Vantage’s Funds return almost R1 billion to its investors in ten months

Johannesburg, South Africa – Vantage Capital, Africa’s leading mezzanine funder, today announced that it has successfully exited its investment in CA Sales, a leading Southern African distributor of fast-moving consumer goods, with operations in Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. CA’s head office is located in South Africa.

Vantage funded Export Trading Group PTE Limited based in Singapore to acquire a 40% stake in CA Sales alongside PSG, a large Stellenbosch-based listed investment group, in March 2012. Vantage’s exit this week was funded by a senior debt facility that was provided by the First Bank of Nigeria.

The CA Sales exit represents the forth exit that Vantage has successfully concluded in the last year after exits from its mezzanine investments in Efekto Holdings in July and Primedia and Tsebo in December of last year. All the exits were funded by commercial banks including Investec, Standard Bank and RMB. In aggregate Vantage has now received proceeds of R984 million from these exits which It has distributed to its investors which include some of the largest pension funds in South Africa and Botswana.

Luc Albinski, Vantage’s Managing Partner, commented, “We are particularly pleased with the Fund II exits, Efekto and CA Sales, which have generated in aggregate exceptional 30%+ annualised returns for our investors.”

Colin Rezek said, “the investment environment for mezzanine in both South Africa and the rest of Africa remains attractive with limited activity by competing mezzanine providers. We hope to be able to complete the Fund II investment program in 2014 and anticipate a portfolio of about a dozen investments. All are being structured along similar lines to Efekto and CA Sales with a significant emphasis being placed by the team on securing significant amounts of equity upside to adequately compensate investors for the risks incurred.”

Notes to Editors

About Vantage Capital

The Vantage Capital Group is a majority black-owned fund manager and investment firm. The Group was established in 2001 with funds under management of R125m and now manages over
R5 billion ($459m). In addition to managing technology venture capital, mezzanine debt and renewable debt funds, Vantage also provides advisory and origination services through its debt capital markets division and makes proprietary investments using its balance-sheet capital.

Capital for its fund management business has been sourced from over 30 institutions including many leading African pension funds like the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) in South Africa and the Debswana Pension Fund in Botswana, development funders such as the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the Norwegian Fund for Development (Norfund), and private sector endowments such as the Kellogg Foundation from the United States.

Vantage has offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town and in addition to its home market in South Africa, targets debt opportunities in a number of high-growth African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia.

Website: www.vantagecapital.co.za

For more information contact:

Luc Albinski
Managing Partner
Vantage Capital
luc@vantagemezzanine.com
Cell: 083 390 7703
Tel: 011 530 9104