SFE + B Investments to co-invest in healthcare, pharma: The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE) and B Investments will together invest in Egypt’s healthcare and pharma industries under two agreements that could channel more than EGP 2 bn into local businesses, they said in a joint statement.

#1- The SFE is joining B Investments’ healthcare subsidiary: The first agreement will see the SFE invest EGP 100 mn in B Healthcare Investments, which aims to raise up to EGP 1 bn to deploy in the specialized healthcare sector. B Investments will stump up an additional 200 mn; the firm is aiming to place the rest of the fund with a mix of local and regional private-sector investors. B Investments set up the healthcare investment vehicle in 2021 (pdf, see page 16).

B Healthcare Investments’ first big acquisition was a leading fertility center: The company had “an initial focus on fertility, mother-and-child, and related services businesses,” the statement reads. It acquired last summer 51% of the Egyptian IVF Center, one of the country’s leading fertility centers, and said at the time that it was looking at follow-on investments.

#2- B investments is joining the SFE’s health and pharma sub-fund: B Investments will make an undisclosed investment in the sub-fund under the second agreement. The SFE is looking to raise an initial EGP 1.2 bn of capital for the sub-fund, with aspirations to grow bigger down the line. It will invest in local pharma players to help them expand into under-served cities around the country and improve their digital offering.

There are more investments in the pipeline: B Investments intends to invest EGP 2 bn in the healthcare and food sectors this year, with plans to acquire a healthcare company in 1Q 2023 and close a transaction in the food sector by 2Q. The private equity firm will reportedly fund the upcoming transactions with some of the proceeds of its exits from TotalEnergies Egypt and Giza Systems, which are expected to raise more than USD 150 mn combined.