African agribusiness: Supporting growth with Ocorian!
African agribusiness as one of Africa’s most important economic pillars has for long been at the heart of the solutions we have developed at Ocorian to support the development goals of the continent. With Africa’s agribusiness poised for further growth under the impetus of new technologies, we remain committed to the success of our clients operating in that sector.
Operating from the Mauritius financial centre, we have provided large agricultural companies and private equity funds with a focus on Africa’s agriculture with a range of investment structuring, administration and corporate finance services to help them through their growth stages.
We have developed specialist expertise in fund administration, including for private equity funds with hundreds of millions of dollars invested in agribusiness activities across the continent. As a member of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), we are aligned with the ESG requirements of impact funds.
Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) across the world are showing a growing appetite to invest in impact funds in Africa. Agribusiness is one of their preferred sectors, mainly due to its potential to lift millions of people out of poverty and contribute to the continent’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). In their appraisal of an investee company’s attractiveness, corporate governance is paramount. As a corporate and fiduciary services provider operating in a large number of financial centres, we are committed to helping our clients enhance their governance capital.
Finance capital is key to growth. While improving governance capital will ease access to finance capital, we have also developed specialist corporate finance advisory services to help our agribusiness clients secure funds for their growth. As an example, we conducted all the financial due diligence for a large Africa-focused agricultural services company and introduced them to local banks in Mauritius. We also helped that client in setting up its investment holding vehicle in Mauritius and a local office from where it now conducts the bulk of its treasury operations for its African activities. The absence of exchange control and the maturity of its banking system makes Mauritius particularly effective for the conduct of treasury management operations.
Says Rajesh Shibdeen, a Relationship Manager at Ocorian, about a large Africa-focused agribusiness company in his portfolio: “The main advantage of what we do as corporate administrators is that we take all the administrative burden off our clients’ shoulders, leaving them free to focus on their business.”
Alan Witherden, Ocorian Business Development Director based in Johannesburg has been instrumental in advising agribusiness entities in South Africa to expand their operations in a welcoming African environment, sensibly channelled through a Mauritius entity. Please contact him directly for advice.
About Ocorian and African agribusiness
Ocorian is a global leader in fund administration, corporate and fiduciary services, and capital markets.
Supporting and protecting global investment is our priority. With offices worldwide, our global network is designed to deliver exactly what our clients need, exactly how and where they need it.
Our approach is personal, professional and flexible. We take the time to understand our clients’ ambitions and work with them to deliver customised, scalable solutions that can be fully integrated across clients’ existing operations, processes and platforms.
For further information please contact Alan Witherden :
Business Development Director
TEL: +27 (0)10 020 3572
MOBILE: +27 (0)82 571 5402
MAIL: alan.witherden@ocorian.com
For any questions, you can mail us at marketing@agri4africa.com or visit our site for other exciting business opportunities!
