Page 59 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 19

Innovate Afrika

Private equity in Africa’s dairy sector

Company Countries Private equity/corpora- Notes
tions involved
Société Afric- Côte d’Ivoire Duet Private In 2015, the UK-based private equity group Duet acquired SAPLED from the Sifaoui Group. In
aine des Pro- Equity 2019, workers at the company’s factory in Abidjan went on strike over two months of unpaid wag-
duits Laitiers es. Thirteen months later, in February 2021, they were back on strike, this time over four months of
et Dérivés unpaid wages. The General Director blamed the company’s debts for the unpaid wages.
(SAPLED)
MB Plc Ethiopia Cerberus In 2016, Singapore-based SGI Frontier Capital, which was backed by the UK’s CDC Group,
Capital acquired a 45% stake in MB Plc, makers of the Family Milk brand in Ethiopia. In 2018, CSGI Fron-
Management tier Capital was acquired by Cerberus Capital Management of the US.

Fan Milk Ghana, Nigeria, Danone, Abraaj In 2013, the private equity fund Abraaj Group and Danone acquired Ghana-based Fan Milk, “the
Côte d’Ivoire, Group leading manufacturer and distributor of frozen dairy products and juices in West Africa”. In 2019,
Togo, and Danone acquired Abraaj’s stake, giving it 100% control of the company. In February 2021, Fan Milk
Burkina Faso announced an agreement with Nigeria’s Ogun State to build a large-scale dairy farm.
Countryside Kenya DobEquity, In 2016, the Dutch private equity firm DobEquity purchased a stake in newly established dairy
Dairy Acumen (FMO, processor Countryside Dairy. In 2021, it received further investment from the Acumen Resilient
Proparco, etc) Agriculture Fund, a fund managed by New York-based private equity firm Acumen and backed by
the Dutch development bank FMO and the French development bank Proparco, along with the
Soros Economic Development Fund.
Brookside Kenya, Rwanda, Danone, Abraaj Kenya-based Brookside is the largest dairy processor in East Africa, buying milk daily from 200,000
Dairy Uganda Group farmers and operating in 12 countries. It was founded and remains majority owned by the fam-
ily of the Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta. Brookside’s expansion has been aided by foreign
investment, first from Abraaj Group of Dubai, which held a 10% stake via a fund partly owned by
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation before its collapse in 2018, and then the French dairy giant
Danone, which now holds a 40% stake.

L&Z Nigeria GBfoods Sosaco was a subsidiary of the Honk Kong trading company Watanmal, whose main products are
Africa Holdco tomato paste imported from China and sold under the Gino brand and Jago processed milk. In
(jointly owned 2017, GB Foods of Spain and the private equity fund Helios Investors III acquired Watanmal’s
by GB Foods African operations, alongside a USD15.5 million investment from the World Bank’s IFC.
of Spain and
Helios)
Ndoto Farms Tanzania AgDevCo In 2013, Ndoto Farms, a dairy farm in Iringa with a herd of around 350 cattle, received a USD
90,000 investment from the AgDevCo, a UK private equity fund that mainly invests on behalf of
the UK’s DFID.

Tanga Fresh Tanzania DobEquity Tanga Fresh operates Tanzania’s largest dairy processing plant in the Tanga region, where the
government and foreign donors have been promoting the development of dairy farming. The com-
pany received an initial investment from the Dutch private equity firm DOB Equity in 2007 and a
further, undisclosed investment in 2020.

Pearl Dairies Uganda MIDCOM, MIDCOM is a Dubai-based company run by Indian businessman Anand Kapoor, with backing
TPG Capital from established Indian-Ugandan businessman Bhasker Kotecha, who is the owner of Midland.
Pearl received an investment from the World Bank’s IFC of USD 8 million in 2013 towards the
construction of the powdered milk plant in Mbarara District. TPG’s Rise Fund now owns 34%
of the company, with Kapoor and Kotecha retaining 33% each. While TPG claimed it would help
take Pearl international, targeting Algeria, Ethiopia, Malawi and South Sudan, in March 2021, Pearl
Dairies shuttered its milk processing plant in Mbarara and announced it was shifting to honey pro-
duction for export to Europe.
Lakeside Uganda, Kenya Dodla Dairies, Lakeside is a subsidiary of the Indian dairy company Dodla Dairy, which entered Uganda through a
Dairies TPG Capital purchase of Hillside Dairy and Agriculture Ltd in 2014-5. Dodla also has a milk trading company in
Kenya called Dodla Dairy Kenya. Dodla is 25% owned by TPG’s Rise Fund, and 5% by the World
Bank’s IFC.

Dendairy Zimbabwe Dendairy is 27% owned by the Norwegian private equity company Spear Capital, which lists
Norfund and the Government of the Netherlands among its investors. It was granted lands by the
government in the Chiredzi area, where about 12,500 people of the Chilonga Community live and
are set to be evicted. The communities have been fighting to stop the eviction.

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