Yeelen Financial Fund provides EUR 7.6 million of financing to Fidelis Finance
Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), 10 July 2024: 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, is pleased to announce that it has invested EUR 7.6 million (FCFA 5 billion) in Fidelis Finance.
The arrival of this new investor is part of the plan to turn Fidelis Finance into a universal bank, subject to the approval of the regulatory authorities. That plan stems from its development strategy known as CAP25. To this end, Fidelis Finance has undertaken to raise its share capital from the current EUR 9.5 million to EUR 32.8 million. The investment by Yeelen Financial Fund thus comprises equity and quasi-equity, and aims to strengthen the equity of the future bank.
A financial institution with banking status, Fidelis Finance has become a benchmark in financing the SMEs of the Union, in particular through leasing and factoring. With more than 25 years of proven experience, Fidelis Finance, which operates in Burkina Faso and in Côte d’Ivoire through a branch, intends to contribute to deepening the financial services industry in order to support the development of SMEs. The institution has regularly adapted its range of services to its customers’ needs. At the end of June 2024, its cumulative lending to SMEs passed EUR 228.6 million.
Mr Noël Yawo Eklo, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cauris Management, said: « Fidelis Finance is a long-standing partner and we are pleased to renew the experience of working together with the Yeelen fund dedicated to the financial sector. We remain confident in the ability of the Yeelen team to bring Fidelis Finance and its branch the assistance they need in order to offer innovative financing solutions to SMEs, a driver of growth and jobs in our sub-region ».
Dr Abdoulaye Kouafilann Sory, Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Fidelis Finance Group: « The choice to open our company’s share capital to the Yeelen fund reinforces our conviction that building a sound and viable credit institution requires a well-balanced diversification of a quality, professional and stable shareholding, which is a guarantee of success and profitability. On behalf of the Board, we thank the Yeelen fund team for taking part, alongside other institutional investors and reference corporate and individual shareholders of the sub-region, in achieving this objective, which ultimately aims to allow our company, with its strengths and the opportunities of banking status, to contribute more significantly to financing the economies of the sub-region ».
Mr Benjamin Kouakou, Managing Partner at Cauris Management in charge of Yeelen Financial Fund, said: « Yeelen Financial Fund 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. The investment by Yeelen Financial Fund in Fidelis Finance thus confirms the fund’s intention to develop and strengthen the financial institutions of the WAEMU area, in order to make them national and regional champions ».
About FIDELIS FINANCE
Fidelis Finance, a company incorporated under Burkinabè law and approved in 1997 by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), is a financial institution with banking status. It is entered on the list of WAMU credit institutions under no. C0085 B in Burkina Faso and, since 2015, under no. A 0186 X in Côte d’Ivoire for its branch. A specialist in SME financing, Fidelis Finance today forms a diversified group made up, in addition to its Ivorian branch, of three subsidiaries: two property companies and a microfinance company, AfriCred SA.
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 the Yeelen Capital consortium in 2016 to manage Yeelen Financial Fund, of EUR 50 million, dedicated to the financial sector of the WAEMU. Yeelen Capital is 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. The team of the Cauris Management / Yeelen Capital group has made 51 investments, including 44 exits, since inception. The portfolio includes holdings in sectors as varied as agribusiness, financial services, hospitality, telecoms, retail and energy. The Cauris Management / Yeelen Capital group operates from Abidjan and Lomé.
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