Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Kagiso Tiso Holdings (KTH) has acquired an interest of about 30% in Nigerian healthcare company Me Cure Healthcare as the group increases its presence in west Africa.
The deal, which comes hardly a month after the firm invested R1bn in facilities management firm Servest, is part of a strategy to expand its presence in the rest of Africa and grow into a pan-African investment company.
The acquisition of Nigeria’s Me Cure for an undisclosed amount is KTH’s second transaction in West Africa after the group bought Ghana’s Fidelity Bank last year.
Me Cure, among other things, provides preventive care and offers diagnostic services in dental and eye care. It is also expanding into oncology.
"This is very much a growth play. It adds to our pan-African exposure," KTH chief investment officer Jacob Hinson said.
Me Cure chairman Samir Udani said the capital from KTH would be used to expand the company.
"We believe that we share a similar value system and were impressed with their proactive approach, the speed of their decision-making and the value we believe they can bring."
Aliya Shariff, director of investments at KTH, said that more deals from the rest of Africa were expected to follow, however not as quickly as the Servest and Me Cure transactions.
"We will certainly continue. We are seeing a lot in Nigeria and spending a lot of time in east Africa."
Mr Hinson said that KTH was aggressively looking for assets in the food and beverage space in SA and the rest of the continent.
The company, which was born of the merger of Kagiso Trust Investments and Tiso Group in 2011, said it was confident it would have enough cash for future deals.
KTH can still tap into a war chest with more than R1bn in debt capacity if another deal opportunity comes earlier than expected.
The firm expects to reduce the number of its investments from more than 20 to the mid-teens in the next 18 months.
This should help it unlock more capital to acquire shares in companies where it will be more influential or hold controlling interests.
KTH, which has an asset base in excess of R15bn, counts among its investments Kagiso Media, Kagiso Asset Management, financial services company MMI and Actom, a provider, repairer and distributor of electro-mechanical equipment.
bdlive.co.za
