Castel

From a multinational group to a leading regional player: the sale of Castel’s mineral water operations in Côte d’Ivoire to Groupe Carré d’Or

The right buyer for a valuable asset

Founded in 1949, Castel Group is one of Africa’s leading producers and distributors of beer and soft drinks. Through its Ivorian subsidiary Solibra, Castel has supplied the local market with bottled water for over 20 years, becoming the second-largest player with its two brands, Awa and Cristaline. In 2021, Solibra decided to refocus on its core business and divest its water bottling activity, consistent with Castel’s ambition to separate its operations from plastic packaging and prioritize glass packaging. In this context, Castel mandated Enexus as the exclusive financial advisor to run a full-fledged M&A process.

Established in 1988, Carré d’Or is one of the largest private groups in Côte d’Ivoire. Over the years, it has become a key player in the agro-food industry, following a consistent long-term strategy oriented toward the entire food and beverage value chain. The sale of Solibra’s water business presented Carré d’Or with the opportunity to strengthen its presence in the beverage sector.

Thanks to a robust offer, Carré d’Or successfully completed the acquisition of Solibra’s water bottling business in April 2023, marking an important milestone in Côte d’Ivoire’s beverage-industry mergers and acquisitions.

A full carve-out

Originally integrated within Solibra’s broader operations, the water bottling activity was fully carved out as part of the sale process. While this added complexity to the transaction, the combined experience of both Castel Group and Carré d’Or ensured a seamless transition, with Enexus acting as the intermediary to manage stakeholder alignment, carve-out readiness, and transaction mechanics.

An important transaction for the ivorian beverage industry

The bottled water market in Côte d’Ivoire has doubled over the past decade and continues to grow rapidly driven by urbanization and rising living standards. As the urban middle class expands, demand for quality water is increasing, with particular attention to health and well-being. Carré d’Or is committed to dedicating the necessary resources to address this growing demand. As a local player focused on the food and beverage value chain in Côte d’Ivoire, the group deemed it essential to reinforce bottled water into its development strategy.

NETIS

Supporting the rise of a pan-African champion: the successful acquisition of the Netis Group by a consortium comprising Amethis, AfricInvest, Proparco, and IFC

A consortium of leading financial investors backing a high-growth telecom leader

Over the past fifteen years, Netis has undergone a remarkable transformation. Founded in 2009 to serve its first clients in Ghana, the Group initially focused on providing telecom equipment to tower operators (“TowerCos”). Since then, it has established itself as a leading provider of telecom network services across Africa, with operations in 14 countries in West and East Africa and more than 3,200 employees. Today, Netis is one of the continent’s key players in the installation and maintenance of telecom tower and fiber-optic networks.

In 2018, Enko Capital Managers acquired a minority stake in Netis through the Enko Africa Private Equity Fund (“EAPEF”), which targets mid-sized African companies. This investment was increased in 2020, giving Enko a majority shareholding. Over its five years as a shareholder, Enko played a pivotal role in scaling up the Group’s operations.

With nearly €3 billion raised and invested over the past three decades, Amethis and AfricInvest rank among Africa’s most influential private equity investors. Partnering with two leading development finance institutions, IFC and Proparco, they formed the ideal consortium to complete one of the largest private equity transactions in Africa in 2023.Enexus acted as the lead M&A advisor to support the structuring of this complex acquisition.

A large-scale and demanding acquisition

Acquisitions of this scale by financial investors remain rare in Africa. Netis’s geographic footprint, spanning 14 jurisdictions across both Anglophone and Francophone Africa, added further complexity to the transaction. Few buyers combine the financial capacity and the operational expertise required to successfully execute such a project.

To generate sufficient competitive traction, it was essential to structure the process in a way that encouraged the formation of consortiums capable of competing with individual buyers. The founders’ decision to remain minority shareholders also represented a key challenge: their interests had to be aligned with those of both the sellers and the acquirers. This delicate balance, which required intense negotiations and a disciplined M&A process, proved decisive to the success of the transaction.

The birth of an African multinational?

The absence of succession planning among founders remains one of the main obstacles of the growth of independent African companies. Transforming a family-owned business into a multinational requires a gradual transfer of control while ensuring the financial support necessary to remain independent.

This transaction achieved precisely that. The founders of Netis successfully guided the company’s evolution from a single-client telecom equipment supplier in Ghana to a diversified telecom services group operating across 14 countries. Now backed by strong financial shareholders, they have the resources to continue expanding autonomously and reach a new stage in their development.

The transaction also reflects the growing maturity of the African telecom sector, where demand for connectivity continues to rise rapidly. With the support of its new partners, Netis is well positioned to play a central role in this dynamic, and perhaps to become one of the first truly pan-African multinationals in telecom services. 

