Loss making Home Afrika eyes strategic investor, appoints director

Home Afrika Managing Director Dan Awendo.

Listed firm Home Afrika Limited is seeking to raise cash from a strategic investor to accelerate completion of its projects.

“We have an interested suitor who has a significant land portfolio and who is keen to develop affordable housing on some of the group’s existing land bank,” said Home Afrika Managing Director Dan Awendo. 

He said this as the firm publised its financial statements last week, showing it had fallen deeper into losses for the year ended December 31, 2018.

This was blamed on operating costs and weak house sales as a result of a slump in the real estate market. Revenues dipped by 59 per cent from Sh263 million in 2017 to Sh109 million in 2018 pushing the firm deeper in the red.

A statement from the company said actual sales plummeted from Sh921 million in 2017 to Sh585 million in 2018 “owing to slowed growth in the real estate sector amid constrained credit access and general slowdown in spending power among plot and house buyers.”

The deferred income and deposits from sales of plots stood at Sh2.6 billion in 2018 compared to Sh2.3 billion in 2017. Awendo said completion Migaa Estate (pictured) would see the deferred revenue and deposits from sales of plots translate to revenue in the profitability statement shortly. He said the road and golf course works in Migaa are in high gear.

And this week, Home Afrika appointed Luke Kinoti as a non-executive director.

“He brings a wealth of experience in private equity, fund managemnet, real estate, microfinance and insurance sector having worked in various institutions such as Suntra Investemnet Limited and furion capital,” said Home Afrika Managing Director Dan Awendo in a statement as he announced the appointment. Kinoti was until recently the CEO of Suntra Investment, a stock brokerage firm.