CDC Group has invested €46m in ONOMO Hotels, an African 3-star hotel platform targeting clients in the business segment.

CDC’s investment is part of a fundraising of €106m alongside Batipart, the current owner of ONOMO, a family office with a 30-year long track record in real estate investments and operating platforms, and CIC Capital, the international private equity investment arm of Credit Mutuel CM11 Group, a leading French banking and insurance group.

Mark Pay, CDC Managing Director, said: “Our investment in ONOMO Hotels will stimulate regional business travel and support the growth of jobs and local supply chains across Africa. As the continent sees growing levels of business activity it will need more affordable, mid-market business hotels to unlock its full economic potential.”

Julien Ruggieri, President of ONOMO Hotels, said: “We are delighted to welcome CDC Group and CIC Capital as new shareholders of ONOMO. Together we will provide the group with additional resources to develop our pipeline and expand quickly to achieve our ambition of making ONOMO Hotels the leading pan-African hospitality platform in the 3* segment.”

Established in 2009, ONOMO Hotels is a Casablanca-headquartered company that designs, develops, owns and manages hotels. 

The company currently operates seven hotels, including six it owns (Dakar, Abidjan, Lomé, Bamako, Cape Town and Sandton) and one that it manages (Libreville). It has three new openings scheduled by early 2018 in Conakry, Kigali and Durban.

ONOMO is expanding into Southern and East Africa and will use CDC’s long history in those regions to help the company establish a strong presence.

CDC will also help ONOMO adopt green building design and construction principles to implement energy and water-efficiency measures. 

This is an area in which CDC has considerable experience having supported a hotel investment in Ghana to become the first project in Africa to receive the EDGE certification, an award that aims to help buildings save energy and water while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“CDC’s ability to make long-term investments means that it is able to support ONOMO’s focus on greenfield development, ownership and management of hotels, that typically requires a longer holding period than many traditional investors would consider,” said Pay.