YEELEN FINANCIAL FUND BEING RAISED WITH SEVERAL FINANCIAL PARTNERS
Following a tender launched by the West African Development Bank (BOAD), the Yeelen Capital consortium (made up of Cauris Management, Mr Paul Derreumaux, founder and previously Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank Of Africa Group, Mr Amadou Raimi, previously Chairman of Deloitte France and Vice-Chairman of Deloitte Worldwide, and Finactu, a consultancy dedicated to the African continent and specialising in finance and insurance) was chosen to raise the resources for, and to manage, Yeelen Financial Fund, a fund dedicated to the financial sector in the WAEMU region.
The features of the YEELEN Fund
Yeelen Financial Fund, with a target size of EUR 150 million, aims among other things to support the banks, insurance companies, microfinance institutions, financial technology companies (« fintechs ») and other financial institutions of the WAEMU in their future growth and development.
The fund will invest between EUR 2 and 11 million in equity and quasi-equity in target companies operating in the countries of the WAEMU (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo), in the context of creations, restructurings, privatisations and/or mergers and acquisitions.
Cauris Management is making available to Yeelen Capital, the management company of Yeelen Financial Fund, a dedicated team led by Mr Benjamin Kouakou, Partner, who has 25 years of experience in the banking and financial sector in West and Central Africa, after holding senior positions in several banks (Chief Executive Officer of Orabank Tchad, Regional Director of Diamond Bank, and others). Cauris Management will also provide Yeelen Financial Fund with assistance on ESG, reporting and back-office services.
For Noël Yawo Z. Eklo, Chief Executive Officer of Cauris Management, « the financial sector of the WAEMU is in a major phase of its development, with the rise in minimum capital for banks and insurance companies, which will require players to raise long-term capital and to rethink their strategy in order to meet the challenges ahead. Yeelen Financial Fund therefore intends to bring practical solutions to the financial institutions that support SMEs, in order to achieve financial inclusion for the people of the region ».
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