Today, XSML, the fund manager active in Central Africa, announced its investment in MIS Impression Sprl (MIS). MIS is an advertising, communication and printing company. MIS’ main activity is outdoor billboard advertising in the main cities in Congo as well as offset printing and textile printing.
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
XSML’s investment allows MIS to modernize and expand its billboard park and embark on a long term growth strategy for its billboard advertising business. MIS’ main clients are large corporates including banks, telecom operators, consumer goods companies and breweries.
MIS operates from its headquarters in Limete, Kinshasa. The city of Kinshasa has been renewing its road infrastructure and has issued new regulation to modernize and renew the billboards in public spaces as well. Advertising and communication companies are obliged to modernize their billboards if they want to renew / gain new emplacements. Overall the number of billboards on renovated roads will be decreased and outdated billboards are being replaced with modern, larger ones. These billboards command higher pricing, increasing the price per m2.
The coming period, the promoter of MIS wants to renew a part of its billboard park and gain new billboard locations. With the assignment of new locations, MIS has the opportunity to both grow and modernize its billboard park and increase its advertising market share.
The Managing Director of MIS Impression, Mr. Malamba states: “With the financing provided by the Central Africa SME Fund, MIS is now able to purchase and modernize its billboards on the main boulevards in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. We see an opportunity to modernize and expand our billboards by offering not only larger billboards but also supply the latest billboard technologies available to our customer base.”
Jarl Heijstee, Managing Partner at XSML says: “As Kinshasa has been renewing its roads and pavements, a modern billboard presentation forms part of this renewal. MIS has excellent billboard locations in major cities in Congo and modernization of their billboard park will bring state-of-the-art outdoor advertising to Congo. As there is an increasing need for corporates to distinguish themselves from the competition, outdoor advertising is the most direct way of communicating your product to a growing base of consumers”.
MIS Impression is the seventeenth investment made by CASF and its fourteenth investment in DRC. CASF is an investment fund investing in small and medium-sized enterprises in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The fund is based on the belief that sustainable economic development in the fast growing markets of DRC and CAR can be achieved by encouraging entrepreneurship. Currently, many opportunities in these countries remain unexploited due to the lack of risk capital and support. By stimulating entrepreneurial endeavors jobs and income are created. CASF is a USD 19m fund with 80% allocation to DRC and 20% in CAR. CASF provides risk capital with an investment size ranging from USD 100,000 to a maximum of USD 500,000. Investors in CASF are IFC, FMO and the Lundin Foundation.
About MIS Impression Sprl
MIS Impression Sprl is located in Limete, Kinshasa, DRC. MIS offers outdoor advertising, offset printing and textile printing. MIS billboards are located throughout a number of cities in DRC with its main presence in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Matadi.
About XSML
XSML is an independent private equity fund manager with a focus on frontier markets. While building and managing funds for these markets, XSML, eXtra Small Medium Large, aims to help grow small businesses into medium and large enterprises. XSML was founded in 2008. The managing partners have an extensive background in emerging markets in the areas of asset management, corporate and development banking and corporate restructuring. Our experience has shown that demand for finance from small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) remains largely untapped despite increased interest in frontier markets from international investors. XSML bridges the gap between international investors and SMEs in these markets.
