A new age of focused, strategic and value-accretive dealmaking is reshaping the continent’s investment landscape.
Despite a wave of headline-making exits across parts of Africa by multinational corporations and institutional investors, international interest in the continent remains resolutely intact. Rather than signalling a wholesale retreat, these exits reflect a rebalancing of portfolios, as investors recalibrate strategies to focus on scalable, high-growth opportunities, better-aligned partnerships, and regional integration plays.
Over the past decade, several international corporates have exited African markets that were once deemed essential to their growth plans. Yet these exits are not indicators of fading interest. In most cases, they reflect the operational realities of certain territories – currency volatility, regulatory challenges or subscale operations – and a pivot towards core larger and scalable markets or higher-performing regions. In parallel, many multinational investors are doubling down in countries like Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco, where underlying fundamentals remain robust, and consumption-driven growth continues to accelerate.
An example of the maturity of Africa’s investment landscape is evident through the example of LeapFrog Investments’ full exit from Goodlife Pharmacy, East Africa’s largest retail pharmacy chain. In July 2025, LeapFrog sold its remaining stake in Goodlife to CFAO Healthcare, a subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho Corporation and one of the most active healthcare distribution networks on the continent. This was no ordinary exit. LeapFrog had invested in Goodlife in 2017, when the business operated just 19 stores. Over the course of its investment, LeapFrog helped scale the platform to over 150 outlets across Kenya and Uganda, building the region’s most trusted branded pharmacy network.
The business now serves more than 2 million customers annually, and has become a case study in how strategic capital, operational discipline and impact-led governance can generate both outsized returns and systemic healthcare value.
CFAO Healthcare’s acquisition reflects the growing appetite from international strategic buyers to expand into Africa via ready-made scalable platforms. As a distributor with reach across over 40 African countries, CFAO gains a direct-to-consumer presence and a vertically integrated foothold in the pharmacy retail segment – a segment that is formalising rapidly across the continent. LeapFrog, in turn, successfully exited to a long-term operator capable of taking the platform to the next stage of growth.
The lesson from transactions like Goodlife is clear: international players are still interested in Africa, but their approach is more targeted. They seek assets that are scalable, well governed, and regionally relevant. Increasingly, they are acquiring not greenfield operations, but platforms that include businesses that have been de-risked, have been professionally managed, and demonstrate a clear path to expansion.
Africa’s consumer story remains intact. With over 1,4 billion people and a significant and growing middle class, the demand for quality healthcare, food, financial services, digital connectivity and logistics infrastructure continues to rise. Global players from Japan, France, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and India are actively evaluating acquisition opportunities in these sectors across the continent. The increasing interest in both digital infrastructure and logistics infrastructure in Africa by players from these regions shows the appreciation for the current ongoing African economic energy, as well as the future growth to be achieved from the investment taking place today.
At the same time, private equity investors and development finance institutions (DFIs) are focusing on exit mobilisation, transitioning their portfolios to long-term operators or strategic buyers. The recycling of capital from LeapFrog into CFAO is precisely the kind of liquidity event that reinforces confidence in Africa’s private capital ecosystem.
International interest in African assets is not waning – it is evolving. Investors are being more selective, favouring markets with political stability, rising urbanisation, and proven business models. Local knowledge, experienced advisers and credible partnerships will be key to unlocking continued capital flows.
Local knowledge and partnerships are proving to be a vital part of the strategy of international acquirers when evaluating various African platform opportunities. The ability to navigate, operate and understand the nuances of local and regional markets brings its own value to companies on the continent. While many African businesses still possess strong family shareholdings, this has been shown to provide comfort and reassurance to international partners.
The next wave of mergers and acquisitions across Africa will see a major refocus of all parties involved in the deal-making landscape, with a keen focus by PEs and DFIs on potential exit routes of new investments, while international players have a much more focused strategy and eye on the long-term future of the African businesses within their portfolios.
Teurai Nyazema is an Associate Principal: Corporate Finance | Nedbank CIB.
This article first appeared in DealMakers AFRICA, the continent’s quarterly M&A publication.
DealMakers AFRICA is a quarterly M&A publication
www.dealmakersafrica.com
