AVIC International, Industrial & Commercial Development Corporation of Kenya and the Co-operative Bank of Kenya, have provided $155m of funding in debt and equity in Two Rivers Development, a project of Centum Investment Company.

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China, AVIC International, has invested $70m in equity into the project, whereas the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation of Kenya provided $5m in equity.

In addition, local debt funding of $80m has been secured from the Co-operative Bank of Kenya.

The investment by AVIC International is one of the largest foreign direct investments in this region by a Chinese corporation into a private enterprise.

Two Rivers Development is a mixed use development consisting of retail, offices, hotels and apartments.

The Two Rivers Lifestyle Mall, the flagship project of Two Rivers is at 670,000 Sqft of lettable space and is one of the largest retail malls in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The mall is set to open in October 2015 and is currently 60% let.

Other developments in the pipeline are 210,000 Sqft that will be complete in 2016 include a 3 star hotel; City Lodge Hotel, set to open in 2016 and over 100 luxury apartments that will go to market by May 2015.

The Two Rivers Development project is managed by Athena Properties, a wholly owned subsidiary of Centum that provides a comprehensive range of end-to-end real estate solutions.

James Mworia, Centum CEO, said: “The investments by AVIC and ICDC into Two Rivers is in line with Centum’s objective to create investment grade assets and provide a channel through which investors access and build extraordinary enterprises in Africa.”

“The $155m (over Kes.14 bn) investment into a project promoted by Centum is testament to our unique ability to create these investment grade assets. We are very pleased and able to create projects of scale which attract both local and international investors and will continue to do so,” he said.

Centum is East Africa's investment company that is listed on the Nairobi and Uganda securities exchanges.

The company has over $388m in investment in financial services, FMCG, power, agribusiness and real estate and plans to expand into three other sectors including, healthcare, education and ICT by 2019.