Leading United Kingdom private investment firm, Duet Private Equity Limited, has acquired a majority stake worth $50 million in a multinational beverage company, Ajeast Nigeria, which is a subsidiary of AJE Group.
“At Duet, we strongly believe in the African consumer growth story as the number of middle-income households in Nigeria and select West-African markets keeps expanding, and more consumers are entering the formal economy through urbanisation, the demand for products such as BIG Cola will grow exponentially,” Henry Gabay, chief investment officer (CIO) at Duet and Co-Founder at Duet Group said.
Over the years Ajeast Nigeria, a major player in Nigeria soft drink market, has been giving stiff competition to other key players such as Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC), producers of Coca –Cola drink; SevenUP Bottling Company, producers of Pepsi , Miranda, Seven UP soft drinks and The Lacasera company Plc , producers of Lacasera drinks.
“The acquisition of AJEAST follows our previous investments in the beverage sector across Africa, and we are excited to be able to leverage our experience in partnership with a prominent multinational like AJE Group,” Gabay who is also co-founder at Duet Group said.
The introduction of BIG Cola brand into the Nigerian market has further increased the race for market share and profitability. This has forced competing brands to either increase the size of their products or dropped the price.
Manish Rungta, managing director at Duet Private Equity Limited said the private equity firm is delighted to work together with AJE Group in continuing the footprint expansion of brands like BIG Cola in African markets.
The introduction of brands such as BIG Cola, BIG Orange and BIG Lemon has allowed Ajeast Nigeria gained significant market share in the carbonated beverage segment through time-tested marketing strategies and a strong value proposition
“With its value proposition, AJEAST is uniquely positioned to capture market share in the rapidly expanding segment of affordable, high quality consumer goods,” Rungta, managing director at Duet Private Equity Limited said.
Chairman of AJE Group, Angel Añaños said With Duet its company have found a partner that shares AJE Group commitment to widen our product reach of affordable value beverages to the African consumer.
“We also believe that Duet is the ideal partner to continue the growth of our brands in such a crucial market. We are confident that our longstanding experience will help replicate the successes we have had in our markets, and look forward to a fruitful partnership with Duet,” Añaños, Chairman of AJE Group said.
Established in 2003, Duet Partners Equity Ltd is a corporate advisory firm that provides capital raising, M&A, and strategic advisory services to high growth, privately held businesses. The company has a wide range of Venture capitalists in various sectors such as Electronic Devices, Clean Technology, Life Sciences, Medical Technology, Materials Technology, Nanotechnology, FinTech and other sectors.
With over 28 years of experience, AJE Group is one of the largest multinational beverage companies, with presence in over 23 countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. According to Euromonitor in 2011, AJE is the 10th largest soft drink company in sales volume and the 4th largest producer of carbonated soft drinks.
