Kenya Tops East Africa in Private Equity Deals

East Africa’s private equity market activities rose to a record high with Kenya leading the region by a number of investments and deal sizes.

A report from I&M Burbidge Capital shows that out of the 132 private equity deals in East Africa Kenya had 97 deals worth Sh167.47 billion ($1.35 billion) up from 76 in 2021 worth Sh101.72 billion ($820 million). 

Uganda had 21 deals worth $175 million up from 15 deals in 2021 worth $68 million, while Tanzania had six deals worth $131 million.

“Private capital markets drove activity to match and even surpass pre-Covid-19 levels of performance. A majority of this growth was driven by the continued meteoric rise in venture capital investment in East Africa,” the report titled Annual East Africa Financial Review 2022 says.

The report also says growth in activities is expected to build up in 2023 as public markets take a backstage turn due to global economic uncertainty.

“We expect that overall PE activity will be robust in 2023, principally driven by venture capital investment, increasing DFI participation in the market, and private equity exits,” the report sponsored by PKF Consulting and DLA Africa says.

The deal of the year was Amethis, IFC, DEG, and MCB Private Equity’s exit from Naivas Supermarkets to Ireland Blythe Limited, from Mauritius, Proparco, and DEG.

Other notable private equity and venture capital transactions recorded during the year include Leapfrog’s $70 million investment in Sun King, AfricInvest’s acquisition of Actis’ stake in AutoXpress, and Wasoko’s $125 million series B capital raise led by Tiger Global and Avenir Growth Capital.

These include VC and DFI led deals, with a disclosed value of $1.66 billion which is a 103 percent increase over 2021 from 78 transactions that had a declared deal value. 

This comes at a time when public equity markets are at their lowest in years due to a heavy exit of foreign investors.

A closer look at the data reveals that venture capital transactions dominated investment activity with 66 transactions and a 100 percent increase over 2021 which had a total disclosed deal value of $713.1 million up 1167 percent from 2021.

Venture Capital investments dominated investment activity accounting for 51 percent of all private transactions and 40 percent of the disclosed deal value.