East Africa’s notable company mergers, acquisitions and their advisers have been recognised at the DealMakers AFRICA Annual Gala Awards held in Lagos.

The awards ceremony, held at Ebony Life Place, also tracked the work carried out by the advisers in the mergers and acquisition and general corporate finance space during 2023.

The DealMakers Africa awards are based essentially on objective evidence, the value of deals or transactions and, the number of them.

In only three of the awards, selection is subjective and these are approached with considerable circumspection, which are the Deal of the Year, the Private Equity Deal of the Year and the Individual DealMaker of the Year.

While nominations are received from the advisory firms for these subjective awards, the DealMakers Africa’s team produces a shortlist, and an eventual winner is decided on guided by the following criteria, which are Transformational elements, execution complexity, deal size and potential value creation.

For the Individual DealMaker, the deals worked on, the contribution made, the execution complexity and peer recognition are considered.

In the East Africa Deal of the Year category, DealMakers Africa shortlisted three deals, which were: The East Africa Device Assembly Kenya Joint Venture, the disposal of James Finlay Kenya to Browns Investments and the disposal by Bamburi Cement and Cementia of Hima Cement (Uganda).

The acquisition by Browns Investments of James Finlay Kenya was named Deal of the Year. The deal will support the next growth phase of the company while at the same time benefiting the local community and contributing to the overall Kenyan economy.

The advisory firms to the deal were Bowmans and Addleshaw Goddard.

In the category of Private Equity Deal of the Year (East Africa), DealMakers AFRICA shortlisted three deals, which were: The exit by Maris and Nvision of a majority stake in Equator Energy to IBL Energy and STOA, the exit by Finnfund of its stake in Lake Turkana Wind Power to BlackRock and Ascent Capital Africa’s exit of its stake in Guardian Health.

The winner of the East Africa Private Equity Deal of the Year was Ascent Capital Africa’s exit of its Stake in Guardian Health.

During its six-year investment Guardian Health has scaled from a footprint of five stores to a chain of 19 stores in six districts. Its new shareholder will boost its largely underdeveloped online and telemedicine service.

Advisers to the winning transaction were I&M Burbidge Capital, Clyde & Co and Bowmans.

The following awards were made on the night to the top financial and legal advisers to the East African mergers and acquisition industry.

For the Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Adviser by deal value, Deloitte & Touche Financial Advisory Services came first, while for the second time is Canaccord Genuity Corp, CIBC Capital Markets.

In the Financial Adviser by deal activity, PwC came first, while the second tie isbStandard Chartered Bank, Horizon Africa Capital and Verdant Capital.

for the Legal Adviser by deal value, Anjarwalla & Khanna came first, Bowmans came second and the third tie were Berhane Gila-Michael & Associates, Kebreab Habte Michael.