Africa continues to offer exceptional opportunities and increasingly frequent announcements of substantial M&A deals are clear evidence of this. These deals are not only taking place in a specific country, for example South Africa which is often considered a foothold for Africa investment, but rather are on an immense scale and reach across the continent.  In a recent article by the Financial Times (M&A activity hots up in Africa as investors bet on growth, 2 December 2014), they confirmed that “dealmaking in the sub-Saharan region is buoyant as most investors set aside short-term worries and bet big on the continent’s growth prospects. Recently a host of multinationals announced almost $8bn in deals across several sectors, demonstrating the appetite that exists to tap the region’s growing consumer markets.”

An example of these is the pan-African deal where UK brewing giant SABMiller entered into a joint venture with the Coca-Cola company and Gutsche Family Investments (GFI), the majority shareholder in South African bottler Coca-Cola Sabco, to form an African bottling operation, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa which is estimated to have annual revenue of US $2.9bn. Based in South Africa, the joint venture is substantial as it includes operations in 12 countries across the continent and Charles Douglas, head of M&A at pan-African firm Bowman Gilfillan Africa Group (BGAG) said, “This is an apt example of the scale of deals taking place and how we are able to offer a seamless legal service over a multitude of jurisdictions despite their magnitude”. Coca-Cola Beverages Africa will be the largest Coca-Cola bottler in Africa and 10th largest worldwide.

BGAG, led by Douglas and supported by a multi-disciplinary team, worked closely with SABMiller’s in-house team, led by deputy legal counsel Stephen Jones. Other key workstreams that BGAG is assisting with include competition (led by Robert Legh), tax (led by Alan Keep and Barry Garven) and employment (led by John Brand and Talita Laubscher).

SABMiller also used Guildford firm Stevens & Bolton for intellectual property advice and GFI instructed Webber Wentzel.

The Financial Times article also confirmed that, “This year the sub-Saharan region has seen 631 merger and acquisition deals, the highest number for a comparable period since at least 1995 and up nearly 10 per cent from last year, according to financial data provider Dealogic. If M&A continues to flow, say industry experts, this year could surpass the record set in 2012 with 656 deals.

“The International Monetary Fund has forecast that Africa will be the second fastest-growing region next year, expanding 5.75 per cent, behind the developing Asia region that includes India and China”.