Vantage Capital has provided $20 million (R294 million) of funding to Landmark Africa, one of Nigeria’s leading property developers. Landmark has developed or managed over 130,000 m2 of prime real estate across the continent. The real estate company is headquartered in Lagos, with offices in several countries including South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Over its 19-year history, Landmark has built a high-quality property portfolio, including A-Grade offices for over 100 corporate clients including the Nigerian headquarters for PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Procter & Gamble and provided development management services for one of the largest malls in Nigeria. Investment One Financial Services acted as Lead Corporate Advisor on the transaction.
Chief Operating Officer of Vantage Capital, Warren van der Merwe, said: “We look forward to partnering with Landmark as they develop a world class mixed-use precinct in Victoria Island. We were impressed by the quality of the office buildings, and restaurants they have completed to date in Nigeria.”
Speaking in the same vein, Associate Partner at Vantage Capital, Johnny Jones, said: “I’m very impressed with Landmark’s long track-record of operating so successfully in a challenging environment like Nigeria. This type of transaction perfectly illustrates our firm’s investment strategy of supporting strong management teams of Pan-African businesses.”
On his part, CEO of Landmark, Paul Onwuanibe, said: “We are excited to have Vantage partner with us on our journey to achieving the $5 billion valuation mark over the next decade. Our 19 year global and African real estate experience has keenly sharpened our insight in forging strategic alignments; especially in Africa. We are convinced the advent of Vantage will portend a marked acceleration towards achieving our goals and rewriting the African story.”
The Landmark investment is Vantage Capital’s second transaction in Fund III, which is targeting a final closing of $260 million (R4 billion), and has a 60% allocation to countries outside South Africa. A Namibian and a South African transaction are expected to close during the first half of 2016 for a further aggregate investment of over $22m (R330m).
Managing Partner, Luc Albinski, said, “Nigeria has received much negative press recently with a number of South African companies running into difficulties there and some announcing their exit. We hope that this mezzanine investment, the 20th in our history, and one that takes us to the R3 billion invested mark, will help convince investors that the country has much to offer for those willing to take a longer-term, more balanced view of the current challenges facing the country.”
According to Managing Director of Investment One Capital Management, Ademola Aofolaju, “Our involvement in this transaction is in line with our strategic drive to structure and arrange long term, flexible capital for Nigerian businesses focused on providing solutions to the country’s real estate and infrastructure deficits.”
