6 December 2010 - Gide Loyrette Nouel advises a pool of DFIs on the establishment of the African Agriculture Fund and its first closing at USD 135 million:

Gide Loyrette Nouel (GLN) advised a pool of European DFIs, comprising the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Promotion et Participation pour la Coopération économique (Proparco) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and a number of African DFIs, including the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and the ECOWAS Bank of Investment and Development (EBID), as limited liability partner investors, in connection with the structuring and establishlment of a private equity fund, the African Agriculture Fund (AAF), composed of Mauritian and South African parallel vehicles.

AAF, a private equity fund designed to respond to the food crisis that severely affected the continent in 2008 in the wake of escalating food prices, aims to invest throughout the whole African food industry. AAF reached its first closing at USD 135m in November 2010, with a total target size at USD 300m.

GLN scope of work also included the organisation of an international tender process for the selection of AAF's fund manager, Phatisa Fund Managers Limited. To fight the chronic undercapitalisation in African agribusiness and agriculture, the fund is equipped with an innovative mechanism designed to attract private sector capital. Lead investors such as AFD and AECID together with BOAD and EBID have pooled their shares into a first loss risk taking mechanism that will provide private investors in AAF with an accelerated return. A specific focus was also put on including strong socially responsible investment (SRI) and compliance requirements to ascertain an optimal and positive development outcome.

AAF Promoters were advised by partner Stéphane Puel, and senior associate Julien Vandenbussche of the GLN's Investment Funds team. They were assisted by Africa Legal on all English and South African law issues and by Muhammad Uteem Chambers on Mauritius law matters.