South Africa's Planet42 raises $2.4 million, Helios Towers and Dangote Cement Bond issues oversubscribed, Zenith Bank's $100m loan from IFC
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Economic Updates:
Ghana’s Economy experienced the slowest growth rate since 2016 according to recently released economic figures with a growth rate of 4.9 per cent for the first quarter of 2020 down from 7.9 per cent in the previous period. The slowdown is a result of the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nigeria’s Inflation Rate continues to climb as it reached 12.40 percent in May the highest in 25 months according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics which also showed that in January, February and March, the country’s inflation rates were 12.13 per cent, 12.20 per cent and 12.26 per cent, respectively.
Ivory Coast Inflation stayed stable at 2.3 per cent, unchanged from previous months, according to the latest statistics. Food and Beverage prices have increased slowly while other sectors such as housing and utilities rose faster.
Malawi’s Inflation Rate falls for fifth consecutive month. Prices on both food and non-food products slowed resulting in a fall in inflation from 9.4 per cent in April to 8.7 per cent in May, the lowest rate since February 20219.
Private Equity Deals :
South Africa based private equity firm Senatla Capital has acquired 34% of South Africa Communication Group Joe Public United making it the largest majority black-owned independent agency in South Africa.
Finland’s financier Finnfund announced a new partnership with the country’s biggest mortgage lender to launch a new investment fund focused on green energy and social development projects in Africa.
VestedWorld an emerging markets investment manager has invested in Rwanda based food distribution and logistics company GET IT .
Nigeria’s Zenith Bank received a $100 million loan from the International Finance Corporation(IFC), it was announced this week. The loan is part of an $8 billion fast-track funding program to support IFC partners in dealing with the coronovirus pandemic.
Venture Capital Deals:
Egyptian-based real estate start-up Sakneen has has raised $150,000 as part of the part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 batch.
South African based Fintech Planet42 raises $2.4 million investment. The funding will allow the company to expand its offerings to people unable to get car loans.
Chipper Cash, an African focused cross-border Fintech start-up, announced a Series A $13.8million funding this week which is led by Deakins Capital. The company plans to hire 30 new employees globally.
Egypt-based Arabic learning platform Zedny launched this week with $1.2 million funding and more than 200 online courses and 400 videos of global business best sellers.The funding comes from a handful of angel investors, and will be used to expand across the region.
Liquidity Actions :
Helios Towers successful bond issues was anchored by leading Private Equity firm Emerging Africa Infrastructure (EAIF) investing $30million in the UK listed bond.
Bond sales in Nairobi up 60 per cent, according to figures for bonds turnover at the Nairobi Securities Exchange showed a 59 per cent increase compared to April.This has been attributed to ample liquidity and government payments.
Dangote Cement’s N100 billion bond issue was fully subscribed, making the single largest corporate bond issue in the Nigeria’s capital market.
Africa Finance Corporation’s (AFC) $700 million bond issue was fully subscribed. This is the Nigeria based bank’s first Eurobond issue in 2020.
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