Acquisition of a Stake in the Banque Atlantique Group

On December 27, 2012, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the Caris Croissance Fund invested a total of 4.1 billion CFA francs (6.3 million euros) in the Banque Atlantique Group through Atlantic Financial Group (AFG).

AFG holds, on an equal footing with the Moroccan banking group Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP), the Banque Atlantique network, which has been gradually built up over the past two decades. The group operates banks in seven countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo), a brokerage firm, an IT engineering company, and a representative office in France.

Commenting on Cauris’s acquisition of a stake, Mr. Koné Dossongui, Chairman of the group, stated: “The Cauris-AFG partnership simply reinforces a collaboration that began more than five years ago between the two entities, starting with Cauris’s acquisition of a stake in Moov Togo, which was then majority-owned by Atlantic Telecom, the group’s telecommunications division and now a subsidiary of Etisalat. I hope that the new partnership will also benefit from Cauris Management’s proven experience in the banking sector and create value for shareholders, as has been the case in the past in the telecommunications sector.”

“This investment reflects the confidence that the Banque Atlantique network inspires in the subregion. It also reflects Cauris’s commitment to continuing to actively participate in the development of banking activities by providing access to banking services to a larger segment of the population, at a time when the region remains underbanked,” said Mr. Noël Yawo Eklo, Chairman and CEO of Cauris Management.