Pan African housing development financier, Shelter Afrique received Ksh 1.62bn ($16.2m) in additional capital between 2017 and 2019, which played a significant role in the Company’s turnaround process.
Shelter Afrique Chairman Nghidinua Daniel said the company’s speedy recovery was thanks to the financial support and the goodwill by member states, and more by Kenya as a host nation.
“Kenya has been supportive in many ways, financial and otherwise. Whenever we called upon the Kenyan government, we have always received positive support. Additionally, Kenya is one of the countries we’ve financed single largest projects, which conform to our affordable housing strategy, and we’ve found ourselves working in tandem in many fronts involving the development of affordable housing,” Nghidinua said.
Some of the projects the Company has launched in Kenya this year include Richland Pointe, Everest Apartments, and Karibu Homes. The Company has also invested in the Kenya Mortgage Refinance Companies (KMRC).
New agreement with lenders
In addition to the support by member states, the recovery process had been fast-tracked by the new agreement that the company entered into with its lenders, confirmed Shelter Afrique’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Chimphondah.
“We successfully negotiated and concluded debt restructuring agreement with all our eight lenders and effectively restructured the US110 million debt to be repaid over five years from the existing loan book, with a bullet payment in the fifth year,” Chimpondah.
Shelter Afrique temporarily halted undertaking of new projects in 2016 to pave the way for the restructuring of its operations and the development of a new strategic direction, with a primary focus on turning around the company’s financial performance from loss-making to financial viability by 2020 and overall financial sustainability by 2023. It resumed full operations early 2019.
The Company turned around a Ksh 500 million (US$ 5.1m) loss recorded in June 2018 into a Ksh7.8 million (US$ 78, 000) net profit as on June 2019, against budgeted loss of Ksh72 million (US$ 0.72m).
Kenya is one of the top shareholders and the host nation to the pan-African housing financier, which is also owned by 44 African countries, the African Development Bank, and the African Re.
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