54 Capital Plans Ethiopian Pharma Factory After Deal

54 Capital, a London-based private-equity company, plans to build a new plant for Addis Pharmaceutical Factory within two years after investing $30 million in its seventh deal in Ethiopia, an executive said.
The asset manager will also “quickly” increase the number of drugs produced in Adigrat in the northern Tigray region to 150 from 90, Chief Investment Officer Saad Aouad said in an interview. 54 Capital bought a 40.7 percent stake in APF last month and has an option to invest a further $12 million to acquire 49 percent of the company, which is co-owned by a conglomerate with ties to Ethiopia’s ruling coalition.
“We are backing here the largest player in the country with a very strong and motivated management team that we want to help,” Aouad said Jan. 18 in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia, sub-Saharan Africa’s second-most populous nation with 97 million people, is forecast to be the continent’s fastest-growing economy this year, after Mozambique, expanding an estimated 8.1 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. APF, which mainly manufactures antibiotics and painkillers, has revenue of 500 million birr ($24 million) and a share of about half the locally produced pharmaceutical market, according to Aouad.
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