Cape Town, South Africa: African Infrastructure Investment Managers has set up a pan-African cold chain logistics platform with the acquisition of a cold storage operator from Oceana Group for $46m.
African Infrastructure Investment Managers has led a group of investors, including Bauta Logistics and the Mokobela Shakati consortium, to buy Oceana’s Commercial Cold Storage as the first acquisition for the newly launched Commercial Cold Holdings platform. African Infrastructure Investment Managers will hold a 59.2% stake in Commercial Cold Holdings.
Commercial Cold Storage, a southern African cold store operator, currently operates about 100,000 pallets of storage across six sites in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Walvis Bay, Namibia.
Damilola Agbaje, investment director, African Infrastructure Investment Managers, said the cold chain logistics infrastructure sector is underdeveloped, and in places non-existent, across Sub-Saharan Africa and the investment diversifies African Infrastructure Investment Managers current portfolio.
“South Africa, which possesses the continent’s most advanced TCL [temperature-controlled logistics] infrastructure at 13 square metres of cold storage per 1,000 residents, lags comparable economies such as Egypt and Brazil, which have 105 square metres and 83 square metres, respectively, our research has indicated.”
Olusola Lawson, managing director and co-head of African Infrastructure Investment Managers, said: ”Food security in the current global and African context is a topic of increasing importance, and we believe the CCH platform will play a role in addressing these critical matters.“
Michael Osekereh, managing director, Bauta Logistics, said: “As we build out a network of temperature-controlled warehouses in key demand hubs and food production regions on the Continent, we are excited about the role that Commercial Cold Holdings will play in facilitating intracontinental trade.”
