Africa PE firm DPI overshoots target for new fund with $1.15 bn corpus
Development Partners International (DPI) said Monday it recorded oversubscription for a new private equity fund and is set to hold a final close at $900 million, with an additional $250 million of dedicated co-investment capital.
This brings a total of $1.15 billion for investments in the African continent and pushing its assets under management to $2.8 billion. The new fund, African Development Partners III Fund (ADP III), had a target of $800 million.
The new fund along with the co-investment envelope matches what Helios Investment Partners previously raised for African continent. Helios had scooped up $1.1 billion for its third fund, surpassing its original target of $1 billion under the 2014 vintage Helios Investors III fund, the biggest-ever such PE fund for Africa. Helios is now looking at an even bigger corpus, The Capital Quest recently reported.
ADP III will invest in established and growing companies in industries that benefit from Africa’s fast-growing middle class and the increasing digital transformation of the continent, the PE firm said.
Runa Alam, co-founder and CEO of DPI, said that Africa remains an “exciting” investment destination thanks to positive demographics, rising adoption of technology, and rising consumer and business spending.
“Against this backdrop, DPI has continued to generate top quartile returns by leveraging our team’s deep-rooted local expertise across the African continent,” he said.
Alam said the ADP III fund will focus on innovation-driven companies that are leading the digital transformation of the economies in which they operate. “In addition, our deep integration of impact and ESG initiatives in the investment life cycle has been widely recognised and ensures we are known as a trusted partner,” he added.
ADP III secured capital from a broad range of pension and sovereign wealth funds, development finance institutions, endowment and foundations, insurance companies, fund-of-funds, asset managers and impact investors. The global investor base represents 20 countries across North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
In addition to support from existing investors, DPI added more than 25 new LPs for the fund. For more on the LPs that backed the PE fund, click here.
ADP III has made four investments to date. These include Channel VAS, a global fintech business providing mobile financial services. It also invested in Tunisian tomato producer SICAM in one of the largest private equity transactions undertaken in the country. It has also bet on Kelix Bio, a biopharmaceutical platform broadening access to speciality generic drugs across Africa; and MNT-Halan, Egypt’s leading fintech ecosystem.
Additionally, DPI has a significant pipeline across the continent, focused on key sectors of the economy such as financial services, healthcare, agri-business, education and telecom infrastructure.
PJT Park Hill acted as advisor and placement agent for ADP III, and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP served as legal adviser for the fund.
