Africa Special Opportunities Capital (ASOC) Fund I, South Africa’s first dedicated distressed private equity fund, has recently concluded its first transaction by acquiring OptiCo. 

OptiCo trades as Opti-Baby & Kids (Opti Baby), which is a network of 12 premium pre-schools in the Gauteng region with little customers ranging from 6 weeks to 5 years of age. 

Opti Baby provides early childhood stimulation and care to over 800 children (across its owned and franchised schools) throughout Johannesburg and Pretoria. 

ASOC views private education as a niche, defensive sector as there is an increasing focus on school readiness at a younger age, particularly as competition for access to private educational institutions increases. 

Added to this is the increasing demand on families for dual incomes in a tough economy, making premium child care a household necessity. 

Opti Baby was historically undercapitalized over the past few years, and as a consequence struggled to service its debt burden. 

ASOC said it is in the process of recapitalizing the business and plans to execute a robust turnaround strategy to restore it to growth, which will include potential add-on acquisitions in new markets around South Africa. 

“We look forward to building a strong business that provides the very best of early childhood development.”

ASOC Fund I was launched in August 2016 with capital commitments of R150m.

The Fund focuses on investing into businesses that are experiencing organizational, financial or operational challenges, particularly in today’s challenging economy. 

ASOC seeks to deploy catalytic capital of up to R50m per investment and the benefit of the ASOC teams’ experience to help companies effect a turnaround or restructure and thereby have a better prospect of saving the organization and preserving jobs.