Nigeria’s leading retail pharmacy and beauty outlet HealthPlus has announced a partnership with London-based private equity manager Alta Semper Capital.
The new partnership will see Alta Semper investing US$18 million into HealthPlus, the new funding will enable the company to expand its retail footprint and enhance its competitive position. It currently has approximately 80 locations across the country.
Reacting to this new development Bukky George, Founder & CEO HealthPlus noted that the new partnership will enable the company to grow strategically across the country and further its mission of providing high quality and affordable healthcare products and services to a growing market in both the urban and rural areas of the country.
Afsane Jetha, Managing Partner & CEO of Alta Semper, revealed that the funding provides an opportunity to enter the Nigerian retail market and invest in a market-leading player such as HealthPlus.
He also noted that the company is well-positioned to take advantage of the grossly under-penetrated Nigerian pharmacy retail market and meet the growing demands of Nigerian consumers, as well as to expand regionally into neighboring countries.
HealthPlus was founded in 1999 by Mrs. Olubukunola (Bukky) Adewunmi George, FPSN, a Nigeria and UK-trained pharmacist with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, who has organically grown the business into the leading pharmacy chain and retailer of beauty supplies in West Africa. The company’s outlets are strategically-located in residential areas, shopping center, and airports across 11 of the 36 states in Nigeria.
Alta Semper Capital LLP is an authorized and regulated investment manager based in London. Alta Semper was founded in 2015 by Afsane Jetha (former Managing Director of the Africa Private Equity platform at the Duet Group), Ronald Lauder (Former US Ambassador to Austria and current Chairman of Clinique Laboratories) and Richard Parsons (former CEO of Time Warner Group and current Chairman of the Board of the Rockefeller Foundation).
The investment in HealthPlus marks the firm’s second investment into the healthcare sector in Africa and its first investment in Nigeria, after its investment into Macro Pharmaceuticals in Egypt in 2017.