This investment was made when British International Investment was named CDC Group.
Our investment
In 2015, CDC invested $75 million into Pembani Remgro, alongside investments from other DFIs, including the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) and Germany's DEG. The fund closed at a total fund size of $302 million. Our investment supports the development of infrastructure projects in key regions across sub-Saharan Africa.
Expected impact
Many African countries, including the two biggest economies, Nigeria and South Africa, are plagued by poor, underinvested infrastructure and frequent power shortages that disrupt production. This limits wider economic growth.
Our investment will enable the fund manager to boost the region’s power supply and build its transport and logistics network.
The fund manager has already used seed capital to finance a minority stake in ETG, an agriculture logistics and infrastructure supply chain business which operates across several countries in sub-Saharan Africa; it also established GPR Leasing Africa, a joint venture for leasing rail rolling stock.
Environmental and social aspects
We are working closely with the fund manager to support the implementation of its Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS).
Key facts
- Status:
- Active
- Region
:
Since 2012, we’ve only invested in Africa and South Asia. Investments outside these regions are from our pre-2012 portfolio.
- Africa
- Sector
:
We have seven priority sectors. However, we continue to invest outside these sectors, largely in the most challenging regions, as new investment supporting any sector helps to underpin the private sector, and create jobs and livelihoods for people. For funds, the sectors listed here are those the fund has invested in so far.
- Business services, Communications and IT Services, Financial services, Food and agriculture, Infrastructure, Manufacturing
- Investment type
:
We provide capital in three broad ways: direct equity, debt, and intermediated equity (principally through investment funds).
- Intermediated investment
- Fund manager:
- Pembani Remgro MU GP Limited
- Start date
:
For direct investments, this is the date British International Investment committed capital to the business or project.
For funds, this is the date that British International Investment committed capital to the fund.
For underlying fund investments, this is the date that the fund invested capital into the business.e
- May 2015
- Amount
:
For direct investments, this is the total amount that British International Investment has committed to the business or project (it may be a combination of equity and debt).
For funds, this is the total amount that British International Investment has committed to the fund.
- $75m
- Domicile
:
This is the investee company’s place of incorporation; or a fund’s jurisdiction.
- Mauritius
Investments made by this fund
- Active
- Exited
| Investment name | Country | Region | Sector | Start date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ETC Group Limited
ETG is an African agribusiness with operations in crop buying, warehousing, distribution and merchandising that employs over 7,000 people and reaches hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers. Founded in 1967, the company owns and manages a vertically-integrated agriculture supply chain with operations in procurement, processing, warehousing, transport, distribution and merchandising. |
Tanzania | Africa, East Africa | Food and agriculture | November 2012 | Active |
|
Railco
GPR Leasing Africa is a joint venture between Grindrod and PRIF, created with the aim of meeting the asset financing requirements of the burgeoning rail market on the African continent. It provides key rail stakeholders, including existing and new mining projects, shippers as well as private and public rail operators with access to tailored, competitively priced and expandable roll stock leasing solutions. |
Africa | Financial services | February 2014 | Active | |
|
Octotel (Pty) Ltd
Octotel (Pty) Ltd (“Octotel”) was established in 2015 to undertake the roll out of open access fibre-to-the home infrastructure in Cape Town and surrounding areas. Octotel builds, owns and operates an open access network which enables internet service providers (“ISPs”) to deliver services to the end user. |
South Africa | Africa, Southern Africa | Communications and IT Services | October 2016 | Exited |
|
Nova Lumos Netherlands Holding B.V. (Lumos)
Nova Lumos Netherlands Holding B.V. (“Lumos”) sells residential off-grid rooftop solar electricity generation systems, which are capable of powering lights and a range of DC appliances including phone chargers, small televisions and fans. |
Nigeria | Africa, West Africa | Infrastructure | November 2016 | Active |
|
RSAWeb (Pty) Ltd
RSAWeb (Pty) Ltd is an Internet Service Provider company established in 2001 providing custom-built hosting and connectivity solutions to businesses and individuals. The company offers a wide range of hosting services, including cloud solutions, dedicated servers and server colocation. Connectivity solutions include mobile connectivity, ADSL and highspeed fibre to businesses and homes in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. |
South Africa | Africa, Southern Africa | Communications and IT Services | January 2017 | Exited |
| Solar Saver | Namibia | Africa, Southern Africa | Infrastructure | February 2018 | Active |
|
Gas Holdco
Gas Holdco is the holding company of three special purpose vehicles established solely for the implementation of three 10-year take-or-pay gas transportation agreements entered into with a large South African industrial manufacturer. The special purpose vehicles will construct and operate the gas pipelines to connect manufacturing plants to a gas transmission pipeline. |
South Africa | Africa, Southern Africa | Business services | January 2020 | Active |
|
icolo.io
icolo.io designs, builds and operates state of the art carrier neutral data centres to serve a broad spectrum of clients – telecom carriers, internet service providers, IT and cloud providers, content providers, enterprise and financial services customers. |
Kenya | Africa, East Africa | Infrastructure | April 2020 | Active |
|
Zimborders
Zimborders provides border facilities in Zimbabwe. This includes the design, construction , financing and maintenance of projects. |
Zimbabwe | Africa, East Africa | Manufacturing | November 2020 | Active |
|
GridX
GridX provides clean power solutions for businesses across Africa. |
Africa | Infrastructure | December 2020 | Active |
