AfricInvest, a Pan-African private equity platform, has partnered with Masria Digital Payment (MDP) through its Maghreb Private Equity Fund IV.

Skander Oueslati, CIO for AfricInvest, said: “We are pleased to partner with Masria Digital Payments in its transformative strategy to further solidify its role as the key player in the digital payments and payments processing industry in Egypt and Africa.”

Established in 2003 as Masria Card S.A.E, MDP is the leading Egyptian and African smart and payment card solutions provider.

It boasts the largest market share in its home market, Egypt, and has an extensive presence across the African continent, in more than 35 countries.

Seeking to capitalize on its new partnership with AfricInvest, MDP aims to reinforce its presence in the payment-processing sector and to solidify its position across the payments value chain by providing its clients with end-to-end payment solutions.

MDP will be able to leverage its own extensive client network as well as AfricInvest’s experience in the financial sector across Africa to grow its payment processing business line, which will be highly complementary to its current cards business.

Amr Rashad Nafie, MDP Chairman, commented: “Since founding the company, our efforts have been focused on building the business into a leading smart and payment card solutions provider in Egypt and Africa. Capitalizing on the new partnership with AfricInvest, MDP aims to offer endto-end payment solutions to its client base through venturing into the digital payments processing solutions, backed by AfricInvest’s track record on the African continent and in the financial sector. We look forward to reaching our next stage of growth with our new partners from AfricInvest.”

“This partnership is reflective of the type of opportunities that AfricInvest pursues, with an emphasis on sustainable growth, regional expansion, innovation, strong management capacity, and clear visibility with respect to stakeholder value creation. We are excited to play a part in this journey by leveraging our network and our extensive in-house expertise,” said Ismail Talbi, Partner with AfricInvest and Head of AfricInvest Egypt.

EFG Hermes Investment Banking acted as sole financial advisor to Masria Digital Payments, while Al Tamimi & Company acted as legal counsel.

AfricInvest’s team included White & Case as legal advisor and PWC as financial advisor.