Proparco is supporting companies domiciled in France that operate in Africa via its participation in the FFA II fund. This project follows on from the FFA I fund. In addition to financial support, AfricInvest is assisting these French companies with their strategic development in Africa. The fund also attaches great importance to the impacts of its investments, corporate governance, transparency, job creation and respect for social and environmental values.
Client presentation
AfricInvest Europe is a French asset management company regulated by the French market authority. A subsidiary of Africinvest Group, AfricInvest Europe manages the Franco-African Fund, a EUR 77m private equity fund. It is the first cross-border fund dedicated to French small and medium-sized enterprises seeking to invest and expand in Africa. AfricInvest aims to support the investee companies with its experience, financing capacity, extensive network and the expertise of its teams in France and Africa in an effort to help them accelerate their growth and access new markets. It will also seek to facilitate partnerships with relevant business, financial, industrial and technological partners on each market.
Project description
The project targeting companies domiciled in France that operate in Africa will follow on from the predecessor fund FFA I in which Proparco and BPI invested in 2016. The fund’s strategy is to invest its capital in French mid-cap companies with strong growth potential based on an entrepreneurial approach to create medium and long-term value. In addition to providing financial support, AfricInvest will assist these French companies with their strategic development in Africa. The investments in French SMEs seeking growth opportunities in Africa will be in the form of equity investments, generally minority investments. In addition to the financial returns, the fund will focus on the impact of its investments on corporate governance, transparency, job creation and respect for social and environmental values.
Project impact
Based on the impact of the FFA I fund, we estimate that the expected impacts of FFA II are:
- Support for some 3,000 indirect jobs in the investee companies, including 10% of women employees;
- An improvement in the consideration of the environmental and social risks associated with the activities of the investee companies of FFA II by mobilizing Proparco’s E&S experts to ensure that these companies adopt the highest international standards (the regulations a priori only oblige them to apply local standards).
Through these impacts, the project is supporting SDG 8 “Decent work and economic growth”.