Comment
Feronia was established in 2008. December 2012- Feronia announced that the African Agricultural Fund (AAF) had agreed to purchase 20 percent of the company’s shares for $5 million through its subsidiary, African Agriculture Fund LLC. The AAF is a Mauritius based fund managed by the Mauritian private equity firm Phatisa. The AAF has DFI investment from France, US, and Spain as well as the African Development Bank and several other African multilateral banks. The AAF made further equity investments in Feronia in March and November 2013 totaling $14.5 million, this time through its Mauritius-based subsidiary Golden Oil Holdings Limited. By the end of 2013, AAF’s subsidiaries controlled 32.5% percent of Feronia. The other major DFI investor in Feronia is the UK government’s CDC Group plc (investment in the company since 2013), formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation. The CDC made its first investment in Feronia in November 2013, spending $14.5 million to take 27.5 percent of Feronia’s shares and providing the company with an additional $3.6m convertible loan facility to support the implementation of an Environmental and Social Action Plan. Then, in January 2015, it invested $7 million to take its ownership of Feronia up to 48 percent. Sivasankaran (SIVA Group) acquired a 8.6% stake in Feronia in 2010, however in 2014 SIVA Group exited the company. Golden Oil Holdings Limited shares increased to 47.2% in December 2015. DEG, BIO and FMO also provided a long term loan facility to Feronia worth $49 million. In June 2020 the investor declared bankrupcy.