Phatisa, an African investment company and fund manager, received US$10 million in equity investment from the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) to invest in African agriculture.
The Phatisa Food Fund 2 (PFF2) aims to boost agriculture and nutrition across the continent.
“Following the AfDB approval, existing approval from Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic), as well as other limited partnership’s (LP) that have approved or are at final stages of their process, the PFF2 is well set to first close in the first quarter of 2018 at up to US$150 million,” founding member Stuart Bradly told Africa Global Funds.
PFF2 will focus on food and consumer related investments, including integrated food production, processing, services and inputs (seed, fertiliser and chemicals) mechanisation, distribution, logistics and infrastructure, packaging, food services, and retail.
This is not the first time the AfDB has provided their financial support to Phatisa and the two have worked together previously through the African Agriculture Fund.
According to Bradly, they are proud to have the confidence of AfDB in Phatisa and that they have decided to partner with the company in a second fund.
PFF2 is targeting a capitalisation of US$300 million to invest across Africa with focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. The fund currently focusses average investment amounts of US$20 million in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
HISTORY OF AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT
Phatisa has a wide agricultural investment portfolio across the continent. One project includes the buy-out and expansion of the Meridian group that manufactures and distributes specialised fertiliser blends, stores and processes agricultural products, and has a chain of retail stores that ensures access to inputs for smallholder farmers in several southern grain producing countries.
The company also bought Goldenlay, the biggest producer of table eggs in Zambia. They also have investments with regards to agriculture in Sierra Leone, the DRC, Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya.
