GiGi Investments, a specialist engineering and mining supply company based in South Africa, has received its second private equity investment of 2022.
The cash injection puts the group in a pole position to maximise growth in a commodities boom that has spurred massive interest in mining.
Clearwater Capital is a family-owned, mid-market private equity fund with a host of investments. Clearwater Capital is an R1 billion fund with its origins in printing. Its portfolio boasts an internal rate of return of 26%. Its investment in GiGi means it will own a 25,1% stake in the business.
Headquartered in Boksburg, Gauteng, GiGi Investments was started in 2014, as a holding company which now includes five highly focused firms, each a specialist solution provider. GiGi has built a comprehensive network of distributors and partners throughout sub-Saharan Africa and key customers include the likes of Glencor, Transnet, Sasol, Anglo, Kamoa Copper Mine and De Beers.
GiGi’s portfolio includes global brand names such as Grindex, Fogmaker, ELGi, FS-Elliot, Voith and Faggiolati, amongst others. The company offers a host of mining solutions including slurry pumping and dewatering, fire detection and suppression, and compressed air in addition to comprehensive rental offerings for those customers who prefer rental over ownership.
GiGi’s engineering expertise extends beyond mining to forestry, steel, and marine engineering.
The business services clients beyond South Africa’s borders, including in Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Clearwater Capital transaction will increase GiGi’s black ownership and allow the company to better penetrate and service the regional mining industry.
Ancillary mining businesses like GiGi are benefitting from a boom that has seen demand for specific commodities, notwithstanding the impacts of the war in Ukraine and the Chinese slowdown. GiGi believes its diversified product range, which caters to the ongoing needs of mining communities, will see it prosper beyond the so-called supercycle.
GiGi says the dewatering of mines is one such example and underscores the long-term opportunity for mining growth.
GiGi Investments CEO Graham Russell said the transaction was another investment in a sector that is the bedrock of the South African economy. “Private business investment at this scale is a positive indicator of confidence in our economy. “The real story of GiGi is the breadth of our basket of global brands. It is an unusually wide, all-encompassing array of products and services that add enormous value to important industries and talks directly to safe operations and environmental protection.”
Executive Director of Clearwater Capital Keval Mehta said the fund’s portfolio spans industrial supplies, auto components, agricultural inputs, waste management, telecommunications, medical and now mining.
He said GiGi’s products and expert services were sought after in neighbouring countries like Zambia and DRC, areas with some of the wettest mines in the world.
Companies in these countries have access to reliable, global products. This transaction allows GiGi better capability to further service the South African market with these same products and services, to the benefit of the local mining community.
