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Beltone Holding, the Egyptian financial services group controlled by Abu Dhabi’s Chimera Investment, has bought Baobab Group in a €197.6 million deal that gives it an instant footprint across seven African markets and a bigger role in lending to small businesses.
The transaction puts a spotlight on Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a senior Abu Dhabi royal whose business empire has pushed steadily into banking, fintech and capital markets across the region. Chimera, part of the wider Royal Group network overseen by Sheikh Tahnoon, acquired a controlling stake in Beltone in 2022 and has since backed an aggressive growth plan under Beltone’s management team.
Beltone said the Baobab purchase was completed through Beltone Capital, its investment arm, after securing regulatory approvals. The company described it as the largest transaction in its history and its first major cross border acquisition, a move designed to connect North Africa’s financial hub ambitions with fast growing credit markets south of the Sahara.
Baobab is headquartered in Paris and is best known in Africa for microfinance and small business lending, increasingly delivered through digital channels. The group serves about 1.6 million customers and reported a loan book of roughly €848.8 million as of the end of the third quarter of 2025, with about half of its loans disbursed digitally, according to information released around the deal.
Baobab’s operating map gives Beltone reach in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Madagascar, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those are markets where access to credit remains thin for many small firms, even as mobile money and digital onboarding make it easier to scale lending products beyond traditional bank branches.
Beltone has positioned itself as a one stop platform spanning brokerage, investment banking, asset management and a growing set of non banking financial services, including leasing, consumer finance and venture investments. Baobab’s strengths in micro and small enterprise lending add a frontline distribution network and loan origination engine that Beltone can pair with its balance sheet structuring and capital markets experience.
The deal also reflects how Gulf capital is increasingly shaping financial services in North Africa. Sheikh Tahnoon has built influence across public and private investment vehicles, and Chimera has pursued deals that blend traditional finance with technology driven credit models, in markets where banks have struggled to serve informal and early stage businesses.
Beltone and Baobab have framed the combination as a push for financial inclusion with a commercial edge. Baobab says it has disbursed millions of loans over more than two decades, channeling billions of euros into micro enterprises and small firms that typically rely on short term working capital to keep inventory moving and staff paid.
Investors will watch whether Beltone can integrate Baobab’s country operations while keeping credit quality stable in volatile economies where inflation, currency swings and political risk can quickly change repayment patterns. Competition is also heating up as banks, telecom led lenders and fintech startups chase the same customers with faster approvals and lower overhead.
The acquisition gives Beltone a broader story to sell: an Egypt based financial group with Gulf backing, expanding into core African lending markets at a time when demand for credit is outpacing supply.
