Société Générale Asset Management has acquired a 34 per cent shareholding in Opalia Pharma, a generic pharmaceutical company based in Tunisia, by SGAM AI Kantara.
The fund will also provide EUR2m of new funding to support the growth of the business.
The Kantara Fund will be represented by three directors on the board of Opalia Pharma and has appointed Dr Negad M Shaarawi, former chairman and managing director of GlaxoSmithKline in Egypt, and Alain Chevallier, formerly a senior finance executive with Sanofi Aventis France and presently a partner of the life sciences consulting firm AEC Partners.
The EUR115m private equity fund was launched in 2007 and is part of a family of private equity funds advised by SGAM, including the SGAM AI Kantara Morocco and SGAM AI/SEDCO Emerging Markets Private Equity Fund.
SGAM AI Kantara targets expansion capital and buyout investments in established companies in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan and co-invests with SGAM AI Kantara Morocco on Moroccan transactions.
The Kantara Funds are among the first internationally backed private equity funds in the region. They have a dedicated investment team working from offices in Casablanca, Tunis, Cairo and Paris and are supported by the Société Générale banking network.
