Amenthis

AUM: $130 billion

After decades of successful investments in Africa both in debt and equity, Amethis’ founders, Luc Rigouzzo and Laurent Demey, previously CEO and Deputy CEO of Proparco, the French Development Financial Institution, partnered with Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity to create in 2012 an investment fund entirely dedicated to long-term responsible financing in Africa.

As of today, Amethis has concluded fourteen investments, creating a portfolio of promising companies spanning multiple countries and diverse sectors. Amethis’ expertise and innovating approach were recognized in 2015 by Private Equity Africa’s “Outstanding First Time GP award”, granted at the fourth annual Private Equity Awards gala dinner hosted by the African Venture Capital Association.

Areas of expertise;

Minority Long Term Investor: Amethis invests minority stakes in promising local and family-owned African mid-cap companies to support them as they become national or regional champions. Amethis’ average ticket spans between USD 15 to 35 m, with an exit strategy within 5 to 8 years. Amethis’ wide network of co-investors allows a greater scale of investment, when required by the company. Amethis can also provide long-term debt at competitive rates for similar ticket sizes.

Conservative Investor: Amethis is a conservative investor, using little leverage to strengthen its portfolio companies’ resiliency, while capitalizing on their strong potential to maximize their long-term value.

Sector and Geographical Diversification: Amethis invests in sectors benefiting from the development of Africa’s growing urban middle class of consumers, targeting sectors such as financial services, agri-business, manufacturing, services and consumer goods. These sectors have the common trait to be growing fast while still being fragmented, offering the opportunity for new local leaders to emerge.

Dynamic and diversified economies investment, targeting those with a large domestic market and growing consumption. Because we believe diversification is the key to a sustainably profitable portfolio, we have invested in more than six countries to date – Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Mauritius – and we continue to expand this geographical footprint.

Proprietary Deal Flow: Amethis favors proprietary deals to processed ones.