Enko Capital Managers (ECM) has reached a $83.25m final close of the Enko Africa Private Equity Fund (EAPEF), a Pan-African fund focused on providing growth capital to late-stage private companies across a broad spectrum of economic sectors in Africa.

Significant second close investors included Proparco, through its FISEA window, along with a collection of European investors managed by Massena Partners, an investment boutique created 25 years ago by Frank Noël-Vandenberghe advising private investors on their wealth and investment management.

These complemented EAPEF's original cornerstone investors, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Soros Brothers Investments along with other various institutional, family office and high net worth investors.

Cyrille Nkontchou, Managing Partner of ECM said: “We are delighted to welcome FISEA and Massena Partners as investors in EAPEF and believe that we now have a solid platform from which to build a portfolio of attractive private equity assets in Africa.”

EAPEF will focus on companies with the potential to list on local or regional stock exchanges convinced that Africa’s capital markets offer a potentially lucrative, yet underutilized exit route for private equity investors such as EAPEF.

Enko expects to complete eight transactions over the remaining investment period, building on its first investment in the financial services sector in Zambia.

“We are particularly excited at the prospect of investing in the blue chip companies of tomorrow and helping them realise their ambition of achieving sustainable growth,” Nkontchou said.

The fund’s goal is to exit from these investments three to four years post-investment at the point of an initial public offering of the company on an appropriate stock exchange.

In addition to Enko’s value add as a conventional private equity investor, its participation in the strategic management of portfolio companies is expected to result in improved corporate governance and transparency as well as stimulating the flow of private companies coming to the public markets.

Enko Capital Managers is part of the Enko Capital group, which also currently manages the Enko Opportunity Growth Fund, a pan-Africa focused, multi-strategy fund that invests in listed securities with significant exposure to Sub-Saharan Africa.