Enexus acted as M&A advisor to Enko Capital and Netis founders in the sale of a majority stake in Netis Group, a leading telecom network service provider

Netis Group

In 2018, Enko Capital Managers invested in Netis through the Enko Africa Private Equity Fund (EAPEF), a private equity fund targeting mid-cap companies across Africa. 

Founded in 2009, Netis is a major pan-African telecom infrastructure service provider headquartered in Morocco with subsidiaries in 15 African countries. It offers a comprehensive range of products and services, from maintenance of telecom towers to fiber optics deployment and installation of power and energy saving solutions.

Enko Capital Managers sold its majority stake in the Netis group to a consortium jointly led by two pan-African private equity fund managers, Amethis and Africinvest. The consortium was joined by two leading development finance institutions, Proparco and IFC.

This majority buyout will enable the founders of Netis to unlock new growth levers and keep expanding throughout Africa.

About Enko Capital

Enko Capital group is an Africa-focused asset management firm with over $900min assets under management, and with offices in London, Johannesburg, Abidjan, Kigali and Yaoundé. It notably manages the Enko Africa Private Equity Fund (EAPEF), a private equity fund targeting mid-cap companies across Africa. 

About Amethis Finance

Amethis is an investment fund manager dedicated to the African continent, with an investment capacity exceeding €725m. Amethis has been created through a partnership with the Edmond de Rothschild Group. Amethis brings growth capital to promising mid-cap champions in a diversity of sectors throughout the African continent. 

About Africinvest

AfricInvest is a leading pan-African investment platform active in multiple alternative asset classes including private equity, venture capital, private credit, blended finance, and listed equities. Over the past 25 years, it has raised more than $2bn to finance more than 200 companies.

Enexus acted as M&A advisor to Ciel Healthcare in the acquisition of Centre Technique Biomédical (CTB), a biomedical group in Madagascar

Acquisition of CTB

This acquisition is in line with the expansion strategy of Ciel Group, which has been operating for many years in the Malagasy financial and textile industries. The acquisition of CTB will enable C-Care to expand its activities in Madagascar and further develop the healthcare industry locally. 

About C-Care

Founded in 2008, C-Care is a leading provider of medical care in Mauritius and the Indian Ocean. The Group owns and operates four health facilities in Mauritius, two hospitals in Uganda, a medical laboratory and two pharmacies

About CTB

Founded in 2010, CTB is a leading biomedical group in Madagascar. With three laboratories and a blood test centre, CTB has played a key role in improving access to biomedical care for the Malagasy population.

Enexus acted as M&A advisor to Touton in the sale of its palm oil business in Côte d’Ivoire to SIFCA

Sale of Touton

Touton Négoce Côte d’Ivoire, a leading cocoa trading company, sells its subsidiaries SAO and TCI, operating palm oil plantations in Abengourou, Zabeza and Soubré, to PALMCI, a subsidiary of SIFCA and the first producer of crude palm oil in Côte d’Ivoire.

With a presence in four continents, Touton has more than 175 years of experience in the trading of tropical agricultural raw materials. As one of the leading global players in the coffee and cocoa supply chain, the group has been playing a key role in structuring the cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire since the 1990’s. With this M&A transaction, PALMCI acquires 1,300 hectares of palm plantations, continuing its development strategy in the oilseed industry and increasing its crude palm oil production capacity to support food security in Côte d’Ivoire. 

About Touton

Founded in 1848 in Bordeaux, Touton is a leading player in the international trading and processing of tropical agricultural raw materials. The group started trading cocoa in 1950 and is now amongst the five top traders of cocoa and vanilla in the world. 

About PALMCI – SIFCA Group

A subsidiary of SIFCA, one of Côte d’Ivoire’s major agribusiness groups, since 1997, PALMCI operates palm oil plantations and produces crude palm oil and palm kernel oil. It operates over 40,000 hectares of industrial plantations and sources from 30,000 smallholder planters. PALMCI is listed on the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM).

Enexus acted as M&A advisor to Trigger’s Reports, a security risk management start-up, in its fundraising with Eurofind

Fundraising Trigger’s Reports

Founded in 2017, Trigger’s Reports has developed a unique and price-disruptive solution to make accessible security to the greatest number of people. Through its platforms, companies can assess and monitor security threats and communicate them to their staff. 

Trigger’s Reports already offers its services to over 16,000 users through local and multinational corporates operating in Africa. In order to expand its client portfolio and further invest into R&D to integrate new technological features to its platform, Trigger’s Reports opened its capital to Eurofind. This growth capital investment will support the company’s product development and commercial expansion.

With over 3,000 employees spread over four countries, Eurofind is receptive to the challenges faced by companies to ensure employee-security in certain geographies. Its shareholders therefore provided Triggers’ Report with the necessary equity to achieve its growth strategy.

