ABTAJ CAPITAL LIMITED is a leading Nigerian private equity investor seeking to partner with fast growing companies, led by strong, result driven management team, and which have the potential to become large, dominant and sustainable enterprises.

In its infancy, ABTAJ raises capital on a deal-by-deal basis, today we focus not only on the large scale infrastructure development companies but also the small and medium scale enterprises as well.

In 2014, in response to the growing opportunities in West Africa and conversely, the increased appetite of foreign institutional investors looking to expand into new markets, ABTAJ CAPITAL transitioned into one of the truly indigenous Private Equity firms in West Africa. Following a successful capital raising drive in a particularly challenging macro-climate in Nigeria and West Africa as a whole, the firm exceeded its original target fund size, and ABTAJ Capital Growth Fund is valued by our customers and clients as amongst the largest first time funding company in Nigeria’s history.

ABTAJ CAPITAL is backed by a rich blend of mainly foreign and institutional investors including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, asset management firms, fund of funds, family offices and development finance institutions (with extensive experience supporting Fund Managers across emerging markets).

OUR APPROACH

ABTAJ CAPITAL looks to actively drive economic development across key industries; opportunistic by nature, the firm has developed a deep understanding of its local market and its track record to date demonstrates its ability to select high quality deals based on well thought-through investment strategies. Through proprietary research and its deep network of regional industry professionals and financial institutions, ABTAJ CAPITAL can source attractive, at times off-market investment opportunities exhibiting strong potential for marked growth in earnings.

Overall, ABTAJ CAPITAL strives to be economically and socially responsible in both its for-profit and non-profit endeavours and at its core strives to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns. One of the firm’s key philosophies is its belief that successful investing is not incompatible with responsible investing; indeed, ABTAJ believes it is simply plain good business.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF ABTAJ CAPITAL’S INVESTMENT PROCESS

 ABTAJ consistently follows a transparent and disciplined process in identifying, selecting and pursuing investment opportunities. Once the respective Financial, Commercial, Legal and ESG Due Diligence reviews are finalized, results are presented to ABTAJ’s Investment Committee (which includes an outside, independent member), which makes investment recommendations.

Leveraging its in house transactional advisory expertise, the firm aims to negotiate and structure investments to provide the necessary framework for growth, and typically takes an active role in monitoring and managing portfolio companies to execute on the business plan and position the portfolio company for a successful exit.

Overall, the investment process typically includes deal sourcing, deal screening, rigorous due diligence, structuring and financing. Once an investment is made, the respective deal team stays actively involved in each business to direct, monitor and increase the value of portfolio investments from the period of investment to exit.

ABTAJ CAPITAL will typically look to achieve significant capital appreciation within the medium to long-term, and on the whole, will look to:

Mitigate risk, in the event the portfolio company underperforms (e.g. ensuring adequate protection in a minority equity holding by negotiating adequate control rights to influence key decisions such as strategy, operating capital budgets and the selection and evaluation of senior managers);

Incentivize management to grow the value of the business and Develop the portfolio of your company’s overall internal controls and governance towards international best practices.

ABTAJ CAPITAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY

As mentioned, a key part of ABTAJ CAPITAL core strategy is to develop sector leaders, with a focus only on companies with the potential for strong growth.

The firm will seek to invest equity or equity-linked instruments with downside protection typically in high-growth middle market opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa, primarily Nigeria.

The firm aims to build a diverse portfolio across several fast-developing industries including but not limited to, Consumer Goods and Services, Financial Services, SME’s, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Trade, Industrial development, Business Services and Education.

The Firm targets investment opportunities in companies that typically possess:

  • Proven business models;
  • High growth market potential;
  • Profitability or ability to quickly reach profitability after funding;
  • Strong and motivated management or the ability to institute such strong management;
  • Strong company governance and ESG standards or the ability to implement such standards after investment;
  • Capacity to generate significant free cash flow for reinvestment or shareholder return; and
  • Potential to become leaders within applicable sectors.