A consortium of five companies including AIG Investments and Emerging Capital Partners has provided Nigeria’s Intercontinental Bank with $161 million (€118 million) of growth capital.
Investors Emerging Capital Partners, Vectis Capital, Firstrand International, Rashed Abdulrahman Al Rashed & Sons Company and AIG Investments provided the capital. The transaction will support Intercontinental Bank’s expansion strategy inside and outside Nigeria.
The investment was part of a larger $850 million growth capital fundraising by the bank. It has a market capitalisation of $3.5 billion on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and assets of $5.5 billion under management.
Last month, emerging markets buyout firm Actis led a $134 million investment in Nigerian bank Diamond. According to data provider Dealogic, the largest private equity deal in the country so far is the $250 million acquisition of the Aluminium Smelting Company of Nigeria by Russian buyout firm Basic Element.
Andre Steyn, of AIG Investments, said: “Most of the larger Nigerian banks are raising capital. Because many of them have merged in the last year and a half there is also a good base for larger transactions in the country.”
Nigeria’s President Yar’Adua was elected in April this year. Although the election was marred by allegations of malfeasance, vote rigging, ballot box stuffing, and non-transparent counting, his election did at least mark the first democratic transferral of power from one civilian leader to another in the country’s history.
The demographics of the country are also highly attractive to investors as it is the largest country in Africa with around 140 million people, Steyn added.
If you do not receive this within five minutes, please try to sign in again. If the problem persists, please email: