YEELEN FINANCIAL FUND INVESTS IN GAMMA
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 28 June 2021: YEELEN FINANCIAL FUND, the fund dedicated to the financial sector of the WAEMU area and managed by Yeelen Capital, a member of the Cauris Management group, the West African private equity fund manager, has acquired a stake in the capital of the holding company Groupement d’Assurances Modernes Multiformes en Afrique « GAMMA », which holds two life and non-life insurance companies in Mali, SONAVIE and SABUNYUMAN.
Following the investment of FCFA 3.5 billion (around EUR 5.3 million) by Yeelen Financial Fund, GAMMA holds a majority stake in (i) SONAVIE, created in 1996 and the leader of the life insurance market, and (ii) SABUNYUMAN, created in 1982 and the third player in the non-life insurance market.
« The investment by Yeelen Financial Fund brings SONAVIE and SABUNYUMAN into line with the new CIMA standards for minimum share capital and equity, and also finances the group’s strategic development plan », said Yawo Noël Eklo, Co-Founder of Cauris Management.
Commenting on the Fund’s investment, Mr Mamadou Touré, Chief Executive Officer of SONAVIE and Chairman of the Board of SABUNYUMAN, said: « The insurance sector in Mali remains promising given its development potential, as the penetration rate is only 0.5%. Mainly thanks to the stakes taken by the GAMMA holding company, but also to the increases carried out by our various shareholders, the share capital of SONAVIE now stands at FCFA 5.1 billion and that of SABUNYUMAN at FCFA 4.4 billion. Until 2019, each of these two insurance companies had share capital of around FCFA 2 billion. These operations strengthen the financial capacity of these companies. That is very favourable to our first ambition, which is to make insurance part of everyday life in Mali. In this, SONAVIE and SABUNYUMAN will have the advantage of drawing on decades of experience, while making the most of the expertise and resources brought by YEELEN FINANCIAL FUND ».
For his part, Mr Benjamin Kouakou, Managing Partner at Cauris Management in charge of Yeelen Financial Fund, said that « Yeelen Financial Fund, created at the initiative of the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and managed by Yeelen Capital, aims to support financial institutions, in particular banks and insurers, at a time when the respective regulators of the WAEMU and CIMA areas are raising minimum share capital and equity requirements, and also to take part in their development. Yeelen Financial Fund is also intended to act in, and contribute to, the development of players in the microfinance and fintech sectors. The investment in SONAVIE and SABUNYUMAN, through the GAMMA holding company, is the opportunity for Yeelen to support two major players in the life and non-life insurance industry in Mali. Creating such an insurance group makes it possible to optimise synergies between the two entities by pooling costs and the sales network, and by offering customers mixed products suited to the market, in order to reach critical size locally before starting a regional expansion and becoming an important player in the CIMA area ».
About the Cauris Management / Yeelen Capital group
Cauris Management is a private equity fund management company, active in the SME segment in West Africa since 1995. It created Yeelen Capital in 2016 to manage Yeelen Financial Fund, with a target size of EUR 65 million, dedicated to the financial sector of the WAEMU. Yeelen Capital is a consortium made up of Cauris Management, Mr Paul Derreumaux, founder of the Bank Of Africa Group, Mr Amadou Raimi, former Chairman of Deloitte France and Vice-Chairman of Deloitte Worldwide, and Finactu, a consultancy specialising in finance and insurance in Africa. The team of the Cauris Management / Yeelen Capital group has made 49 investments, including 13 in the financial sector, and 44 exits since inception. The portfolio includes holdings in sectors as varied as agribusiness, financial services, hospitality, telecoms, retail and energy. The investment in GAMMA is the second stake taken by Yeelen Financial Fund, after the one made in December 2019 in ATLANTIC INSURANCE COMPANY, an Ivorian group holding four life and non-life insurance companies in three countries (Benin, Cameroon, Mali). The Cauris Management / Yeelen Capital group operates from Lomé and Abidjan.
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