Amethis Finance invests in Ramco Plexus, a leading printing and packaging Group in Kenya
This partnership intends to consolidate Ramco’s market share and reinforce its expansion in East and Central Africa.
December 19th, 2014
Further to Ramco internal restructuring that started 2 years back, Amethis Finance has announced it has just acquired one third of Ramco Plexus in order to foster the Group expansion in Kenya and across the region.
With more than 29 years of experience in the print and packaging sector, Ramco Plexus is a consortium of 9 companies and is part of the Ramco Group. It provides a fully integrated solution for the printing and packaging sector in Kenya.
The long-term partnership between Amethis and Ramco aims at creating value-added by reorganizing and consolidating the printing and packaging activities under the same roof in order to release positive synergies and support the growth of Ramco Plexus, which has the ambition to reach the critical size which will enable it to consolidate its positioning in the region.
The Ramco Group was started in 1948 as a hardware store by the late Rambhai Patel and since its inception has grown to be a conglomerate of 34 companies pre-dominantly in Kenya and with a footprint in the rest of East Africa. Ramco Group has diverse interests covering the manufacturing, trading and service sectors. This family business has a combined workforce of 3’000 people, and an annual turnover of US$265 million dollars and has been recognized as one of the leading family business in Africa.
The companies that fall under Ramco Plexus have a combined annual turnover of US$62 million and a workforce of over 1’200. These include
- Ramco Printing Works Ltd – Largest offset printing, digital printing and promotional material supplier
- Polythene Industries Ltd –Extrusion, Flexo Printing and Bag Making supplier
- Platinum Packaging Ltd – Gravure printing and flexible packaging
- Market Power International Ltd – Prepress, Digital printing, print on demand and large format branding
- ASL Packaging Ltd, – Corrugated Cartons & Expanded Polystyrene boxes
- The Print Store Ltd – Importers & Stockists of paper & board for the printing industry
- Ecopallets Ltd – Manufacturers of Environment friendly pallets made of Corrugated Board
- Broekhof Ltd. – Flowers sleeves and supplier to the Horticulture sector
Whilst the Ramco Plexus companies are relatively recent compared to their long-standing competitors, they have managed to differentiate themselves by providing a modern and innovative product portfolio to the market thanks to large investments in state-of-the-art equipment and a proactive management led by the third generation of the Rambhai family. Ramco Plexus now ranks in the top 3 in almost all their businesses and are gaining market shares every year. Amethis will bring value-added in various areas to support the company’s in its regional strategy and to consolidate its leading position in its market.
Amethis will be an active stakeholder by supporting the implementation of Ramco Plexus’ strategy as well as improving the Group’s governance. By harvesting the fruits of the partnership between Amethis and Ramco Plexus, an African leader in the printing and packaging sector emerges.
“Ramco has successfully managed to adapt to changing trade and economic structure through product diversification, vertical integration and state of the art technology. Amethis is delighted and proud to have entered into such a long term partnership with the Rambhai Family. We are confident this Amethis investment will support Ramco’s regional expansion and that Amethis European and African network will help to identify acquisitions targets and build strategic partnerships.”
— says Luc Rigouzzo President and Co-founder of Amethis.
“This partnership with Amethis, which is a long term strategic investor, will allow us to differentiate ourselves further and will accelerate our plans to expand in the East and Central Africa.”
— says Kirit Patel, Chairman of the Ramco Group.
“I am very excited by all the synergies this operation will allow between these nine entities and the benefit it will bring to their clients and employees.
— says Jean-Sébastien Bergasse, Investment Director of Amethis.
Ramco Group
The Ramco Group is a conglomerate of over 34 companies operating within East Africa with a major focus in 4 key industries: Print, Stainless Steel, IT & Office Supplies and Hardware & Building Materials. Launched more than 60 years ago by Mr.Rambhai Patel, Ramco Group started from humble beginnings as a hardware store in Nairobi in 1948 and has since expanded into Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda and now employs over 3,000 people with an annual turnover in excess of US$265 million.
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.
For further information, please contact:
❖ Ramco (www.ramco-group.com) :
Amit Patel (amit@ramco.co.ke)
Hasit Patel (hasit@ramco.co.ke)
Kartik Patel (kartik@ramco.co.ke)
❖ Amethis Finance (www.amethisfinance.com) :
Laurent Demey (laurent.demey@amethisfinance.com)
Luc Rigouzzo (luc.rigouzzo@amethisfinance.com)
Jean-Sébastien Bergasse (jean-sebastien.bergasse@amethisfinance.com)