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Imperial, owned by Dubai's DP World, has acquired a controlling stake in Nigeria's Africa FMCG Distribution Ltd. (AFMCG), a move that will help the global port operator to expand its Africa business.
Part of the Chanrai Group of Companies, AFMCG is a multi-faceted business distributing products and offering a nationwide route-to-market solution across multiple channels in Nigeria. Its services also extend to co-manufacturing, co-packing, sourcing, and value-added services in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World, said: “This transaction is aligned with our ambition of becoming the leading market access and logistics partner in Africa by connecting trade flows into and out of Africa. AFMCG also offers strategic value to DP World from a supply chain and fintech perspective, in line with our strategic objective of leveraging assets and logistics to create an integrated global supply chain – from the factory floor to the customer’s door.”
DP World completed its acquisition of South Africa-based Imperial Logistics in March, for approximately $890 million. Imperial employs more than 25,000 people.
DP World operates nine ports and terminals across eight African countries, including Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Somaliland, and South Africa.
With a nominal GDP of over $430 billion in 2020, Nigeria is a strategically essential and economically influential economy that is an important gateway to trade with Africa. Nigeria’s AFMCG represents some of the world’s leading multinational FMCG companies and their brands.
“Being one of the largest economies on the African continent with attractive demographic and macroeconomic fundamentals, Nigeria boasts a significant consumer market. AFMCG presents an ideal opportunity with the necessary scale for us to leverage to sell truly pan-African solutions to our principals and clients,” said Mohammed Akoojee, Chief Operating Officer of DP World Logistics and Group CEO at Imperial.
DP World and Britain's development finance agency CDC Group announced a joint investment of up to $1.72 billion in logistics infrastructure in Africa over the next several years, starting with modernising three ports.
The investments will focus on expanding ports operated by DP World in Egypt's Ain Sokhna, Senegal's Dakar and Berbera in Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland, CDC had said.
(Writing by Seban Scaria; editing by Anoop Menon)
