Medu Capital, a private equity company focused on established medium sized owner managed businesses, today announced that it has acquired 100% ownership stakes in Universal Paints and Elite Truck Hire for a total of R450 million. The investments were made through Medu Capital’s third private equity fund, Medu III, and will include a management buy-in component.
Medu Capital invests locally and internationally sourced institutional capital in established medium sized enterprises in South Africa and the rest of Africa. The executive management team invests alongside its investors, and believes in partnering with various owner-managers in growing and developing the portfolio companies.
Medu Capital executive Paul Moeketsi, who was involved in each deal, said that new managing directors have been appointed to each company, both of which have invested alongside Medu Capital. Moeketsi adds that the acquisitions are in line with Medu Capital’s strategy of investing in well established businesses with a proven record of success.
“Both Elite and Universal deliver high quality products and services to its customers and have experienced and successful management teams. In the case of Elite, we have increased our initial 27% stake acquired in 2007 to 100%, which we believe sends a clear signal of our confidence in the company and its management.”
Innotribe opens doors for African fintech startups
The Innotribe Startup Challenge, now open for applications, will take place at Swift’s African Regional Conference (ARC) in Mauritius on 17-19 May 2016. This is the second year that Innotribe, Swift’s innovation arm, is partnering with ARC to bring the Startup Challenge to Africa, showcasing financial technology startups from across the region.
This year the Innotribe Startup Challenge will focus on emerging fintech ecosystems, supporting innovation where demographic trends, economic growth and regional integration projects are creating fertile ground for new technologies to emerge.
Launched in 2009, Innotribe was created to identify emerging trends in financial services innovation and generate discussions about how these trends could impact the industry going forward.
Innotribe will select twelve companies to compete in in Mauritius during ARC. The event attracts up to 500 high-level delegates from more than 40 countries, providing the ideal platform for startups to showcase their new concepts and products to Africa’s financial community.
Three finalists will then be selected to attend Sibos, SWIFT’s annual global financial services conference on 26-29 September in Geneva. There the finalists will share the stage with fintech experts and receive a 10,000 USD cash prize each. (IT News Africa)
MTN Business shares insights on how female millennials are shaping future workplace
The female millennials – the tech-savvy women born between 1980 and 2000 – are radically shaping the future workplace and are using the ubiquity of broadband to change how societies live, work and play.
These insights were shared by Mandisa Ntloko, head of marketing for MTN Business South Africa at the maiden edition of the Leading Women Summit, an event that is co-sponsored by MTN Business and Forbes Africa to commemorate International Women’s Day.
The event was held on Thursday, 10 March in Johannesburg under the theme: The Rise of the Female Millennial.
Ntloko told delegates that female millennials have found innovative and resourceful ways of using technology and connectivity in order to effectively juggle the multiple roles they play as professionals, mothers and spouses.
“This generation of women millennials refuse to be confined to one platform such as a desk to complete work tasks, instead they have led a shift to a computing paradigm where tasks can be performed on the go,” said Ntloko.
Quoting a study by Ericsson, Ntloko says women are driving the uptake of smartphones and continue to lead many communication and daily life related behaviours on smartphones.
She warned that the evolving ecosystem will phase out certain traditional careers and spawn new ones that are in line with the requirements of the digital age.