About Trigger’s Reports

Founded in 2017,  Trigger’s Reports is a start-up based in Dakar which offers an information and alert platform for security risk management. Trigger’s Report platform also enables to geolocate people, vehicles, assets, and offers a wide range of taylormade addons. 

About Group Eurofind 

Founded in 1972, in Ivory Coast, Eurofind is a diversified conglomerate operating in West Africa with activities in steel processing, plastics and chemicals industry, food, agribusiness, and real estate.

Enexus acted as M& advisor to Groupe Castel in the sale of its water bottling activity in Ivory Coast to Carré d’Or

Sale of Castel

Founded in 1949, Groupe Castel is one of the main producers and distributors of beer and soft drinks on the African continent. Awa and Cristaline, which have been produced and distributed by Solibra, Castel’s subsidiary in Côte d’Ivoire, since the early 2000s, have established themselves as leading brands on the Ivorian market. The takeover by Carré d’or, a major player in the agri-business industry in Ivory Coast, paves the way for a regional player to build on the momentum achieved by Solibra and pursue Awa and Cristaline’s expansion in the region. 

About Groupe Castel

Founded in 1949, Groupe Castel is the leading producer and one of the main distributors of wine in France. The group is also one of the main producers and distributors of beer and soft drinks on the African continent. 

About Carré d’Or

Founded in 1988, Carré d’Or is a major player in the agri-business industry in Ivory Coast. The group is also active in logistics and manufacturing. With its six subsidiaries, Carré d’Or is one of the largest private groups in Ivory Coast.

CTB

acquisition ctb

Expanding quality healthcare across the Indian Ocean: the acquisition of Madagascar’s CTB network by C-Care

A rare opportunity in a small but coveted healthcare market

C-Care is a leading healthcare group in the Indian Ocean, and the undisputed leader in Mauritius with a market share of close to 50%. As a subsidiary of CIEL, one of the largest Mauritian conglomerates, the group operates across hospitals, specialized clinics, medical laboratories, and imaging centers. True to CIEL’s tradition of long-term and structured growth, C-Care has defined a clear regional expansion strategy across the Indian Ocean and East Africa, with the ambition of becoming one of the reference healthcare groups in Africa. In this context, Enexus acted as the exclusive M&A advisor on a highly strategic regional healthcare mergers-and-acquisitions transaction.

Madagascar was a natural market for this expansion. Despite pressing healthcare needs, the private sector remains small and fragmented, with few structured operators. Yet the market is increasingly sought after, with several regional and international investors on the lookout for acquisitions. In such a context — few targets, many suitors — identifying and securing the right partner was a significant challenge. 

CIEL Group mandated Enexus to support its entry into Madagascar through an acquisition strategy. Following an extensive screening of the market, Enexus identified CTB, a network of medical biology laboratories founded and developed by Mr. Philippe Poncelet. Despite competition from other strategic buyers, C-Care and Enexus demonstrated that their offer combined financial strength with the best continuity for CTB’s long-term vision.

Bridging two worlds: a complex acquisition process

Finding the right target was only the first step. Making it work proved to be the real challenge. C-Care, a listed and structured company nearly 350 times larger than CTB, had to engage with a small and relatively unstructured laboratory network, with limited resources and little exposure to international M&A standards. This asymmetry created significant hurdles: quality and availability of information, preparedness for due diligence, and unfamiliarity with key transactional concepts such as, for instance, asset and liability guarantees.

To overcome these challenges, Enexus’ role had to extend beyond traditional buy-side advisory. We guided CTB towards suitable advisors and provided hands-on support: assisting in preparing information packages for due diligence, explaining the mechanics of a professional M&A process, analyzing competing offers, and ensuring that the seller could engage constructively — all while avoiding conflicts of interest. 

Success required a combination of in-depth knowledge of the Malagasy business environment, the ability to create trust between buyer and seller, and strong involvement from both C-Care and Enexus to fill the information gap. Thanks to close cooperation, pragmatic flexibility, and committed work from all parties, the transaction moved from first non-binding offer to completion in under six months – a testament to disciplined deal execution from start to finish.

A milestone for Madagascar’s healthcare sector

Following the acquisition, CTB was rebranded as C-Lab Madagascar, marking C-Care’s first step in the country. Beyond reinforcing local laboratory services, C-Lab now facilitates access to Mauritius for patients seeking advanced diagnostics, treatment, and surgery, creating new healthcare pathways for Malagasy patients.

Though modest in size, this transaction is strategically significant: it provides a platform for C-Care to expand into other healthcare segments in Madagascar and strengthens its role as one of the few structured, multi-country healthcare groups in Africa. By combining regional experience, strong governance, and the capacity to invest in quality care, C-Care is positioned to play a decisive role in developing healthcare services in Madagascar and across the continent.