A group of three entities recently acquired majority control of GlobalCorp for Financial Services, an Egyptian provider of leasing and factoring services to small and large enterprises. The buyers are France-based fund manager Amethis, the UK-based multilateral European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); and a fund of Mauritius-based SPE Capital. The firms bought an undisclosed portion of GlobalCorp’s shares from a fund managed by Egyptian private equity manager Ezdehar and a 30-percent stake from the Sanad Fund for MSME, a public-private partnership that invests in funders of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The pricing of the deals remains confidential. Sanad Board Chair Dr Daniela Beckmann said the investment would further GlobalCorp’s “overall goal to promote financial inclusion” in Egypt.
GlobalCorp, founded in 2015, offers services such as direct leases, credit lines, debt swaps, receivables administration and recourse factoring. The firm does not publish its financial data.
Amethis, launched in 2012, is a unit of Switzerland-based Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity. It operates in Africa and Europe across multiple sectors, focusing on education, financial services, health, retail and technology. In May 2022, it reported assets under management totaling EUR 810 million (USD 864 million). Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity reports total assets under management of CHF 3.6 billion (USD 3.7 billion) as of December 2021.
Founded in 1991, EBRD seeks to support a “transition to open, market economies, whilst fostering sustainable and inclusive growth” in 38 countries in Central Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa. It does this by providing business advice, supporting trade finance, and investing debt and equity in funders of MSMEs. The institution disbursed approximately EUR 10.4 billion (USD 11.1 billion) to 413 projects during 2021. EBRD’s shareholders comprise 71 governments in addition to the EU and the European Investment Bank.
SPE Capital reports having placed an approximate total of USD 500 million via around 20 investments in Africa and Middle East. The firm had managed private equity within Saudi Arabia-based Swicorp before its spinoff in 2016.
Sanad, which means “support” in Arabic, was founded in 2011 by the German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). The fund makes equity and debt investments in organisations that support MSMEs and households such as microfinance institutions, leasing companies, banks and firms that facilitate access to markets. Sanad invests across the Middle East and Africa with an emphasis on Egypt and Tunisia. Its investors include US-based Calvert Impact Capital; the EU; Germany’s GLS Bank; and development finance institutions of the Austrian, Dutch, German and Swiss governments. As of 2021, Sanad had an outstanding debt portfolio of USD 295 million. It is advised by Germany’s Finance in Motion, which manages assets valued at EUR 2.5 billion (USD 2.7 billion) as of 2020.
By Saulius Simonas Ramanauskas, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Sources
Sanad press release
https://sanad.lu/events-press/sanad-sells-its-equity-in-global-corp-for-financial-services-to-international-investor-consortium
EBRD press release
https://www.ebrd.com/news/2022/amethis-ebrd-and-spe-capital-acquire-globalcorp.html
GlobalCorp homepage
https://www.globalcorp-fin.com
Amethis homepage
https://amethis.com
SPE Capital homepage
https://www.spe-capital.com
EBRD homepage
https://www.ebrd.com
Previous MicroCapital brief on EBRD
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-ebrd-moves-to-block-russia-belarus-from-funding-technical-assistance-boost-financing-in-ukraine/
Sanad homepage
https://sanad.lu
Ezdehar homepage
https://ezdehar.com
Finance in Motion homepage
https://www.finance-in-motion.com
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