CAURIS CROISSANCE II FUND SELLS ITS STAKE IN ATLANTIC BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL / BANQUE ATLANTIQUE (ABI)
Cauris Croissance II Fund (FCC II), the third fund managed by Cauris Management, the West African private equity fund manager, 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 of 1.7 times the amount initially invested.
What changed with the Cauris Management investment in ABI?
ABI holds subsidiaries in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, as well as a brokerage firm and life and non-life insurance companies in Côte d’Ivoire and Togo.
The initial investment by FCC II in Atlantic Financial Group (AFG) made it possible to restructure part of the bank debt contracted to finance the banking subsidiaries. The Banque Atlantique Group was then held in equal shares 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, Chief Executive Officer of Cauris Management, « the involvement of FCC II, in addition to the debt restructuring, made it possible to support the group in its regional expansion through its branch network. Following this transaction, BCP, the majority shareholder of the Atlantique 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 benchmark ».
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