The EBRD has allocated €20 million to support the development of the private equity sector in Morocco and Tunisia and for the growth of equity funding for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in those economies, the Bank announced Monday.
EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti signed the EBRD’s first investment in a fund in the two countries, a €20 million commitment in the Maghreb Private Equity Fund III (MPEF III).
The fund is the third Maghreb-focused fund managed by AfricInvest-TunInvest, one of the most established local private equity players in the region.
MPEF III, which has a target size of €200 million, will focus primarily on providing equity, quasi-equity and equity-linked debt financing to SMEs. Typically, these will be well-established, family-owned companies with the potential to scale-up their activities at the regional or international level and achieve long-term capital growth. At first closing in September 2011, €96 million was committed to MPEF III.
