Centum Investment Company, the owners of high-end Two Rivers Mall has repaid the Ksh.8 billion Cooperative Bank of Kenya loan it took to build the mall
The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm used a new loan from South Africa’s Standard Bank to retire the Co-op Bank debt.
According to Centum’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Samuel Kariuki, the finance costs on the Standard Bank loan are relatively cheaper than that of Co-op Bank.
“On the Two Rivers Mall, we had secured an Ksh8 billion development finance facility with Co-op Bank for the then greenfield site. Upon completion of construction and operationalisation of the mall, we sought to refinance the facility with Standard Bank into a corporate finance facility in which the Centum guarantee was dropped and the facility re-priced to reflect an operating business,” Mr. Kariuki said
Centum’s effective stake in the mall stands at 29.1 percent, with the balance held by institutional investors including Old Mutual Property that were brought on board to help fund its construction.
The mall made a net loss of Sh3.4 billion in the year ended March, reversing a net profit of Sh915.8 million the year before. Centum says 78 percent of the space at the shopping complex has been taken up by tenants.
Centum hopes to increase the tenancy and business at the Mall through apartments that’ll be built in the adjacent land to the Mall.
The mall project is less riskier now than when the local lender first funded its construction.
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