Emerging Capital Partners Makes Tunisia Buy
The private equity fund’s $47 million deal will allow the Tunisian personal care business to branch out to additional African nations
May 21, 2008
Emerging Capital Partners spent $47.3 million to invest in Societe d’Articles Hygieniques (SAH) and will help the Tunisian company ramp up sales in other African nations, the private equity firm said Wednesday.
ECP, which is using six funds worth more than $1 billion to make investments in African companies, is throwing its weight behind a 12-year old company with an annual growth rate of about 30% that already has established a dominant market share in products including diapers and feminine hygiene products and is poised to grow in new territories.
“Tunisia is one of the better performing economies in Africa,” said Tom Gibian, the PE firm's chief executive officer. “The region has an expanding middle class.”
Expansion for now is slated to include neighboring nations Algeria and Libya, and could grow to also include Mauritania and other West African countries, said Hurley Doddy, ECP’s chief operating officer. Other M&A in Tunisia remains on the horizon; Doddy said energy and energy services sectors remain attractive as well.
The investment in SAH was made through two ECP funds: its Africa Fund II and its MENA Growth Fund. The former was established in 2005; the latter was assembled in 2007.
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