Verdant Capital awarded Africa M&A Deal of the Year by Acquisition International
Verdant Capital has been awarded the prestigious Africa M&A deal of the year (2016) by Acquisition International, for its USD 51 million sale of Greenbelt Fertilisers to Yara International. The transaction, which is one of the largest transactions in the fertiliser sector in Africa in recent times, completed in May 2016 following COMESA competition authority approval.
The transaction is part of a broader global trend whereby the largest upstream producers are buying up regional fertiliser blending and marketing businesses. Over the last five years there have been 30 such transactions globally (about a quarter of which in Africa) for a total value of about $5bn. Yara, headquarterd in Oslo, Norway, is a global fertiliser group and one of the World’s largest producers of urea, one of the three primary nutrients required to make fertilisers. Greenbelt Fertiliser’s business, with annual sales of 80,000 tonnes in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique complements Yara’s market positions in the Cape region of South Africa,Tanzania and elsewhere in Africa.
The award is a further testament to Verdant Capital’s strength in cross boarder M&A, both within the Africa region and between Africa and Western Europe.