Jubilee Holdings is spending $4 million (Sh461 million) to build a head office for its Tanzanian operations in a move that will save the insurer tens of millions of shillings in rent.
This will bring the company’s spend on properties to more than Sh1.6 billion, including the cost of renovating the Upper Hill building.
Groundbreaking for the office, which will have views of the sea from the first floor, will begin in the next few weeks.
Jubilee Holdings #ticker:JUB is spending $4 million (Sh461 million) to build a head office for its Tanzanian operations in a move that will save the insurer tens of millions of shillings in rent.
The development comes as the insurer also plans to move its group corporate headquarters from Nairobi’s Wabera Street to Upper Hill in a building previously owned by Coca-Cola and which it spent Sh1.1 billion to acquire.
This will bring the company’s spend on properties to more than Sh1.6 billion, including the cost of renovating the Upper Hill building.
“We are building headquarters for our Tanzania business in Dar es Salaam. That is going to cost us $4 million (Sh461 million),” Jubilee’s chairman Nizar Juma told the Business Daily.
“We have owned land there for many years and we feel this is the right time to build the headquarters.
He added that the decision will see the company save the $400,000 (Sh46.1 million) that its subsidiaries operating in that market have been paying in rent annually.
The company’s subsidiaries and associates in Tanzania include Jubilee Life Insurance Corporation of Tanzania Limited and Jubilee Investments Tanzania Limited.
Groundbreaking for the office, which will have views of the sea from the first floor, will begin in the next few weeks.
The building is designed with an inclination toward environmental sustainability, Mr Juma said.
Tanzania has been the only market where Jubilee is leasing offices, with the insurer preferring to own the properties housing its operations.
The company will rent out part of its current head office – Jubilee Insurance House on Wabera Street— after moving to the Upper Hill property in September.
Mr Juma said the insurer got a bargain in buying the property sitting on 3.2 acres and which had been on the market for more than two years.
Jubilee says the expansion and renovation of the newly acquired property will enable it to accommodate its operations. The upgrade will feature the construction of an amphitheatre.
The three-story complex is currently categorised as a Grade A office with 116,350 square feet of space and 130 parking bays.
Other amenities include a sound-proof auditorium, gym, fitness studios, and a cafeteria. Only one acre is developed.
The transaction expands Jubilee’s investment in the real estate market. Through PDM Holdings Limited, the insurance group has interests in Nairobi’s IPS Building, Nation Centre, and Courtyard among others.
