Ethos Private Equity firm is making its sixth investment in the Ethos Mid Market Fund I with a 31 percent stake in Echo, a corporate internet service provider.
Advanced Finance and Investment Group, known as AFIG Funds, has closed its investment deal in First Atlantic Bank which provides services to retail and corporate clients in Ghana.
Aye Finance is providing US$3.8 million through a securitisation deal helped by investors Hinduja Leyland Finance, Intellegrow and Vivriti Capital with the goal of serving underbanked businesses in India. Aye Finance operates 72 lending branches across 10 Indian states. The company employs credit-checking metrics beyond the borrower’s financial profile, giving underserved groups such as female entrepreneurs unique access to finance.
Zimbabwean private equity firm Takura Capital has bought Mozambique’s largest fresh vegetable producer, Vanduzi, for an undisclosed sum after an auction process managed by Verdant Capital, a corporate finance firm based in Mauritius.
Goodwell, a Dutch impact investment firm has invested in Oradian, a Croatia-based provider of digital solutions for financial institutions in frontier markets. Goodwell backs businesses that provide microfinance institutions with a cloud-based banking platform. Oradian provides microfinance institutions with a cloud-based system for banking called Instafin, which reaches out to some of the most remote clients in Africa
Telecom tower infrastructure company Helios Towers, is preparing to float on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange in April, having secured several private investors as backers.
Enko Education has agreed to acquire the West African College of the Atlantic in Dakar. Enko Education is backed by investors such as I&P, Oiko Credit and Proparco.