M&A in Africa last year was the classic one-trick pony, in that all the action took place in a single market, South Africa. Despite that, the competition for this award was fierce. It came down to a straight fight between Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, with the former walking away with the prize in yet another impressive year.
Goldman completed six deals in Africa ex-Egypt worth a total of $42 billion, for a 74.8% share of the market, according to Dealogic. Each of the transactions on the list involved a South African buyer or a South Africa-based seller, or both.
The biggest transaction of the year by far was the $39.8 billion share swap finalized by Cape Town-based Naspers and Dutch conglomerate Prosus in August 2021. Goldman advised Prosus, a technology investor that was spun out of Naspers in 2019 to hold the South African group’s international holdings, which includes a 29% stake in Chinese technology firm Tencent.
The US firm also acted as financial adviser to Nordic insurance group Sampo on its purchase of the remaining 30% stake it did not already own in UK insurer Hastings. Sampo paid £685 million to buy the block of shares from Johannesburg-based Rand Merchant Investment Holdings.
Goldman also advised on the sale of a clutch of assets, including 16 air separation units controlled by South Africa-based integrated energy and chemicals group Sasol to France’s Air Liquide. The bank advised Sasol – which has been a partner of Air Liquide for the past 40 years – on the $490 million deal completed in November 2021.
Goldman also acted for carrier, cloud and vendor-neutral data-centre provider Teraco on the sale, announced in January 2022, of a majority stake to Texas-based real estate investment trust Digital Realty for $1.925 billion. Goldman is financial adviser to Teraco, with the shares in question put on the market by a consortium of investors, including Permira and Berkshire Hathaway.
It marked another strong start to the year for Goldman, which continues to invest heavily in Africa, adding headcount in several markets, most notably South Africa.
“We have been involved in most of the landmark transactions on the continent over the past 12 months,” says Dimitri Vlachos, managing director and head of M&A, Africa, at Goldman. “We are honoured that clients continue to turn to us for innovation and advice to execute their most complex transactions.”
