Egyptian private equity veteran Hossam Abou Moussa (LinkedIn) has joined London-based financial services PE outfit Apis as a partner, the company said in a statement (pdf) that also quotes Actis partner Rick Philips. Abou Moussa joins after a 15-year run at Actis, where he has been a partner leading a team of professionals who invest in financial services in Egypt and across emerging markets. He began his career at CIIC prior to its merger with EFG Hermes, where got his start in private equity before joining Actis in 2006.

Apis is a financial services specialist with more than USD 1 bn invested in 25 companies and a focus on environmental, social, governance and impact investing across developed and emerging markets. The firm closed its USD 550 mn Apis Partners II fund on the eve of the covid-19 pandemic with a who’s who of limited partners including global banks, insurance companies, development financial institutions, fund of funds, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices from the U.S., Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia.

Apis’ most recent investment includes an undisclosed stake in South African digital player TymeBank, where Apis will also join the board.

Abou Moussa will take with him two other Actis professionals and will “continue to provide advice on certain Actis financial services investments in existing portfolios” under an agreement with Actis, the statement said.

The move comes as Actis focuses its strategy on hard assets including real estate, power and infrastructure. “The partnership [with Apis] delivers positive outcomes for our investors by retaining the knowledge, experience and relationships of the team in an advisory capacity for a number of our financial services investments. We are very pleased to be working with Apis, who we identified as the optimal partner to collaborate with us on our financial services investments,” said Actis partner Rick Phillips.

Actis and Abou Moussa have a long track record in Egypt. The firm has stakes and board representation on leading payments firm Fawry, top consumer healthcare player IDH (the parent company of Al Borg and Al Mokhtabar labs), and hospitals group Cleopatra (the latter alongside RMBV). Its previous investments here include CIB and Edita. It also previously built leading payments business EMP, which had a significant operation in Egypt, before exiting it to Network International.

*** WE’LL HAVE MORE ON THE TRANSACTION in an exclusive sit-down with Abou Moussa in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.