Six Corporate Finance Partners. Six markets.

Why we are expanding now

African capital markets have rotated sharply. In the first quarter of 2026, private equity transactions outnumbered venture capital deals for the first time since 2019, and development finance institutions accounted for a further large block of activity. Capital is moving toward fewer, larger, better-structured transactions in sectors with hard-currency revenue and clearer regulatory footing.

That shift rewards a particular kind of adviser: one who can convene a development finance institution, a private equity house and a domestic lender around a single structure, and then close it. It rewards judgement over volume, and relationships that are current rather than historic.

Caban has executed more than 200 transactions since 2012 from offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and London. We have the execution capability and the research desk. What we intend to add is senior presence in the markets where the transactions now sit — people already known and trusted where they operate, rather than a team flying in.

What a Corporate Finance Partner does

Originates and owns mandates. You identify, qualify and win advisory mandates across mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, restructuring and listing support — and you carry them through to completion rather than handing them to an execution team. Deciding which opportunities Caban should decline is as much a part of the seat as deciding which to pursue.

Holds live capital relationships. You maintain current, personal relationships across the funder map so that a mandate can be matched to real capital rather than a theoretical list: development finance institutions, pan-African and regional private equity, venture capital where the stage warrants it, private credit and mezzanine providers, commercial and trade finance banks, family offices, and the domestic institutional capital — pension funds and insurers — that is now the most interesting frontier on the continent.

Leads transactions. You lead or co-lead deal teams through structuring, valuation oversight, negotiation, diligence coordination, documentation and close. The Caban research and advisory desk carries the analytical load, so your hours go to judgement and counterparties.

Represents the firm in the market. You are the recognisable Caban presence where you operate, and you contribute to the published research programme — the Caban Academy, the Capital Monitor and our white papers. Published authority is not decoration; it is how a name gets into the room before the person does.

Structures for impact, not around it. Caban transactions carry a development dimension, and the deepest pools of African capital now require it substantively. Partners are expected to build that into a structure from the outset rather than retrofit it at the diligence stage.

Who we are looking for

The essential requirement is a completed transaction record — mandates closed, not merely worked on — supported by fifteen or more years in corporate finance, investment banking, private equity, development finance or deal advisory. We expect professional standing to match: CA(SA), CFA, a legal qualification, or an equivalent record earned in practice.

Beyond that, we are looking for relationships you can use. Not a contact list, but funders and business owners who would take your call this week and who associate your name with a transaction that completed. We ask about this directly and early, because it is the difference between a distinguished appointment and a working one.

Sell-side and buy-side M&A leadership, cross-border execution, and sector depth in healthcare, financial technology, energy and green construction, water or trade will each strengthen an application. So will regulatory fluency in your own market — the JSE Listings Requirements and B-BBEE structuring in South Africa, and the equivalent frameworks elsewhere.

Temperamentally, this suits someone entrepreneurial, comfortable with performance-linked income, and drawn to building something rather than joining something already finished.

What the firm provides

You are not being asked to build a practice alone. Caban provides the mandate infrastructure: a research and advisory desk that carries modelling, information memoranda, market work and diligence support; an established brand with a fourteen-year transaction record; the firm's own capital, available for co-investment deal by deal; an existing funder network across development finance, private equity and private credit; and a published research programme that you contribute to and benefit from.

The intention is that a partner spends their time where their advantage actually lies — in the market, with counterparties — rather than on work the desk can do better and faster.

Why this firm

Caban was built on the premise that capital should leave something behind. Our impact work treats communities as shareholders rather than beneficiaries, and the firm's founder established South Africa's first crowdfunding platform in 2012 for much the same reason. That orientation is not a marketing layer over a conventional advisory business; it shapes which mandates we take and how we structure them.

For an experienced dealmaker, the practical consequence is that the work has a second dimension. The transactions are commercial and are priced commercially. But the businesses being funded employ people in markets that need the employment, and the capital being raised is frequently the first institutional money those businesses have ever seen. If that matters to you, it will make the seat considerably more interesting than the equivalent role elsewhere.

Terms

These are performance-linked appointments. Compensation combines a share of profit on completed mandates with payment for defined project work, and it is structured individually — the balance between the two, and the basis on which deal credit is allocated between originating and executing partners, is settled with each appointee according to their market, their sector focus and the shape of their contribution.

We discuss economics in full at prospectus stage, in writing, before either side commits time to a formal process.

These are working appointments rather than honorary titles. Each carries an expectation of active origination, a quarterly pipeline review with the Managing Director, and annual renewal rather than an open-ended term. We would rather appoint four people who work the seat than six who hold it.

How appointment works

The process is deliberately short and deliberately thorough.

You request the partner prospectus, which sets out the economics, the support model, the activity expectations and the appointment terms in full. If it interests you, a screening conversation follows — thirty minutes, confidential, and frank in both directions. From there, a structured discussion with the Managing Director and the Group CEO, and verification of your transaction record against references you nominate.

The final stage is a period of co-origination on a live mandate before the title is conferred. Ninety days working a real transaction together tells both parties what no interview can, and it allows either side to conclude that the fit is wrong without anyone losing face.

Every enquiry is treated as confidential and is reviewed by a principal. We are aware that most people reading this hold current positions or board seats.