Publications
- African Rainbow Capital has been topping up its shareholding in existing investments.
- It also bought more than a third of one of Africa's leading independent fintech platforms, Crossfin.
- But the company has sold a big chunk of its Afrimat shares and has disposed of its entire stake in MetroFibre.
It was a busy 2021 for Patrice Motsepe's African Rainbow Capital (ARC), with the company spending R327 million on acquisitions in the second half of the year alone.
The investment holding company acquired 37.33% of Crossfin – one of Africa's leading independent fintech platforms – for R415 million. ARC will pay another R300 million towards that transaction this year.
This was the largest fintech deal in SA, valued at R1.5 billion. Private equity manager Ethos financed the remainder of that transaction.
ARC also bulked up its stakes in existing businesses and offered loans where needed.
ARC Financial Services injected an additional R257 million into TymeBank and TymeGlobal. It also invested another R83 million in Alexander Forbes. After that investment and fair value gain of R86 million, ARC's effective investment in Alexander Forbes went from R767 million on 30 June 2021 to R936 million by 31 December 2021.
Outside of financial services, the ARC Fund bought additional shares in phosphate miner Kropz Plc for R55 million. The Fund also gave an additional R200 million convertible loan facility to Kropz Plc to help fund operations at Elandsfontein until it starts production and generates revenue. Kropz had only drawn R127 million of that at the end of 2021, taking the total invested by ARC in that company to R182 million.
ARC co-CEO Johan van Zyl said after some setbacks on commencing production, the Elandsfontein mine has started producing phosphate.
"We're in the process of making some sales. In the next few weeks, we will deliver a few consignments, and so we'll get started making some money there," said Van Zyl.
ARC also invested an additional R56 million in mobile data operator Rain. ARC's shareholding in Rain increased from R3.3 billion in June 2021 to R3.37 billion at the end of 2021 because of the additional investment and a fair value gain of R2 million.
ARC Investments invested R64 million in the ARCH Cold Chain Solutions East Africa Fund. The Fund was established to support the development, construction and operation of greenfield cold storage and distribution facilities in East Africa.
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