FUND CAURIS CROISSANCE II SELLS ITS STAKE IN ATLANTIC BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL / BANQUE ATLANTIQUE (ABI)

The Cauris Croissance II Fund (FCC II), the third fund managed by Cauris Management, the West African private equity fund management company, confirms the sale of its stake in ABI to the Moroccan banking group Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP). The investment was made in December 2012 and generated a cumulative return on investment of 1.7 times the initial amount invested.

What has changed with Cauris Management’s investment in ABI?

ABI has subsidiaries in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, as well as a brokerage firm and life and non-life insurance companies in Ivory Coast and Togo.

FCC II’s initial investment in the Atlantic Financial Group (AFG) has partially restructured the bank indebtedness contracted to finance banking subsidiaries. The Banque Atlantique Group was then held equally by AFG and BCP. Changes in the shareholding structure led to the swap of the 5.2% of AFG shares held by FCC II into 2.6% of ABI shares.

For Noël Yawo Z. Eklo, CEO of Cauris Management, Noël Yawo Z. Eklo,”the intervention of FCC II, in addition to restructuring the debt, enabled the group to support its regional expansion through its network of branches. Following this transaction, BCP, majority shareholder of the Atlantic group, strengthens its position before opening its capital to other strategic partners in order to pursue the ambitious development that should position the group as an African reference “.