South African firm agrees to acquire Ikeja City Mall, other plazas for ‘$200m’
Lango, a South African real estate firm, has agreed to acquire assets owned by Hyprop Investments Limited and Attacq Limited in Nigeria and Ghana for $200million.
In a joint statement dated August 12, Lango agreed to acquire Accra Mall, Kumasi City Mall, West Hills Mall (all in Ghana), and Ikeja City Mall (ICM) in Nigeria, “at $200 million”.
According to the statement, the assets were acquired via an issue of Lango shares to the companies, along with part debt finance, with Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) acting as the lead arranger.
Hyprop and Attacq agreed to sell ICM nine years after acquiring the mall in 2015.
Following the completion of the acquisition in 2015, Hyprop held a 75 percent interest in ICM while Attacq acquired the remaining 25 per cent.
Speaking on the latest acquisition, Thomas Reilly, chief executive officer (CEO) of Lango, said the transaction is a significant milestone for Lango and not “only fits squarely into our growth strategy, but is also highly accretive”.
“The scale achieved by Lango undoubtedly positions it as a leading Sub-Saharan African firm in the industry. Lango will now have c.US$875 million of assets under management across four countries, with arguably some of the best-performing landmark commercial properties across both the retail and office sectors in select growth cities,” Reilly said
“These assets are well-positioned to allow Lango to extract synergies and further enhance growth with a high degree of resilience to differing market cycles.
“We are excited to once again take advantage of a highly attractive entry-point in the cycle, adding quality yielding assets in select cities to our asset base at competitive prices, which we believe have the potential to offer strong growth prospects. The business continues to enjoy significant momentum, and we expect this to aid in the delivery of sustainable long-term investor returns.”
On his part, Morne Wilken, CEO of Hyprop, said the firm’s management had previously committed itself to achieving several strategic initiatives, with the exit of Sub-Saharan Africa being one of the last remaining initiatives to be completed.
“The successful implementation of this transaction will achieve this initiative, and we look forward to working with Lango to completion,” he said.
Also, Jackie van Niekerk, Attacq CEO, said “our Rest of Africa (ex-South Africa) investment has become a small component of Attacq’s real estate investments and has been earmarked as part of an exit strategy by way of an orderly disposal”.
“We are delighted to reach a point where a transaction with a credible counterpart in Lango has been agreed,” Niekerk said.
