MAURITIAN investment company TRT Investments has purchased a 49% stake in South African manufacturer KAS Africa.
The deal is worth about R145 million, and KAS Africa will use the capital to buy new plant and equipment to build capacity for the company.
KAS Africa is a manufacturer of personal, home, baby and oral care fast-moving consumer goods.
TRT Investments is a Mauritian independent investment holding business that manages a diverse portfolio of investments across Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, the US and Europe.
In a statement, KAS Africa said the transaction would strengthen its balance sheet and capacity to execute its future growth plans.
KAS Africa chief executive Vinny Perumal said the partnership with TRT Investments would enable KAS Africa to move the business to the next level.
“As a majority-black-woman-owned business, we believe continental domestic investment and confidence can transform Africa into an economic superpower,” said Perumal.
“There is a close fit between our contract manufacturing business in the personal care, home care, baby care, oral care sectors, and TRT Investments’s vision for unleashing Africa’s potential as an industrial powerhouse of the future,” said Perumal.
According to the statement, the investment was in line with TRT Investments’s drive to support industrialisation and economic growth across the continent.
TRT Investments chairperson Adam Molai said TRT investments’s objective was to increase KAS Africa’s growth.
“We have bought a significant share in KAS Africa because it fits into TRT’s strategy of industrialising Africa and helping to build it into the alternate supply chain of the world. We are particularly excited about the potential of expansion into East and West Africa for KAS Africa,” he said.
The transaction also provided KAS Africa with access to working capital facilities from TRT Investments with support from the African Export-Import Bank.
KAS Africa plans to enhance its product range, grow its client base, and build state-of-the-art, world-class manufacturing facilities across the continent.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE