FIDELIS FINANCE SECURES EUROS 7.6 MILLION IN FINANCING FROM YEELEN FINANCIAL FUND

Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), 10 July 2024: Yeelen Financial Fund, a fund dedicated to the financial sector of the WAEMU region managed by Yeelen Capital, member of Cauris Management group, a West African private equity Fund manager, is pleased to announce an investment of euros 7.6 million (FCFA 5 billion) in Fidelis Finance.

The arrival of this new investor is part of Fidelis Finance’s plan to become a universal bank, subject to regulatory approval. This project is part of Fidelis Finance’s CAP25 development strategy. To this end, Fidelis Finance has undertaken to increase its share capital from the current euros 9.5 million to euros 32.8 million. Yeelen Financial Fund ‘s investment includes an equity and quasi-equity contribution and is intended to strengthen the future bank’s equity.

Fidelis Finance, a banking-based financial institution, has become a reference in the financing of SMEs in the Union, notably through leasing and factoring operations. With more than 25 years’ proven experience, Fidelis Finance, which operates in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire through a branch office, intends to contribute to deepening the financial services industry to support SME development. The establishment has regularly adapted its service offering to meet the needs of its customers. At the end of June 2024, cumulative loans to SMEs exceeded euros 228.6 million.

Mr Noël Yawo Eklo, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cauris Management, commented: “Fidelis Finance is a long-standing partner and we are delighted to repeat the experience of working with Yeelen Fund dedicated to the financial sector. We remain confident in the ability of Yeelen’s team to provide the necessary assistance to Fidelis Finance and its branch to offer innovative financing solutions to SMEs, a vector of growth and employment in our sub-region”.

Dr Abdoulaye Kouafilann Sory, Director and Chief Executive Officer of Fidelis Finance Group: “The decision to open our company’s share capital to Yeelen Financial Fund reinforces our conviction that building a solid, viable credit institution requires a well-balanced diversification of high-quality, professional and stable shareholders, a guarantee of success and profitability. On behalf of the Board of Directors, we would like to thank Yeelen Financial Fund’s team for participating, alongside other leading institutional investors and shareholders from the sub-region, in the achievement of this objective, which ultimately aims to enable our company, with its strengths and the opportunities of bank status, to make a more significant contribution to financing the economies of the sub-region”.

Mr Benjamin Kouakou, Managing Partner at Cauris Management in charge of Yeelen Financial Fund, commented: “Yeelen Financial Fund aims to support financial institutions, particularly banks and insurance companies, against a backdrop of increased share capital and minimum capital requirements in the WAEMU and CIMA zones, as demanded by the respective regulators, and also to participate in their development. Yeelen Financial Fund’s investment in Fidelis Finance confirms the Fund’s commitment to developing and strengthening financial institutions in the WAEMU zone, in order to turn them into national and regional champions”.

About FIDELIS FINANCE

Fidelis Finance, a company incorporated in Burkina Faso and licensed in 1997 by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), is a banking financial institution. It is registered on the WAMU list of credit institutions under n°C0085 B, in Burkina Faso and, in 2015, under n°A 0186 X, in Côte d’Ivoire, for its branch. A specialist in SME financing, Fidelis Finance today forms a diversified group comprising, in addition to its Ivoirian branch, three subsidiaries: two non-trading property companies and a microfinance company, AfriCred SA. 

About Cauris Management / Yeelen Capital Group

Cauris Management is a private equity Fund manager active in the SME segment in West Africa since 1995. It created Yeelen Capital in 2016 to manage Yeelen Financial Fund with a size of € 50 million dedicated to the financial sector in the WAEMU region. Yeelen Capital is composed of Cauris Management, Mr Paul Derreumaux, founder of Bank Of Africa Group, Mr Amadou Raimi, former President of Deloitte France and Vice-President of Deloitte World and Finactu, a consulting firm specializing in finance and insurance in Africa. Cauris Management / Yeelen Capital group’s team has made 51 investments, including 44 exits since the beginning. The portfolio includes investments in sectors as diverse as agribusiness, financial services, hospitality, telecoms, distribution, energy, etc. Cauris Management / Yeelen Capital group operates from Lomé and Abidjan.

www.caurismanagement.com