Olaniwun Ajayi has advised AfricInvest, a leading pan-African private equity firm, on its investment in JustRite Limited, a family-owned departmental retail store in Nigeria. Established over 22 years ago, JustRite provides everyday essentials, including groceries, confectionaries and clothing to consumers in largely underserved neighbourhoods in the south-eastern region of Nigeria through an existing chain of 17 stores with combined shop floor exceeding 20,000 square metres.
AfricInvest’s investment was made through AfricInvest Fund IV, a fund with total commitments of US$411 million, which invests in mature and profitable African mid-cap companies across diverse sectors. AF IV’s investment will contribute to accelerating JustRite’s growth, through digitalising its processes and services and building affordable grocery outlets that source local products, support domestic agriculture value chains and create new jobs.
Olaniwun Ajayi’s team advised AfricInvest on all English law, cross-border and Nigerian law aspects of the transaction. The team was led by London partner, Chuks Ibechukwu, and Lagos partner Anu Balogun, and included Wolemi Esan (Deputy Managing Partner), Yewande Senbore (Partner, Lagos), Comfort Agboola (Senior Associate, Lagos), Oluwaseyi Alao (Associate, Lagos), Akinwunmi Ajiboye (Associate, Lagos), Roli Meggison (Associate, Lagos) and Juanita Derex-Briggs (Senior Associate, London).
Chuks Ibechukwu, who chairs the corporate finance practice of Olaniwun Ajayi (UK) LLP, commented: “Our strategy is anchored on addressing the needs of our clients for integrated, end-to-end legal services, transaction management and efficiency on cross-border transactions across key markets in Africa. Transactions of this type, for which we can draw on our London and Lagos capabilities, really allow us to showcase our value proposition to clients and the range of benefits we can provide through an integrated cross-border / local law offering. We are delighted to have advised AfricInvest on this important transaction in the retail space in Nigeria.”
