Fine and Country West Africa’s annual Refined Investor Series, with the theme: Collaborating for New Heights and National growth held on the 4th of December, 2018 at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The Refined Investor Series- reputed for engendering high level conversations also well attended by high profile industry & business leaders/investors- this year was no less as Fine & Country collaborated with PwC as knowledge partner to execute what has been described as one of the most anticipated & insightful Real Estate events in Nigeria.
This year’s Refined Investor Series explored the possibilities of joint venture partnerships in Nigeria, examining the lessons from a multi-sector perspective but with main focus on the real estate industry. The first panel session was made up of multi sector professionals like Mr Austin Avuru CEO, SEPLAT Petroleum (Oil &Gas) Ms Anne Rinu. Head, Property- Standard Chartered Bank, (Banking) Mr Andre Ugarov Partner PwC, (Research & Consulting) Mr Frank Aigbogun Publisher, BusinessDay (Media) and Esiri Agbeyi. Partner, PwC.
The objective of this intricate mix of panelists was to critically evaluate & extract lessons around financial risks, taxation issues, as well as other challenges involved with joint ventures in these sectors.
The CEO/Vice Chair of Fine & Country West Africa noted in her keynote address that by nature Real estate is a result of a collaborative effort. Real estate is capital intensive, the larger the project, the higher its barrier to entry, and the higher the need for diverse skill set, expertise and resources. All of these, effectively aimed towards increasing proficiency, reducing cost, time and mitigating the risks. Hence, the need to collaborate is essential.
The knowledge partners for Refined Investor Series, PricewaterCoopers presented a keynote address by Mr.Andrei Ugarov who gave an insightful presentation on some of the creative funding structures that exist in the Nigerian real estate industry as well as the opportunities that exist for example pre-financing or pre-sales financing adopted recently which shares the risk burden between developers & owners.
Prof. Fabian Ajogwu (SAN), Senior Partner at KennaPartners, kicked off the second panel with a second keynote address which focused on actual real estate industry case studies. In his keynote- Prof. Ajogwu presented a thought-provoking discourse on the risks involved in Real Estate Development & the legal framework to be considered when approaching a real estate joint venture agreement- he noted the importance of understanding the vision of the different parties involved. According to Prof. Ajogwu, the interests of the different personalities and interest groups must be consistently given consideration to ensure an enduring and profitable Joint venture partnership.
The 2nd panel discussion featured top real estate experts such as Kola Ashiru Balogun CEO, Mixta Africa Hakeem Oguniran MD/CEO Exemia Properties, Akin Olawore Principal Partner, Akin Olawore & Co, Bolanle Adekoya, Partner, Pwc and was moderated by Mrs Udo Maryanne Okonjo- CEO/Vice Chair, Fine & Country West Africa and Mrs. Bolanle Adekoya.
The panel did a deep dive into salient real estate structures and the intricacies for ensuring a profitable real estate joint venture project. With a thorough evaluation of case studies in the real estate sector- with the panelists sharing from the lessons, war stories & their personal wins- bringing to fore salient strategies for achieving successful real estate Joint ventures.
The panel discussions were also enlivened and enriched by a resource council made up of top real estate experts in different segments of the industry and also gave valuable insights from perspectives of Facilities Management, End user, developer, architecture/design etc.
Click on this link https://bit.ly/2QqIzLZ to view the event pictures.
The annual Refined Investor Series by Fine and Country West Africa is scheduled next year to hold on the 28th of November, 2019
