Acorn Master Finco One LLP (DFC-2024-ACORNMASTERFI)

Countries
  • Kenya
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Active
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Borrower
Acorn Master FinCo One, LLP
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Construction
  • Education and Health
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Guarantee, Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 180.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 180.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 560.33 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ DFC website

Updated in EWS May 28, 2025

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Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank’s website, the project consists of a long term financing to support the construction and operation of EDGE Certified student accommodations totalling approximately 48,000 beds in 38 buildings.

The Project is expected to have a positive impact on Kenya’s student housing sector by supporting the construction of new student housing units located near major universities.

DFC will support Acorn Holdings Ltd, to develop affordable, safe and sustainable student housing units offering a total of almost 48,000 beds. In order to finance the building and operation of new housing developments, Acorn Holdings has created two Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). As part of the REIT structure, Acorn established the Vuka Investment Portal which will allow Kenyan retail investors to invest directly in the REITs. These REITs will create an innovative financing structure that will allow local Kenyan retail investors to invest in Acorn’s purpose-built student housing (PBSA).

Early Warning System Project Analysis
For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

DFC loans to Borrowers to support a real estate investment trust (REIT), for the purpose of constructing student housing in urban/suburban areas of university towns/cities are screened as a Financial Intermediary B (FI-B) for environmental and social assessment. These downstream investments are expected to result in minimal adverse environmental and social impacts. Therefore, all those downstream investments have been pre-screened as low risk and further review and consent is not required for these investments.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Acorn (Holdings) Limited was founded in 2013. The company's line of business includes renting, buying, selling and appraising real estate.

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - Acorn Holdings Ltd Parent Company -
- - - - Acorn Master FinCo One, LLP Client -

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

No contacts available at the time of disclosure.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Unlike many other development finance institutions, DFC does not currently have an access to information policy.

Under the United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), DFC is obliged to respond to reasonably formulated requests for Agency records. However, DFC may apply exemptions from release to certain types of information and may charge fees in responding to requests. DFC has a designated FOIA officer who is trained in how to respond to requests and implement the law. You can learn more about filing a FOIA request at: https://www.dfc.gov/foia

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION (DFC)

The Office of Accountability is an independent office that addresses complaints about environmental or social issues related to DFC-supported projects. The office provides communities an opportunity to have concerns independently reviewed and addressed. If you submit a complaint to the Office of Accountability, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a problem solving dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the DFC complied with its policies to prevent environmental, social, human rights, and labor harms.

You can find more information about the Office of Accountability at: https://www.dfc.gov/who-we-are/office-accountability

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How it works