Private Equity | Abraaj Readies Nigerian Fertilizer, East African Insurance Deals

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: Abraaj Group, a Dubai-based private equity firm, is in the final stages of approval for three transactions in sub-Saharan Africa and will probably make further investments in the region before the end of the year, partner Sev Vettivetpillai said on Thursday.

Abraaj is seeking final internal approval for three transactions, including one in Nigeria’s fertilizer industry, an insurance investment in East Africa and an industrial business in South Africa, he said in an interview at the World Economic Forum on Africa in the Rwandan capital of Kigali. The deals range in size from $60 million to about $150 million, he said.

The company is focused on sectors where local consumption is a key driver, such as financial services and consumer goods, to take advantage of a growing middle class in the world’s least developed continent. The firm raised $990 million for its third sub-Saharan Africa fund last year and made two investments already, in South Africa and Nigeria.

“With those three and the two we have already done we will get to just over 50 percent of that capital deployed,” Vettivetpillai said. While the firm will continue to invest in sub-Saharan African countries where it is already strong, which include South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, it will also look at expanding to Angola, Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast, he said.