Zimbabwean private equity firm Takura Capital recently purchased Mozambican vegetable producer Companhia do Vanduzi for an undisclosed price via a bidding process managed by Verdant Capital, a corporate finance firm based in Mauritius. The seller is the same UK-based family office that founded Vanduzi in 2004.
Vanduzi is based in the Manica province, about 60 kilometres from the Zimbabwe border. The company exports all of its products, which include baby corn and chilli peppers that are sold in the UK, the Netherlands and South Africa. It has 1,400 employees, 900 hectares in production and approximately 500 contracted smallholder farmers.
Takura, which was established in 1997, acquired Cairns Holding, a Zimbabwean agri-to-FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) firm, in 2015. According to US-based business data aggregator Crunchbase, Takura has raised funds totalling USD 92 million.
The sale of Vanduzi is the second transaction Verdant has completed in Mozambique since 2016. Verdant, which has offices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mauritius and South Africa, provides capital raising as well as merger and acquisition advisory services. It operates in the agri-business, clean energy, business services, financial services and manufacturing industries.
-microcapital.org/ COM
