SA fund buys Sh450m stake in Buffalo Mall

The sale of a part of the Sh1 billion Naivasha-based Buffalo Mall to a South African property fund has been concluded.

Pivotal Property Fund, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), said that it had completed the purchase of a 50 per cent stake in Buffalo Mall for Sh450 million ($4.4 million).

Pivotal said that it had bought the stake from two property companies, one of which — Abland Proprietary Limited — it owns.

“Shareholders are advised that Pivotal, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, has concluded an agreement for the acquisition of 50 per cent of the issued share capital of Buffalo Mall Naivasha Limited, which is constructing and developing a retail, commercial and entertainment centre in Naivasha, Kenya, from Abland Proprietary Limited and Carlisle Property Holdings Limited for an aggregate purchase consideration of $4,433,722,” said Pivotal in a statement.

Pivotal fully owns Abland Proprietary Ltd and in November 2015 the company announced that it owned a 45.5 per cent stake in the mall through the subsidiary.

The latest filing implies that Pivotal has slightly increased its shareholding in the Naivasha-based mall since then.

Also in November Pivotal had announced that it would sell its stake in the mall to Delta Africa, a JSE-listed property fund, by March of this year.
At the time Pivotal said that it would sell its entire shareholding to Delta Africa through a share swap.

Delta Africa and Pivotal have since merged. The statement added that the value of Buffalo Mall is around Sh1 billion while the undeveloped land surrounding the retail centre is valued at Sh306 million.

The developers, Buffalo Mall Developments Limited, built the mall in late 2013 on a 15-acre piece of land acquired from the Delamere Family in exchange for a 25pc stake in the retail centre.