BluePeak partners with Ethos to invest in African real estate company
BluePeak Private Capital – an alternative asset management firm with a strong focus on Africa – today announced its investment in Grit Real Estate Income Group Limited, a pan–African real estate company. The investment operationalises Grit’s development plan to boost industrial and health facilities in East Africa.
London Stock Exchange-listed Grit invests in and actively manages a diversified portfolio of high-quality assets across the continent. Founded in 2014 by Bronwyn Knight, Grit’s portfolio comprises 54 investments across more than eight countries and five asset classes.
BluePeak partnered with Ethos Mezzanine Partners, to jointly invest $31.5 million in Grit in a transaction led by Ethos Mezzanine Partners. The transaction marks the inaugural investment from the BluePeak Private Capital Fund SCSp, an impact-linked private credit and mezzanine finance facility raised during the Covid19 pandemic. BluePeak designs innovative financing solutions to scale mid-sized African businesses.
The fund reached first close at $115 million in September 2021 and is targeting a final close of $200 million later this year, with a hard cap of $250 million. It provides vital growth capital to non-cyclical, growing firms, enabling them to accelerate innovation and transformation strategies and emerge from the pandemic stronger and more resilient. BluePeak’s expertise in structuring allows the team to offer a range of bespoke debt instruments, including mezzanine finance, preferred equity, convertibles, and senior debt.
Proceeds from the fund’s inaugural investment into Grit will be deployed to partially fund the acquisition (on a sale and leaseback basis), restoration and expansion of a prominent warehousing and manufacturing facility in Nairobi by Orbit Africa, a manufacturer of personal and home care hygiene products in the East African region.
The total purchase, refurbishment, and expansion cost of $53.6 million is actualised by a $25 million senior debt structure backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and $28.6 million through the investment provided by BluePeak and Ethos. As one of the largest sale and leaseback transactions across sub-Saharan Africa, the deal bolsters Orbit’s balance sheet and unlocks additional cash flow to enable the company’s expansion, increasing production to meet rising consumer demand.
Grit will invest the remaining proceeds of the investment into St Helene Private Hospital, a freely accessible multi-speciality hospital in the Curepipe region of Mauritius, one of the island’s most densely populated areas, where there is urgent demand for quality health care. The hospital will serve patients in Mauritius and from the broader Indian Ocean region.
Adam Hadidi, managing director at BluePeak Private Capital commented, “Grit has built one of the largest and most diversified real estate platforms across Africa and proven the resilience of its portfolio. We are pleased to support Orbit’s acquisition and redevelopment of a one-of-a-kind industrial asset in Kenya, and the development of St Helene, to boost access to quality healthcare facilities in Mauritius.”
Bronwyn Knight, founder and CEO of Grit said, “We are excited to start this long-term partnership with the IFC, BluePeak and Ethos Mezzanine Partners on the strength of a robust and well-established East African tenant covenant and an accretive investment and redevelopment project in a prime location. The funding will allow Grit to further increase its exposure to Kenya and the broader light industrial sector and additionally to the healthcare sector in Mauritius.”
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