Bridging regions, expanding inclusion: Beltone’s acquisition of Baobab Group
From a bold vision to continental leadership
Founded in 2005 under the name MicroCred, Baobab Group has become Africa’s leading microfinance platform. Through disciplined organic growth — opening subsidiaries rather than acquiring them — the Group now operates in seven countries across the continent, from Senegal to Madagascar.
Over the past two decades, Baobab has remained focused on its mission: empowering micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which form the backbone of African economies. By combining proximity lending with digital innovation, the Group has expanded access to finance for hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs traditionally excluded from formal banking. Today, Baobab serves over 500,000 active clients with a loan portfolio exceeding €750 million — a remarkable achievement built on operational discipline, risk management, and local insight.
Orchestrating transaction complexity
To open a new chapter in its development, Baobab welcomed Beltone Holding — one of MENA’s fastest-growing financial groups — as its new majority shareholder. The transaction brings together Africa’s largest microfinance institution and a powerful investor from the Gulf, combining operational expertise with financial strength and regional connectivity.
Behind this milestone was a complex, multi-stakeholder M&A process. Enexus acted as lead M&A advisor to a consortium of four Baobab shareholders: AXA Group, a founding investor since 2005; the Africa-focused private equity fund Apis Growth Fund II; the Nordic development finance institution Abler Nordic; and a fourth institutional investor. Each shareholder had a distinct profile and set of objectives. Achieving alignment among them required careful coordination, consensus-building, and strategic negotiation. Enexus played a central role in structuring discussions, reconciling expectations, and ensuring all parties converged on a common transaction framework.
Preparing the Group for new investors also involved significant groundwork. With the assistance of Enexus, Baobab completed two strategic divestitures: its exit from China in October 2024, which lifted a key structural constraint for Africa-focused investors, and the sale of Baobab+, its solar home systems subsidiary, finalized earlier that same year. These steps refocused Baobab on its core financial services business and paved the way for a streamlined transaction, but involved a complex coordination between all the three transactions. The process also required regulatory and competition clearances across several banking jurisdictions. Managing this complex web of approvals required a close coordination among all stakeholders and demonstrates Enexus’ expertise in navigating cross-border regulatory landscapes, as well as its capacity to deliver complex transactions across multiple African jurisdictions.
Redefining Africa’s financial inclusion landscape
Beyond its technical achievement, this transaction carries strong strategic and symbolic significance. It marks the change of control of Africa’s leading microfinance institution, a rare event that underscores the growing maturity and attractiveness of African financial services. It also represents one of the most significant investments from Gulf countries into Sub-Saharan Africa’s impact finance sector. Through Beltone — backed by Chimera and ultimately by IHC, the Abu Dhabi royal family’s investment vehicle — the transaction channels private capital from the Gulf into African inclusive finance at unprecedented scale. It highlights a shift from traditional development finance toward sustainable, market-led impact investment.
For Baobab, this partnership opens new opportunities to accelerate its digital transformation, expand its product offering, and reach more entrepreneurs and small businesses. For its clients, it means broader access to affordable, technology-driven financial services. And for Africa’s financial ecosystem, it sets a precedent: demonstrating that inclusive finance can attract global investors while preserving its social mission, reinforcing momentum in cross border investment africa and long-term growth capital africa.
By bringing together Baobab’s operational excellence, Beltone’s capital strength, and the coordinated effort of four international shareholders, this transaction — led by Enexus — stands as a landmark for African microfinance. It shows how alignment, trust, and collaboration can bridge regions and drive lasting, inclusive growth across the continent.
