Abraaj Group has upped its agriculture investment in Africa, grabbing a stake in Indorama Fertilizers ahead of an expected rebound in the market.
The Dubai buyout firm acquired a minority stake in one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest fertilizer companies from Indorama Holdings Netherlands to expand Indorama’s product globally.
The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
Indorama has a manufacturing facility easily accessible for exports in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. It processes 1.4 million tonnes per year of urea fertilizer – a chemical compound that is most widely used in the industry because of its versatility towards plants and land types. The fertilizer maker wants to serve neighbours in West Africa as well as the Americas and Europe.
Abraaj has US$3 billion in assets in the continent spanning a variety of sectors, and last year the company raised $2.3bn for its Africa-focused funds.
“Having successfully invested in the fertilizer business in North Africa, we look forward to leveraging that know-how and working with the management team in developing the company’s route-to-market infrastructure, build its network and support its capacity expansion and product diversification plans in the region,” said Arif Naqvi, the Abraaj founder and group chief executive.
This comes at a time when the fertilizer industry is anticipated to rebound next year by 2.9 per cent to 186 million tonnes after declining the past year as a result of slowing global economy and unfavourable weather patterns, according to the International Fertilizer Industry Association.
Sri Prakash Lohia, Indorama’s founder and group chairman, said that the deal will “meet the needs of under-served farmers and help propel the growth of the agriculture sector even further”.
lgraves@thenational.ae
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