Kenya: PE-backed Cold Solutions to invest in warehouses
Cold Solutions Kenya Limited, a temperature-controlled warehouse and logistics service provider, has announced that it will invest KSh 7.5 billion ($70 million) in constructing state-of-the-art, temperature-controlled cold storage warehouses in the country.
The cold storage facilities will be located in Nairobi and Mombasa. The firm will construct Cold Solutions’ flagship facility in the Tatu City Special Economic Zone in Nairobi.
The 15,000 sqm grade ‘A’ cold storage complex on six acres at Tatu City will be the country’s largest, most advanced and efficient in the region. A typical grade ‘A’ facility is defined as that with high specifications in terms of quality, size (much bigger in scale than typical warehouses), hook height and dock levellers, large lay-down area around the warehouses and specialist facilities such as cold storage.
Cold Solutions Kenya Limited is a portfolio company of ARCH Cold Chain Solutions East Africa Fund, a private equity fund advised by ARCH Emerging Markets Partners Limited (ARCH).
ARCH is a specialist emerging markets investment advisor with deep experience of emerging markets, private equity, asset management and legal and governance matters over many decades. ARCH focuses on delivering added value to investments, based on a risk-adjusted approach. ARCH has an existing and planned network of operational offices in emerging markets, giving it an extensive global reach.
By establishing the Cold Chain Solutions East Africa Fund, ARCH intends to spearhead the development and operation of large scale energy efficient cold chain solutions facilities and end to end logistics throughout five countries in East Africa covering Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The fund plans to build up to 10 state-of-the-art temperature-controlled cold storage warehouses in the region. The warehouses will be built to international standards to enable food and product safety. The investment into East Africa will be at least KSh 21.4 billion ($200 million).
Reacting to the investment announcement in Kenya, Jared Irving, managing director of ARCH said, “We are proud to announce the inaugural Cold Solutions facility in Kenya, the first of a network of industrial scale, cold chain solutions throughout East Africa. Cold Solutions’ one-stop-shops are designed to allow businesses to keep track of products in real-time and facilitate transportation across East Africa through temperature-controlled trucks, either within inner city or to long-haul destinations. Our storage facilities, together with our transportation and management services, will mean dependability and reliability.”
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