Tuninvest, a Tunis-based private equity firm, has announced its second vehicle specialising in the region, the Maghreb Private Equity Fund II. Although the fund is not big – total commitments are €125m ($197m) – it has attracted serious outside interest in the form of the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private sector lender, and the European Investment Bank, alongside European institutional investors. The IFC invests in funds like this to provide confidence to other investors and to establish benchmarks of quality and good governance.
Tuninvest says the fund has already approved new investments worth €58m in companies based in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
“Most of our focus has been on Tunisia and Morocco but . . . Algeria’s share will rise,” says Ziad Oueslati, one of the founders of Tuninvest. “We have seen three to four years of consistent growth in the region with entrepreneurs more focused on the regional scope than on country level.”
The fund seeks to invest in small and medium enterprises with a turnover between €10m and €50m.
Mr Oueslati anticipates an expansion into Libya with an eye on activities in the non-bank financial sector such as leasing equipment.
In Algeria, where Tuninvest has been working since 2000, it has a minority stake in Maghreb Leasing Algerie which, Mr Oueslati says, has been “showing very nice profits and market share”. It is also investing in the biggest local juice producer, a Wimax and VoIP company – Wimax and VoIP are communications technologies – and in a snacks business.
Other stakes are in Nouvelair, a charter company serving Europe which is listed in Tunis, and Medis, a pharmaceutical company.
“[Tuninvest’s] strategy is essentially focused on growth capital, which means they create value,” says Abdellatif Kabbaj, investment officer at the IFC Private Equity Investment Fund. “We now see them attracting commercial investors in their funds, which is a welcome development.”
