Cold chain solution provider Ifria to receive financial backing from IFC to spearhead growth
AFRICA – Ifria Cold Chain Development Company, a newly established platform providing end-to-end cold chain solution and transportation services, is eyeing a US$9.4m equity investment from IFC to support development of its cold chain business in North and West Africa.
Ifria is an integrated cold chain development company operating in franchise, license, or directly- cold chain logistics assets, ranging from added value cold storage/logistic warehouses for perishable products in industrial zones to first mile cold chain at the production/farm level in North and West African markets.
The organization seeks to incorporate shares in an existing asset and pursue a mix of brownfield acquisitions and greenfield opportunities in the third-party temperature-controlled logistics (TCL) sector.
Its existing asset is a refrigerated warehouse facility providing storage and other value-added services for perishable food products in the port of Tanger Med in Morocco.
The IFC funding will be channelled towards supporting Ifria’s first round of investments in Morocco and Senegal between 2022 and 2024.
Some of its pipelined projects in Morocco include the acquisition an existing TCL facility in Casablanca with an initial size of 10,000 pallets position, and the development of a new TCL facility in Ouled Teima, located in the vicinity of Agadir with an initial proposed size of 5,000 pallets position.
In Senegal Ifria readies development of a new TCL facility in the industrial zone of Diamniadio in the vicinity of Dakar with an initial size of 5,000 pallets position, alongside the construction of a new TCL facility to be located in the port of Dakar with an initial proposed size of 5,000 pallets position.
With these investments, Ifria is looking to provide warehousing, transportation, and value-added services including classification, labelling, packaging, picking, and documentation to a variety of customers in the modern grocery retails, hotels & restaurants, pharmaceutical industries, agriculture production and fishing companies.
The total cost to finance the first round of investment of the project is estimated to be an equivalent to US$69m, of which about US$40m will be injected as equity with the rest being sourced as debt from institutions and funds.
Ifria cold chain platform has been set up by four seasoned partners combining 50 years of operating experience of cold chain networks and development across multiple countries.
The platform’s partners will own a minority stake in the company while the Sustainable Climated Fund (SCF), a global blended initiative funded by Green Climate Fund and other multiple private investors will be the majority shareholder.
Establishment of TCL infrastructure is critical in Africa in a bid to boost food security, allow domestic producers to meet the standards required to participate in global trade, and creating higher value jobs through more formal food retail and wholesale models.
Recently, African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), one of South Africa’s largest infrastructure-focused private equity fund managers, led a consortium of investors including Bauta Logistics and Mokobela Shakati (Pty) Ltd, to establish a pan-African cold chain logistics platform dubbed Commercial Cold Holdings (CCH).
CCH would focus on acquiring and developing facilities with strategic physical locations and/or integration with market-leading food producers, wholesalers, and retailers.
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