Tana Africa Capital

Tana Africa Capital is an Africa-focused investment company founded by E. Oppenheimer & Son International Ltd and Temasek. Through the medium of capital and business building support, Tana aims to build African business institutions for generations to come. In doing so, Tana is able to draw on the rich heritage, vast experience and extensive networks of its founding shareholders as well as the on-the-ground African knowledge and operating experience of its management team. Like its namesake, Ethiopia’s Lake Tana (the source of the Blue Nile), Tana aims to serve as a fount of development, leaving an enduring, tangible and positive legacy on the businesses which it supports.

Investment Approach

Tana’s investment approach is predicated on the following three core principles:

Active Investment Management

Tana is an active, value orientated investor that engages positively and in a collaborative fashion with the boards and management of the companies in which it invests. Tana prioritises the institutionalisation of business practices such as business leadership, financial discipline, operational excellence and sound corporate governance. In doing so, it is able to draw on its investment team’s deep experience in strategy and operations across Africa.

Long-Term Investment Focus

The value-adding, partnership approach is supported by the fact that Tana limits the number of companies in which it invests, focusing its efforts on companies that can serve as platforms for domestic and regional expansion. Developing such enduring businesses will, at times, require the adoption of lengthy investment time horizons. The flexibility that Tana has in terms of investment holding periods originates from the fact that it has been established as an evergreen investment company and has as its founding shareholders investors that have achieved great success from eschewing the short termism that dominates much of the investment world.

Clear Sector Focus

Tana’s investment activities are focused on two primary sectors: Consumer and Agriculture. This clear sector focus brings with it deep industry expertise and extensive networks, greatly enhancing the positive impact that Tana can have on the companies in which it invests. 

Focus Sectors and Investment Criteria

Tana invests between US$20 million and US$75 million to acquire significant minority or control equity positions in established businesses across Africa that operate within the Consumer and Agriculture sectors.

Consumer Focus

Companies well positioned to meet the consumption needs of Africa’s young, energetic and growing population are core to Tana’s Consumer sector focus. There is tremendous economic and social value in satisfying the food, beverage and personal care consumer good needs of the African populace, providing the building materials required to house the growing number of households, and offering the logistical support needed to produce and deliver these goods.

Within the Consumer sector, Tana focuses its efforts on:

• Food, beverage and personal care fast moving consumer goods
• Building materials
• Retail
• Logistics

We also consider select opportunities in Consumer Financial Services, Media, Healthcare and Education.

Agriculture Focus

Africa, which has the largest reservoir of undeveloped arable land in the world, will play a pivotal role in the decades ahead in ensuring that the food requirements of a rapidly growing world population are met. Tana will be there to support the development of the crucial Agriculture sector, investing along the agricultural value chain from agricultural inputs (fertilizer, crop protection and equipment) to downstream opportunities in processing, storage and logistics.

Investment Criteria

Tana has a preference for companies operating in these sectors that have the following characteristics:

• Talented and visionary entrepreneur/majority shareholder/management team
• Large, addressable and rapidly growing market
• Minimal public sector dependency
• Attractive industry structure with proven, profitable and sustainable business model
• Highly scalable business with standardised and repeatable processes
• Internal expansion opportunities, as well as potential for add-on acquisitions
• Distinct competitive advantage driving strong market position
• Clearly identifiable and implementable levers for value creation
• Appropriate corporate governance