Companies

IFC in Sh108m advisory deal with Fanisi Capital

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The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is offering technical advisory services to Fanisi Capital in a Sh108 million deal to help the private equity firm to invest in small and medium-sized firms in Kenya. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is offering technical advisory services to Fanisi Capital in a Sh108 million deal to help the private equity firm to invest in small and medium-sized firms in Kenya.

Fanisi has about $100 million (Sh10 billion) in assets under management including investments in scores of SMEs such as Kenya’s retail pharmacy chain Haltons, outdoor advertising firm Live AD and Ngare Narok Meat Industries.

The advisory project, dubbed SME V Fanisi, is expected run until November 30, 2022, and one of its aims will be to help the PE firm sell some its portfolio companies.

The firm says it has a policy of exiting its investments within three to six years though sale to strategic buyers or secondary buyouts and initial public offerings. Planned exits are, however, dependent on availability of buyers and attractiveness of the companies to be offloaded.

“SME V Fanisi will provide support to the fund (Fanisi) by supporting portfolio value creation and exits of the remaining deals under Fund I,” IFC said in its investment disclosures.

“For Fund II, this advisory project will provide resources to support SME access to the fund opportunity, guide on better deal generation and structuring for Fund II, and focus on investment strategy, team capacity, and pipeline development.”

The institution added that the technical assistance for the fund would also support Fanisi's portfolio value creation for overall performance.

Based on learnings from the first fund, the project will target upgrades to SMEs financial and management systems as well as enhancing technical expertise.