Home Lona Group (Pty) Ltd Lona Group (Pty) Ltd In brief Lona Group is a vertically integrated fruit food business in South Africa. Established in 1996 and headquartered in Cape Town, Lona Group markets and exports citrus fruit from its farms and on behalf of other producers. The company has expanded into agro-processing, logistics, and services during the past decade. Finnfund co-invests in Lona Holdco, which owns the majority of Lona Group, together with Phatisa Food Fund 2, BII, and Norfund. The expansion investments with the equity capital relate mainly to the expansion of food and fruit product processing capacity, cold storage-related investments, orchard net investments, small orchard expansion on selected farms, and finally to corporate acquisitions, which relate to buying out minority shareholders of group chosen entities. Main development impact 360 direct new jobs are estimated to be created pursuant to the various expansion investments. Lona Group operates with local farmers, workers’ trusts, and farm communities in their supply chain and it is estimated that the total beneficiaries are about 3,000 local people. Further jobs will be created in the supply chain, for example, with the support of the South African Jobs Fund, which provides grant funding for a citrus farm owned by Kangela Empowerment Trust (KET) and mango growers in Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Lona Group does qualify for the 2X Challenge, as about 40% of the workforce are women. The group management has put substantial emphasis on diversity development (not only related to women) in the group organisation. Investment details Name: Lona Group (Pty) Ltd Project number: 80000357 Region: Africa Country: South Africa Sector: Agriculture Signing date (month/year): April 2022 Currency: USD Finnfund's financing (commitment): 3,250,000 Instrument: Equity Channeled financing (name of company): Lynx Food Group, Mauritius and Lona Holdco (Pty) Ltd, South Africa Size of the project financing: USD 28,000,000 Share of Finnfund's financing (%): 11,50 % Status: Active Please note, that in principle, this information is given at the time of signature according to Finnfund's disclosure policy. However, in the case of investment funds, the share of Finnfund’s financing (%) is disclosed after the fund’s final closing, and information on the portfolio companies financed by the fund is updated at least once a year.April Read our transparency and disclosure policy More information: News Current investments Business sectors Contact us Key facts Name: Lona Group (Pty) Ltd Sector: Agriculture Region: Africa Country: South Africa Currency: USD Finnfund's financing (commitment): 3,250,000 Signing date (month/year): April 2022 Last update: September 2022