Ketron Investment Limited, a Nigerian firm led by property magnate Tayo Amusan, has received a N3.5-billion ($8.4 million) investment from Bank of Industry (BoI) to drive the growth of one of its recently acquired assets, Shoprite Nigeria.
BoI is Nigeria’s oldest and largest development finance institution.
“These are long-term investments that the group intends to hold for strategic reasons,” BOI stated in its 2021 annual results.
According to data retrieved from the annual results, the capital injection in Ketron increased the fair value of BOI’s investment in unquoted equity securities by 95 percent to N8.6 billion ($20.7 million) as of December 2021, up from N4.4 billion ($10.6 million) in 2020.
Ketron Investment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Persianas Limited, a leading property group led by Amusan.
Persianas is the holding company of EDLP Nigeria Limited, the operator of Jara Stores, Nigeria’s first indigenous discount supermarket and retail chain. It focuses on developing luxury residential, retail, entertainment, and hospitality centers, as well as commercial developments in Nigeria.
The $8.4-million investment from BoI comes nearly a year after Ketron purchased a 100-percent stake in Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited, the Nigerian subsidiary of South Africa’s retail behemoth, Shoprite Holdings Ltd., which operates nearly 3,000 stores throughout Africa.
The terms of the acquisition include a franchise agreement that secures the use of the “Shoprite” brand, as well as an administration and services agreement that provides the Shoprite Group with administration and technical support for an initial five-year period.
Shoprite Nigeria’s total assets were $125 million (R1.701 billion) as of June 2020, while its total liabilities were $140 million (R1.911 billion). The total foreign currency losses recognized in Shoprite’s discontinued operations in Nigeria amounted to $35.9 million (R488 million).
