Mauritius Group Buys IFC Stake in Kenyan Largest Retailer Naivas

IBL teamed up with Proparco, a subsidiary of French lender Agence Française de Développement and German KfW Group unit DEG on the deal, the Kenyan company said in an emailed statement. It involved the investors buying shares held by the International Finance Corp. and Amethis in Naivas. They didn’t disclose the value of the transaction.

The Naivas deal is IBL’s largest ever as Mauritius’s largest diversified group by valuation moves to expand outside the Indian Ocean island nation. 

It “marks IBL Group’s first investment as part of our expansion in East Africa,” IBL Group Chief Executive Officer Arnaud Lagesse said in a statement published in Port Louis-based l’express newspaper.

IBL has interests in financial services, hospitality, logistics, health care, energy, pharmaceuticals, industrial property and distribution of fast-moving consumer goods. It owns Winner’s supermarket chain in Mauritius.

“We appreciate the immense knowledge and capacity in the retail industry that IBL brings to the table,” said Naivas Managing Director David Kimani.