Coors-Led Fund Buys Africa’s Largest Sushi-Grade Trout Farm

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – One Thousand & One Voices LLC, a private-equity fund started by the great-grandson of the founder of Coors Brewing Co., said it bought a producer of sushi-quality trout that is the largest such facility in Africa.

SanLei’s operations are on the Katse Dam in Lesotho, an enclave surrounded by South Africa, 1K1V, as the fund is known, said in an emailed statement Tuesday. The company didn’t disclose the value of the transaction. 

SanLei has secured a marketing and distribution agreement with CGC Japan Co., which has more than 4,000 stores and collective revenue of more than $40.5 billion, making it Japan’s largest joint-procurement supermarket chain, 1K1V said.

The fund has been hunting for private-equity investments that tap Africa’s growing consumer markets and has commitments from more than 15 of the world’s richest families since starting in 2013.

The investment is 1K1V’s third in Africa, with the fund buying Redsun Dried Fruit & Nuts, a raisin processor on the banks of the Orange River in the Kalahari Desert, and Beefmaster, South Africa’s largest beef exporter, it said.

Lesotho has few exports, depending on mohair and tourism for much of its income as well as remittances from citizens working in South Africa.