Africa Real Estate Platform (IFC-36873)

Regions
  • Africa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
FI
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."
Voting Date
Nov 13, 2015
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
GROWTHPOINT INVESTEC AFRICAN PROPERTIES LIMITED
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
  • Industry and Trade
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 40.50 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)
$ 255.00 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.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Aug 25, 2018

Disclosed by Bank Nov 9, 2015

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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.

This project finances the establishment of and the first capital raise for the Africa Real Estate Platform (AREP), an investment platform which will acquire and manage a portfolio of income-producing commercial properties in order to develop capital markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

The Africa Real Estate Platform (AREP) is being established by (i) Investec Asset Management (IAM), the asset management arm of Investec, a leading South Africa-based international financial services group; and (ii) Growthpoint Properties Limited (Growthpoint), South Africa's largest REIT. ManCo will be jointly owned by IAM and Growthpoint on a 50-50 percent basis. It will draw upon competences and experience of IAM and Growthpoint and manage HoldCo’s assets on commercial terms. IFC and ManCo’s shareholders are expected to jointly provide up to 40 percent of HoldCo’s initial capital through a targeted US$250 million capital raise. With IFC being an anchor investor HoldCo, the remaining HoldCo investors will be identified during the capital raise exercise. It is expected that, after several rounds of capital raising and deployment, AREP will reach an optimal size for an initial public offering (IPO) on a major stock exchange and convert into a form analogous to a real estate investment trust (REIT), which will achieve liquidity within 5-7 years. AREP is conceived to become one of the first REITs in SSA and the first Africa-focused collective investment vehicle designed to ramp up to a size feasible for a major stock exchange listing. AREP will target multiple countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region and will provide institutional investors, including African pension funds, with an opportunity for diversification. AREP will comprise: (i) an investment holding company (HoldCo), which will pool investors’ funds and use them to acquire income producing commercial properties in target African countries; and (ii) an asset management company (ManCo), which will manage HoldCo’s assets on commercial terms. Investors’ returns will come from rental cash flows of the property portfolio, as well as from capital appreciation.

Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.

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.

Thomas Reilly
Head of Africa Real Estate
The Place, 1 Sandton Drive, Sandton, Gauteng, 2196
South Africa
Telephone: +27 11 944 6289
Email: mailto:thomas.reilly@investecmail.com

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC
The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org. You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/

How it works

How it works