Amethis Finance and Retail Holding jointly invest in CDCI
Amethis Finance and Retail Holding (the parent company of Label’Vie Group) jointly invest in CDCI, the number 2 food distribution Company in Côte d’Ivoire, thus building a long-term partnership to support the Company’s development in Côte d’Ivoire and in the Sub-region.
The Company was acquired from Unilever in 2002 by Mr Yasser Ezzedine, an Ivorian and Lebanese entrepreneur, pioneer of the Ivorian food distribution sector. CDCI operates under four brands: CDCI Gros, CDCI Demi-gros, King Cash and the Leader Price franchise. Over the past decade, Mr Ezzedine allowed the Company to achieve a large national coverage based on a strategy of proximity centered on the low to middle income customers. The Company has significantly expanded its network from 12 shops in 2002 to 127 shops in 2014 with a presence in Abidjan and the interior of Côte d’Ivoire.
“The Group CDCI is ideally poised to benefit from the Ivorian economic recovery and the rise of a middle class with an increasing purchasing power in a market still characterized by a low penetration rate of the modern distribution ”, as underlined by Khady Kone-Dicoh, Investment Director at Amethis.
In this transaction, Amethis successfully managed to build a partnership between CDCI and Label’Vie, the number 2 of food distribution sector in Morocco. According to the co-founder and the Managing Partner of Amethis Laurent Demey, “Amethis is proud to support this long-term partnership between two major actors of the distribution sector in Africa”. Label’Vie and Amethis will together bring a strategic and operational expertise to CDCI, support the Company’s development in Côte d’Ivoire and the Sub-region and actively participate to the Company’s governance, with the ambition for the company to become an African leader in the distribution sector.
For further information, please contact:
❖ Amethis Finance (www.amethisfinance.com) :
Laurent Demey (laurent.demey@amethisfinance.com)
Luc Rigouzzo (luc.rigouzzo@amethisfinance.com)
Khady Koné-Dicoh (khady.kone-dicoh@amethisfinance.com)
About Retail Holding (the parent company of Label’Vie)
Retail Holding is the distribution arm of the group BEST FINANCIERE, a Group operating in F&B distribution (Label’Vie) and in many other modern distribution through international brands like Kiabi, Gifi, Virgin and Burger King. Retail Holding Africa is the subsidiary of Retail Holding dedicated to investments in Africa. This investment in CDCI is the first step of its development strategy in West Africa.
About Amethis Finance
Amethis Finance is an investment fund dedicated to Africa, with a total investment capacity of USD 530m since its first closing done in December 2012, split between USD 380m in equity and USD 150m in debt. Amethis Finance has been created by a team led by Luc Rigouzzo and Laurent Demey, and by La Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild. They have been joined by a large group of private investors combining financial institutions and family offices. Amethis Finance is a “one-stop shop” which provides a full set of long-term financial instruments, investing both in debt and equity, with high objectives in terms of development, social, environmental and governance matters, while delivering attractive performance to its investors. Part of this investment has been made through Amethis West Africa. CDCI is the fifth equity investment made by Amethis since its launching early 2013.
About Amethis West Africa
Amethis West Africa « AWA » is Amethis Finance subsidiary dedicated to investments in West and Central Africa, based in Abidjan. AWA targets minority equity investments in medium-sized companies to support their local and regional development. AWA’s investors include major institutional investors from the sub-region. CDCI is the first investment made by AWA, who has been launched in July 2014.