The new sub-Saharan Africa investment company set up by former Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Chenevix-Trench has made its first financial investment, tapping into a sector that has provided some of the brightest returns on the continent.

African Century, which Financial News revealed last month had been set up by Chenevix-Trench and Henry Pitman, has struck a deal to take a 25% stake in the holding company of a Zimbabwean commercial bank. Pitman is former chief executive of UK support services provider Tribal Group.