Sahel Capital has exited L&Z Integrated Farms Limited, an integrated dairy processing company in Nigeria.
In February 2015, Sahel Capital, through its maiden fund, Fund for Agriculture Finance in Africa (“FAFIN”), invested in L&Z Integrated Farms Limited (“L&Z”) to support the company in expanding its business operations by increasing the capacity of its processing plant and dairy farm in Nigeria.
Over the last seven years, Sahel Capital has worked with L&Z to implement a broad range of value creation initiatives. As a result of Sahel Capital’s investment in the company, L&Z expanded its dairy processing operations and increased its milking cow herd size. Sahel supported the company in onboarding top finance, operations, and sales talents to support the growth of the business. This further enabled the company to accelerate its expansion across the country, deepen its distribution, and strengthen its governance process. With Sahel’s support, the company brought onboard two independent directors onto the company’s board. The advice and guidance of the independent directors were crucial for strengthening the institutional structures of the firm.
L&Z has had a significant development impact in the communities in northern Nigeria where it operates. L&Z has built milk collection centres which have aggregated about one million litres of milk from pastoralists, facilitated artificial insemination to improve cattle genetics, and provided over 200 scholarships to the children of pastoralists in its community, including the enrolment of over 600 female children in school under its girl child initiative.
M.D Abubakar, Founder and CEO of L&Z, said: “We are delighted with our partnership with Sahel Capital. Their strategic and financial support was instrumental to our ability to scale beyond a family business to become one of Nigeria's leading indigenous integrated dairy farms/processors. They also helped to shape our sustainability mindset, and we have become more intentional about incorporating ESG into our operations. We are poised for growth, we have the team, and we have the know-how - thanks to Sahel Capital! “
Mezuo Nwuneli, the Managing Partner of Sahel Capital, said: “Asides from the attractiveness of the dairy sector in Nigeria, we partnered with L&Z because we valued the integrity of the founders and their passion for the development of the industry. We are proud to have been a part of L&Z's incredible growth and success story. L&Z has become a formidable brand in Nigeria's dairy sector, and we are confident that the company will continue to play a pivotal role in the sector's evolution over the coming years. “
Sahel Capitals’ exit from L&Z has been executed through an MBO led by the Founder of L&Z.