Resilient Africa, one of South Africa’s largest owners of rural malls, and in a joint venture with Shoprite, a retail giant, said it is still going ahead with building 10 additional shopping malls in Nigeria, despite the country’s economic downturn.
The deal, which is said to worth more than $500 million, also involves two other South Africa’s big finance and investment organizations, the Standard Bank and Group Five.
Resilient Africa Real Estate is partly owned by Shoprite and Standard Bank; following a 2012 joint venture agreement it entered with the latter two, to develop quality shopping malls in metropolitan areas throughout Nigeria.
Managing director of Resilient Africa, Jason Buhr told BusinessDay in an interview in Owerri, Imo State weekend, on the sidelines of the official opening of Owerri Mall, a world class shopping centre, with Shoprite as the anchor tenant, that the real estate firm was continuing its property investments in Africa’s largest economy.
Recently, reports were that the real estate company, which promotes the Shoprite retail brand, was slowing in its development of malls in second-tier Nigerian cities.
Buhr enumerated some of the new upcoming Shoprite centers to include Asaba, Delta State, which ongoing construction, he said, would be realized before the end of 2016. Others are: Benin, Edo State; Port Harcourt, Rivers; Effurun, Warri (Delta), Abeokuta (Ogun), among others.
The Owerri Mall, measuring 13,000-square metres of lettable spaces was built at a cost of $44 million, in partnership with the Owerri Mall Development Company, where Herbert Chikwe is the chairman; Somachi Investment Limited; Terrestria group; Median group and Tidlock group.
The Asaba Mall, which Buhr said, is coming on stream later in the year, has 13,000 square metres lettable spaces, to be finished at a project cost of $50 million, in August.
Meanwhile, the Benin Mall, with 13,200-square metres, which is said to be ongoing, would be finished at $51 million; while the Effurum, Warri Mall, with a whopping 13,980 square metres, would be gulping $55 million.
The Resilient Africa managing director informed that at take-off, the Owerri Mall had 45 tenants, mainly retailers of products of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. More retailers would be opening up as they complete moving in and display of their articles.
Resilient Africa, a property development and investment company was established by Resilient Property Income Fund Limited, a well-established retail REIT [real estate investment trust] in South Africa, and Shoprite, a dominant food retailer throughout Africa, to develop quality shopping malls in all dominant metropolitan areas throughout Nigeria.
The company says it would offer the public an unsurpassed tenant offering and shopping experience in a modern mall environment.
To date, Resilient Africa’s Shoprite retailer has malls in 12 locations in Nigeria, with at least three in the South East, including the newly opened Owerri Mall.
Resilient Property Income Fund, has developed and owned dominant decentralised Malls throughout South Africa since 2002 and will now utilise its experience and expertise to develop modern malls with Shoprite as an anchor tenant, as well as catering for other well established South African retail brands and established Nigerian retailers, who predominantly represent European brands, together with local city retailers; thereby offering the consumer a broad range of products and services, including an entertainment element in a modern retail environment.
In 2014, South African President Jacob Zuma encouraged South African businesses to invest in other sectors of the Nigerian economy such as engineering, construction, media, banking, retail, hospitality, oil and gas exploration and services.
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