ECP sells stake in Morocco’s Charaf Corp.

Washington-Emerging Capital Partners LLC, an international private equity firm focused on investing across the African continent, said May 5 that it has sold its entire position in Charaf Corp., Morocco’s leading fertilizer distribution company. ECP’s exit was made through a sale of shares to the historical shareholders of Charaf for total proceeds of US$23.2 million. The initial investment consisted of common shares and was made through the AIG African Fund Infrastructure Fund L.L.C. (Africa Fund I) in December 2003. During ECP’s holding period the firm helped Charaf achieve significant growth, with sales increasing an average of 25 percent each year. This enabled Charaf to rapidly expand its market share and become the No. 1 fertilizer distribution company in Morocco. In 2007 Charaf’s annual sales were over US$100 million, and the volume of fertilizer sold exceeded 262,000 tons. “ECP helped Charaf expand into products that better matched the regional farmers’ needs, such as water soluble fertilizers that are becoming more popular as irrigation techniques improve,” said Hurley Doddy, chief operating officer of ECP. “The establishment of a corporate development strategy and improvements to products enabled the company’s revenue to grow 116 percent and surpass the former state-owned monopoly over our four-year holding period.”