Starting news article english 26 November 2012

Clifford Chance advises Carlyle on the first investment made by its Sub-Saharan Africa Fund

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance is advising The Carlyle Group on its strategic minority investment in Export Trading Group (ETG). This is the first investment made by Carlyle’s Sub-Saharan Africa Fund. Other investors in the $210million financing include Standard Chartered's Africa Private Equity division and Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund. ETG is an African agricultural commodities supply chain manager and the deal is the first investment by Carlyle's Sub-Saharan Africa Fund.

The Clifford Chance team was led by Private Equity partner and co-head of the CC Africa Practice Kem Ihenacho, who commented: "We are delighted to have advised long standing client The Carlyle Group on a deal of such strategic importance. This deal is another sign of African businesses becoming more significant players in the global agricultural markets".

Kem's cross-border, multi-jurisdictional team included support from Linzi Thomas (Associate-London), advice on antitrust was provided by Alastair Mordaunt (Partner-London) and Jennifer Storey (Associate-London), on due diligence by Valerie Kong (Counsel-Singapore) and Danielle Wu (Associate-Singapore) and on tax issues by Nick Mace (Partner – London).