The Carlyle Group agrees to sell shares in Export Trading Group to Company Founders

Dar Es Salam, Tanzania and Johannesburg, South Africa – Global Alternative Asset Manager The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) today announced its intention to sell its current minority shareholding in Export Trading Group (ETG) to the company management team/founders. 

Founded in 1967, ETG owns and manages a vertically-integrated agriculture supply chain with operations in procurement, processing, warehousing, transportation, distribution and merchandising.  ETG has more than 7,000 employees across 30 African countries and operates 30 processing plants and 300 warehouses. ETG connects African smallholder farmers to consumers around the world by procuring, processing and distributing agricultural commodities including maize, pulses, wheat, rice, cashew nuts, soya, fertilizer, sugar, coffee and tea.

Marlon Chigwende, Managing Director and Co-Head of the Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund, said, “After making our investment in 2012, we have worked alongside the management team and other investors to help ETG grow and build value, while supporting African smallholder farmers.  Carlyle has a strong track record of helping companies in emerging markets become highly competitive in today’s global economy, and our time working with ETG has been valuable and rewarding.  We wish the ETG team continued success as they take the business forward.”

Ketan Patel, Managing Director of ETG, said, “We thank Carlyle for their commitment to investing in ETG alongside Pembani Remgro, Standard Chartered Private Equity and the company founders. We will continue to focus on expanding operations across Sub-Saharan Africa, India, China and South-East Asia and to create new markets for African smallholder farmers.”

Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction closed in the third quarter of 2015.

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About Export Trading Group
ETG owns and manages a vertically-integrated agriculture supply chain across the African subcontinent with operations spanning procurement, processing, warehousing, transport, distribution and merchandising. The company prides itself on connecting smallholder farmers to the global economy and the global economy back to smallholder farmers through a value chain that operates between the farm gates of emerging markets and supermarket shelves around the world.

For more information visit www.etgworld.com.

About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with $193 billion of assets under management across 130 funds and 156 fund of funds vehicles as of March 31, 2015. Carlyle's purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, many of whom are public pensions. Carlyle invests across four segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Market Strategies and Investment Solutions – in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,650 people in 40 offices across six continents

Web: www.carlyle.com
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About the Carlyle Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) Team
Established in March 2012, the Carlyle SSA team makes buyout and growth capital investments in private and public companies from offices in Johannesburg, SA and Lagos, Nigeria. The Carlyle SSA team focuses on transactions where it has a distinctive competitive advantage and can create tangible value for companies in which it invests, through industry specialization, deployment of human capital and access to Carlyle’s global network. Carlyle’s target industries include consumer goods, financial services, agribusiness, and energy.  The African-based team has experience of working in 29 African countries.

Media Contacts:

The Carlyle Group
Catherine Armstrong
+44 20 7894 1632
Catherine.Armstrong@carlyle.com

Export Trading Group
Ketan Patel
+255 22 212 4474
ketan.patel@etgworld.com

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