Leading African private equity investment infrastructure firm, Helios Holdings Ltd.as agreed to a merger with Fairfax Africa Holdings Corp. of Canada.
Helios says the merger would create a stronger African money manager and investment firm.
The new company to be known as Helios Fairfax Partners Corp. will be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and is majority-owned by Fairfax, both companies said in a statement, at the weekend.
Tope Lawani and Babatunde Soyoye, who co-founded Helios Investment Partners LLP, will run the new group as joint chief executive officers.
“The transaction gives frontier and emerging-market investors an interesting way to gain exposure in the African companies in our portfolio,” Lawani said by phone.
“We take a long-term view on our investments, and many have proved resilient even in this pandemic with a number of our investments in sectors such as telecommunications, payments and food.”
Helios has been raising third-party private capital for many years to invest on the continent, backing companies such as Helios Towers Plc and Vivo Energy Plc, that went on to list in London(LSE).
“With this transaction, we are also gaining permanent capital and capital from public markets, that can be used to develop and accelerate growth, products and strategy,” Lawani said.
Helios has been targeting a new $1.25 billion Africa-focused fund, with the U.K.’s development-finance arm,CDC Group, having committed $100 million. The raising comes as businesses across Africa struggle with the
impact of the coronavirus pandemic on national economies.
Fairfax was founded by and is still run by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa,considered Canada’s Warren Buffett. Helios will have a 46 percent stake and voting interest in the new company.
With Bloomberg report
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