(Bloomberg) --

Fairfax Africa Holdings Corp. agreed to merge with Helios Holdings Ltd. to create a pan-African money manager and investment firm looking for opportunities across the continent.

Helios Fairfax Partners Corp., as the new entity will be known, will be listed in Toronto and majority owned by Fairfax, the companies said in a statement on Friday. Tope Lawani and Babatunde Soyoye, who co-founded Helios Investment Partners LLP, will run the new group as joint chief executive officers.

Helios has been raising a new $1.25 billion Africa-focused fund, and said earlier Friday that the U.K.’s development-finance arm, CDC Group, had committed $100 million. The raising comes as businesses across Africa struggle with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on national economies.

Fairfax was founded and still run by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa.

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