Three European development finance institutions and lenders, FMO, Norfund and Rabobank, have agreed to pool their assets in Africa to create a $660 million private equity investment company, named Arise. The partners currently hold stakes in several financial service providers (FSPs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This new platform, Arise, will be used as a launchpad to take stakes in additional companies and grow the new company’s asset base to more than $1 billion in size.
According to Kjell Roland, Norfund’s CEO, “The establishment of Arise will contribute to the development of the financial sector in Africa on a scale which is far beyond what Norfund can achieve by itself. By partnering with experienced, like-minded investors such as FMO and Rabobank, will ensure that Arise benefits from excellent banking, technical and managerial expertise.”
Berry Marttin, Executive Board Member of Rabobank: “Rabobank’s activities in investing and building strong financial service providers in emerging economies, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, truly fit our Banking for Food strategy; focused on creating solutions with our clients to feed the world in 2050. It is therefore very important to us to take this approach to a higher level. By joining forces and pooling assets, networks and expertise with Norfund and FMO, two highly experienced development institutions of excellent reputation, we are taking a major step forward.”
Nanno Kleiterp, CEO at FMO: “FMO is proud to co-create a unique platform for investing in African banks with Norfund and Rabobank. Arise can leverage the extensive banking knowledge and valuable agri-banking expertise of its founding partners. This partnership will increase the availability of financial services to small and medium enterprises. Above all it will allow the people in Sub-Saharan Africa to empower themselves by getting bank accounts and taking loans and thus building a better life for their families.”
Apart from providing capital to the investee companies, Arise will provide technical assistance and management services in the fields of management, governance, marketing, innovation, compliance and risk management.
It’s said that Banco Montepio, a Portuguese financial group, will join the partnership in the near future.
Arise will be operational as from 1 January 2017 and will be present in over 20 countries.
1 Comment
Pingback: Norfund invests $20 million in Apis Growth Markets Fund III to propel fintech expansion in developing economies - Innovation Village | Technology, Product Reviews, Business