Actis, RMB Westport and Paragon Holdings, have sold their stakes in Ikeja City Mall to South African real estate investment trust, Hyprop Investments, and Attacq, a JSE-listed real estate capital growth fund.

Actis has sold its 60% majority stake, while Paragon Holdings and RMB Westport have both sold their 20% stakes in the mall.

Hyprop has acquired a 75% interest in Ikeja City Mall and Attacq has acquired the remaining 25%.

David Morley, Head of Real Estate at Actis, said this sale reflects the strong retail opportunity in West Africa and the interest of quality institutional investors in sub-Saharan real estate assets.

“This is the sixth exit from the first Actis real estate fund. It is a continuation of Actis’ proven cash to cash track record of delivering A-grade real estate assets in sub-Saharan Africa, positioned to be attractive to both international and local institutional buyers. Over two funds, Actis has committed to 17 institutional quality developments in seven countries totalling a gross asset value of $1.3bn,” he said.

Actis and local partner Paragon Holdings, a diversified Pan-African conglomerate with interests in strategic sectors of the economy in Nigeria and across Africa, sourced the development site in 2008.

RMB Westport, initially appointed by Actis as the development manager in 2008, invested as an equity partner in 2010.

RMB Westport is a real estate investment management and development firm, focused on creating value-added real estate developments in high-yield geographies in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ikeja City Mall, Lagos’ largest mall, is a world-class retail and leisure development in Ikeja, a densely populated suburb of Lagos, with a population of 4.5 million people.

As the largest mall in Lagos it comprises over 22,000m² and has a tenant mix anchored by Shoprite, offering South African brands including Mr Price, Spur, MTN and Markham and international brands including Nike, Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, TM Lewin, Mango, i-Store, KFC, and Max Fashion.

Actis and RMB Westport managed the development process from concept to completion: investing the initial equity; raising development finance; managing the construction; securing the tenants; operating the mall and bringing it to market at the right time, working in partnership with Paragon Holdings.

The mall opened its doors in December 2011 fully let, and today attracts up to 800,000 shoppers per month.

Ikeja City Mall is the first investment in Nigeria for both, Hyprop and Attacq.

Pieter Prinsloo, CEO of Hyprop, said this acquisition is an attractive investment and complements Hyprop's strategy of investing in high quality, income-producing shopping centres, in key cities across sub-Saharan Africa.

“Hyprop is well‐placed to capitalise on opportunities across sub-Saharan Africa, due its partnership with the Atterbury Group and Attacq, whose combined expertise facilitates exploiting opportunities as they arise,” he said.

Morné Wilken, CEO of Attacq, added: “Our strategic investment in Ikeja City Mall forms part of Attacq’s larger African investment strategy and was executed with the assistance of the experienced AttAfrica team.”

“It is our first investment in Nigeria, an African market with fantastic growth prospects. It adds to our investment in the growing portfolio of dominant, quality retail malls in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.