AfrAsia Bank raises Rs274m of FDI through Tier 1 Capital increase
October 6, 2010
AfrAsia Bank raises Rs274m of Foreign Direct Investment through Tier 1 Capital increase and attracts significant shareholding from world-renowned PROPARCO (Groupe Agence Française de Développement) for continued international expansion.
AfrAsia Bank Limited today announced the addition of an important world-class strategic partner, PROPARCO, to its shareholding structure as a vote of confidence in its financial performance and positioning in the local and regional markets. The new shareholder, a development financial institution whose main shareholder is the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), will contribute to the development of the Bank’s regional corporate and private banking growth strategies. PROPARCO’s mission is to be a catalyst for private investments in developing countries which target growth, sustainable development and reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
PROPARCO finances investments that are economically viable, socially equitable, environmentally sustainable and financially profitable. It tailors its sectoral strategy to the level of development of each country and focuses on productive sectors, financial systems, infrastructure and private equity investment. PROPARCO invests in a vast geographical area that encompasses both the major emerging countries and the poorest countries, particularly Africa.
To date, AfrAsia Bank’s growth plans and strategic vision have been clearly validated by the encouraging response from new investors, including South African shareholder Dale Capital Group, the Singaporean private equity firm, Intrasia Capital and now PROPARCO. PROPARCO is taking a 9.22% stake in the enlarged share capital of AfrAsia Bank which has just concluded a Rs274m rights capital expansion. This capital increase also sees existing shareholders Dale Capital of South Africa and Intrasia Capital of Singapore increase their stakes in AfrAsia to 9.99%. The fresh foreign direct investments into Mauritius will count as Tier 1 capital for the bank.
Mr Arnaud Lagesse, Chairman of AfrAsia Bank declared that “Since inception, AfrAsia Bank’s vision is to bring change and innovation to Mauritius banking and to grow regionally. After 3 years of operations, we are seeing our growth in 4 regions, namely South Africa where the Bank has 2 representative offices, Singapore, India and now France with the PROPARCO shareholding, which will help with French connections as well as develop relationship with the African regions where they have already strong presence with investments in different sectors”.
Mr James Benoit, CEO of AfrAsia Bank added that “Despite market turmoil, the bank’s performance has been truly encouraging which has attracted world class shareholders on board with us. Now with PROPARCO, we will continue to deliver on our promise to be a truly one-stop boutique regional bank linking Mauritius and the Africa-Asia trade corridor”.
He further added “AfrAsia Bank was among the first to recognize the growth potential of the African Lions to match the rise of the Asian Tiger economies. Much of our strategies and growth are coming from this mission to be the reference Private and Corporate Bank in the region to facilitate Africa-Asia trade and investment flows. This can be seen in our strong customer and financial growth which is hard to find elsewhere in the world these days”.
PROPARCO’s CEO Luc Rigouzzo remarked that the strategic vision of AfrAsia Bank was compelling to them:”PROPARCO supports AfrAsia’s vision of Mauritius as a value-adding platform for Africa-Asia financial flows, in line with the idea of development of the South-South trade fostered by the AFD Group.”
Laurence Breton, Director of AFD in Mauritius, further explained that “The transaction was part of the group’s more general approach to build up strong relationships with Mauritian conglomerates and accompany them in their investment strategy abroad, notably in Africa and Madagascar.”