Synergy Capital Private Equity Fund closes at US$00 million

Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Synergy Private Equity Fund I (SPEF) LP is pleased to announce the final close of its fund. The fund closed above its initial hard cap of $100m on September 9, 2015 ahead of the first anniversary of its first close, which was on September 12, 2014. Fundraising for SPEF, a Mauritius domiciled fund focused on mid- sized investments in high growth sectors in Nigeria and Ghana commenced in April 2013.

At final close, the Fund had a total of twelve investors, comprising four of the leading DFIs most active in sub-Saharan Africa, seven commercial investors and a Sovereign. The quality of the investors in the fund, is a validation of the strategy of the manager, quality of its team both in Nigeria and Ghana and the robustness of its deal pipeline.

To date, SPEF has deployed over 20% of its fund in three investments in Nigeria. The Fund made its first investment in an e-services company with offerings in e-commerce, e- payment and e-infrastructure. The Fund also invested in one of the largest non-captive manufacturers of polypropylene woven sacks for packaging and transporting industrial goods such as cement, agricultural goods & food products. Its most recent investment was in a developer of captive and embedded power solutions with a vision to produce and distribute modular and scalable power solutions to meet demand from currently underserved public/government, commercial and residential off- takers, initially in the Lagos metropolis, and subsequently across Nigeria.

The Fund is poised to complete its first investment in Ghana in a fast growing integrated pharmaceutical company representing a number of leading manufacturers in Italy and India for the distribution of their products in Ghana. The Manager also plans to complete another investment in financial services before the end of 2015. Over the next year, the manager will complete an additional three to four investments in both Nigeria and Ghana.

With the final close of the Fund, the Manager will continue to actively seek out unique opportunities in both Nigeria and Ghana particularly in its target sectors and broadly across both economies. The Manager is seeking entrepreneurs and management teams that have succeeded in building strong businesses requiring additional capital and support for further growth.

The Manager remains focused on its investment thesis viz; building a robust and proprietary pipeline of deals, making investments at attractive valuations and managing for value to enable exits in the future. The Manager has also been faithful to its commitment to investors to create co-investment opportunities as evidenced by the investments already made. Our presence in our markets of focus gives us access to a great number of deals ahead of other managers in the same space. Our growing and active pipeline of opportunities is confirmation of this.