African buyout companies have been particularly active over the last week, with a notable South African deal, a €270m ($393m) fund raised by a new team, and the emergence of one of the continent’s largest firms hitting the fundraising trail.

African buyouts have been at the frontier of the private equity industry for a considerable time, but as elsewhere, the region has been hit by the financial crisis. Fundraising fell to $2.3bn (€1.6bn) across just 10 funds so far this year, compared with $5.5bn raised across 19 funds in 2008, and $11.4bn raised in 2007 across 31 funds, according to data provider Preqin.