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Africa: CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre advises Amethis Finance and Label’Vie on the acquisition of a stake in CDCI

30/01/2015

The CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre Africa team advised the Amethis Finance investment fund and Moroccan group Label’Vie on the acquisition of a stake in Compagnie de Distribution de Côte d’Ivoire (CDCI), the number two in food distribution in Côte d’Ivoire, with 127 shops around the country.

The structuring of the transaction benefited from the new provisions of the OHADA Uniform Act concerning commercial companies, particularly relating to simplified joint-stock companies (sociétés par actions simplifiées) and composite real-estate assets.

According to Khady Kone-Dicoh, Investment Director at Amethis, "The CDCI Group is ideally positioned to take advantage of the Ivorian economic recovery and the emergence of a middle class with increasing purchasing power in a market still characterised by low penetration of modern distribution."

Laurent Demey, co-founder and partner in Amethis Finance, says "Amethis Finance is proud to have assisted and supported this long-term partnership between two major distribution players in Africa." Amethis and Label’Vie provide strategic and operational expertise to CDCI, contribute to its development in the sub-region and play an active role in its governance, with the objective of making it a leader in African food distribution.

In Morocco, Label'Vie operates the trademarks Label'Vie, Carrefour, Carrefour Market, Métro, Kiabi and Virgin North Africa and has been awarded the exclusive development licence for Virgin Megastores in Maghreb.

Amethis Finance, the responsible investment fund dedicated exclusively to long-term investment in Africa, was set up in 2012 by Luc Rigouzzo and Laurent Demey in partnership with the Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild. Amethis Finance, which aims to adopt a more diversified approach than that of traditional private equity funds, carried out its final closing last year at US$530 million.

For this transaction, the CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre Africa team which advised Amethis Finance and Label’Vie comprised Jean Jacques Lecat, partner, and Nicole Marielle and Benjamin Pech de Laclause, associates.

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Related people

Jean-Jacques Lecat
Mr Benjamin Pech de Laclause