DealMakers Africa Awards honours West Africa’s most notable company M&As, advisers in Lagos

West Africa’s notable company mergers and acquisitions and their advisers have been recognised at the DealMakers AFRICA Annual Gala Awards held in Lagos.

The awards ceremony, held at Ebony Life Place, also tracked the work carried out by the advisers in the mergers and acquisition and general corporate finance space during 2023.  The DealMakers AFRICA awards are based essentially on objective evidence – the value of deals or transactions and, the number of them.

In only three of the awards is selection subjective and these are approached with considerable circumspection.

They are the Deal of the Year, the Private Equity Deal of the Year and the Individual DealMaker of the Year. Nominations are received from the advisory firms for these subjective awards – the DealMakers Africa’s team produces a shortlist and an eventual winner is decided on guided by the following criteria: Transformational elements, execution complexity, deal size and potential value creation. For the Individual DealMaker the deals worked on, the contribution made, the execution complexity and peer recognition are considered.

In the West Africa Deal of the Year category, DealMakers Africa shortlisted three deals. These were: the acquisition by STAC Marine Offshore of Abo FPSO vessel, the acquisition of a majority stake in iSON Xperiences by Verod Capital and AfricInvest and the investment by Verod Capital and DPI into Pan African Towers.

Read also: Introducing the DealMakers AFRICA Awards in Lagos Nigeria

The winner of the West Africa Deal of the Year was Verod Capital and DPI’s investment into Pan Africa Towers. The impact of the investment will be to accelerate the development of the local industry contributing to job creation, market share expansion, enhanced organisational performance and the subsequent revenue growth.

Advisers to the winning transaction were Chapel Hill Denham, Exotix Advisory, Banwo & Ighodalo, Olaniwun Ajayi, G Elias and Charles Russell Speechlys. 

In the category of Private Equity Deal of the Year (West Africa), DealMakers AFRICA shortlisted three deals. These were: Affirm Capital’s exit of its stake in GZ Industries to Oppenheimer Partners, Enko Capital’s exit of Netis Group and the exit by MBO Capital Management of its stake in Radix Pension Managers to CardinalStone Partners. 

The winning deal for the West African region was the exit by Enko Capital of its stake in Netis Group to a consortium jointly led by pan-African equity fund Managers Amethis and AfricInvest, alongside Proparco and IFC.

The new investment will launch another growth phase for Netis with growth potential identified in the penetration of untapped countries and the deployment of additional business streams in current countries of operation. Advisers to the transaction were Enexus Finance, Lincoln International, Asafo & Co, Bowmans, Norton Rose Fulbright, CMS Francis Lefebvre Avocats, Deloitte and Eight Advisory.

For the first time in the history of the DealMakers AFRICA awards,an award, sponsored by PSG Capital, was awarded to the top Individual DealMakers of the Year (West Africa). Five top dealmakers were shortlisted and they were: Chuma Ajene (Access Bank), Ayodele Adeyemi-Faboya (Banwo & Ighodalo), Clément Marchand (Enexus), Gbolahan Elias (G. Elias) and Tolulope Alafe (Stanbic IBTC).

The PSG Capital Individual DealMaker of the Year (West Africa) was presented to Ayodele Adeyemi-Faboya, a partner at Banwo & Ighodalo. 

The following awards were made on the night to the top financial and legal advisers to the West African mergers and acquisition industry:

Mergers & Acquisitions 

Financial Adviser by deal value

1^st BMO Capital Markets

2^nd Stanbic IBTC Capital

3^rd   tie Taylor Collison and INFOR Financial

Financial Adviser by deal activity

1^st Stanbic IBTC Capital

2^nd Enexus Finance

3^rd   Exotic Advisory

Legal Adviser by deal value

1^st  Norton Rose Fulbright

2^nd  tie Allens, Blake Cassels & Graydon, Thomson Geer

Legal Adviser by deal flow

1^st Banwo & Ighodalo

2^nd ENS

3^rd Asafo & Co 

General Corporate Finance

Financial Adviser by transaction value

1^st Stanbic IBTC Capital

2^nd FCMB Capital Markets

3^rd Chapel Hill Denham Advisory

Financial Adviser by transaction activity

1^st Stanbic IBTC Capital

2^nd tie FCMB Capital Markets and Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria

Legal Adviser by transaction value

1^st Banwo & Ighodalo

2^nd G Elias 

3^rd  Aluko & Oyebode

Legal Adviser by transaction flow

1^st Banwo & Ighodalo

2^nd Aluko & Oyebode

3^rd G Elias

The DealMakers Awards were launched in 2000 in South Africa and were introduced to the rest of the continent in 2008. 

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of TSM Network, UK and Nigeria, and strategic partner for the DealMakers Africa Awards, Domini Ajayi, reiterated the organisation’s commitment to excellence in the finance sector. 

“For us, the DealMarkers impact majorly within the financial space, management and acquisition, and top companies and individuals who are most involved in the biggest deals within Africa, South Africa, East Africa, and soon we are going to North Africa. And so West Africa too has been playing a global role, particularly Nigeria. So because this year we had so many majors and acquisitions and wealth management, you know, closing great deals. So Nigeria is going to feature so much tonight at the award.”