Fonds Cauris Croissance II, a private equity fund managed by West African fund manager Cauris Management, has agreed to invest XAF4 billion (approximately US$8 million) in Azalaï Hotels, a West African hotel chain. Headquartered in Mali, Azalaï operates six hotels in Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau and Mali, and the investment will fund the chain’s expansion into Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Conakry, Guinea. Cauris Management’s first private equity fund, Cauris Investment, invested in Azalaï in 1998 to finance the construction of a hotel in Mali and to begin the company’s regional expansion. The fund exited the company in 2006.