Downtown Africa
Centum Real Estate, a wholly owned subsidiary of Centum Investment Company, signed an agreement with GEM Global Yield (GEM), the Luxembourg based private alternative investment group, to provide Centum Real Estate with a share subscription facility of up to KES 17 billion for a 36-month term following a public listing. The share subscription facility will allow Centum Real Estate to draw down funds by issuing shares of common stock to GEM. Centum Real Estate will control the timing and the maximum size of such drawdowns and has no minimum drawdown obligation.
GEM has committed to make a very sizable equity investment into the Centum Real Estate business. It validates the attractiveness of the market opportunity that Centum Real Estate is pursuing in providing housing across Sub Sahara Africa where there is a very significant unmet demand.
James Mworia, the Managing Director of Centum PLC said, “This commitment by GEM to invest in Centum Real Estate is in line with Centum’s mission to build extraordinary African enterprises and to provide a channel through which investors can access them. We are proud of what we have achieved in building a market leading company that is playing a critical role in providing housing across East Africa and the vision is to scale it up across the continent. The commitment by GEM is a major vote of confidence in Centum Real Estate and its business model and this investment will go a great way in significantly scaling up the business of Centum Real Estate. He added, “The commitment by GEM provides an independent market validation of the attractiveness of the Centum Real Estate business model, demonstrates depth of investor interest and helps us in strengthening market confidence in the business of Centum Real Estate. We are quite pleased with this development and look forward to attracting even more investors into Centum Real Estate.”
Centum Real Estate is currently developing over 1,400 homes, many of which have already been completed. Another 3,000+ homes are in the pipeline to be developed in the near term. Additionally, Centum Real Estate holds bulk development rights across its land banks for its future housing development and for sale to other real estate developers.
This article was written by Pie Kamau and initially published at africabusinesscommunities.com. You can start earning money by becoming our Independent Reporter or Contributor. Contact us at IR@downtownafrica.com
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