Verdant Capital completes its third fintech transaction in 2020 with the closing of the final leg of a USD 13 million debt and equity raise for the South African innovative car subscription business, Planet42. The capital raise follows transactions completed by Verdant Capital for innovative productive lease-financing business in East Africa, Tugende and technology-driven SME lender in South Africa, Retail Capital. Verdant Capital raised a total of USD 40 million in the sector in 2020, evidencing strong support for the sector in Africa from a variety of investors types, and from investors from around the World. In total in Africa in […]
Africa Global Funds, the leading industry journal covering private equity and other asset classes across Africa, awarded this accolade to Verdant Capital in recognition of the firm’s major transaction volumes in 2020 across M&A and private credit and across the Continent. Geographically, Verdant Capital completed transactions in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Namibia with buyers and investors from the US, Switzerland, Germany, the UK, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Baltics, South Africa, and Nigeria. To read the full list of winners please see https://www.agfawards.com/
The negative economic repercussions of Covid-19 has not spared the capital structures of Inclusive Financial Institutions (“IFIs”) across Africa. Even top-quartile IFIs who have shown resiliency through Covid-19 with the benefit of sufficient capital and liquidity buffers will mostly either break-even or make losses in 2020, i.e. a one-time loss of retained earnings. There has been a global response to balance sheet strains faced by financial institutions in the form of deferred Basel III implementation. The Basel Committee’s Oversight body, the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision endorsed in March a number of measures to provide banks […]
Planet42 is an innovative car subscription company that helps individuals ignored by banks to get access to a personal vehicle. To date, Planet 42 has bought and delivered over 2 000 second-hand cars in South Africa, its primary market. The debt capital raise, which follows an equity capital raise of approx. USD 3 million earlier in the year will help the company get many more South African mobile. Its Rent-To-Buy product is a flexible alternative to traditional finance for individuals who do not have access to financing from banks as a result of stringent lending policies. Planet42 signs motor vehicle […]
Verdant Capital’s 2020 IFI survey points to a year of transition ahead. Verdant Capital’s 2020 survey of Inclusive Financial Institutions points to a year of transition ahead, in terms of accessing capital markets, restructuring relationships with borrowers and changed business models. The survey also looks at steps taken by IFIs to weather the storm presented by Covid-19 and related economic dislocation and to support clients. The key takeaways are summarised in this report. 57% of respondents indicated that they expect to raise equity or equity-like capital in early 2021. This is consistent with Verdant Capital’s experience that IFI clients are […]
