AIIM expands Africa's largest cold-storage platform with acquisition of Port Elizabeth Cold Storage

African Infrastructure Investment Managers (PTY) Ltd. (AIIM), one of Africa’s leading infrastructure investment managers and a subsidiary of Old Mutual Alternative Investments, has announced the acquisition of a 70% stake in Port Elizabeth Cold Storage (PECS) through its temperature-controlled logistics platform, Commercial Cold Holdings (CCH). The investment is funded by AIIM’s African Infrastructure Investment Fund 4 (AIIF4) and the IDEAS Managed Fund.

The acquisition of PECS adds approximately 15,000 pallet positions to the CCH platform, expanding its national footprint by 10% and strengthening its position as the largest cold storage platform on the continent. PECS is strategically located in the Eastern Cape, South Africa’s second-largest citrus-producing region. PECS handles over 200,000 pallets of citrus exports annually – equivalent to about 8% of the country’s total citrus exports.

“This acquisition represents another milestone in AIIM’s strategy to build a diversified and high-impact temperature-controlled logistics platform across Southern Africa,” said Anyababa Ikem, Investment Principal at AIIM. “PECS provides CCH with a strong foothold in South Africa’s USD-linked citrus export value chain, access to a strategic location for expansion back of port in the Coega Industrial Development Zone and further opportunity for the deployment of renewable energy.”

Following its anchor acquisitions of CCS Logistics and Sequence Logistics, the addition of PECS further diversifies CCH’s portfolio from local retail and food distribution toward export-driven products. The combination of PECS with CCH’s existing Greenbushes facility in the region will enhance service reliability for growers and exporters during peak citrus season through additional capacity and improved port access.

“With the addition of PECS, we are deepening our presence in one of South Africa’s most important agricultural export hubs,” said Paul Gibbons, CEO of Commercial Cold Holdings. “Our goal is to be the partner of choice to the country’s growers, retailers and exporters by combining scale, technology and reliability. The integration of PECS into the CCH platform strengthens our ability to provide end-to-end temperature-controlled logistics and deliver certainty to customers during critical export windows.”

“Our continued investment in CCH underscores AIIM’s conviction in the long-term growth potential of Africa’s cold chain sector,” added Anyababa Ikem. “Temperature-controlled logistics is vital for improving food security, enabling trade, and creating quality jobs. PECS exemplifies the type of high-impact, high-growth infrastructure we aim to back — combining solid fundamentals with measurable socio-economic value.”

As part of AIIM’s broader sustainability and energy-efficiency strategy, CCH will look to improve renewable-energy generation and enhance battery-storage solutions at PECS to improve cost efficiency and reduce carbon intensity. The acquisition will also result in approximately 70 permanent jobs being added or transferred to the platform, furthering AIIM’s inclusive employment and transformation agenda.

The transaction was advised by ENS (legal), PwC (financial) and ALG (commercial). Investec provided acquisition-debt funding.