The real estate sector in Kenya is a million dollar industry controlled by powerful individuals and multinational companies. The country has witnessed an increase in the number of high end malls worth billions.
In this article, WoK brings you the story of Actis – the London based company that owns the Junction Mall and Garden City Mall.
Actis Group
Actis Group is a leading private equity firm with its headquarters in London. It was formed in 2004 as a spin out from Commonwealth Development Corporation Group (CDC). The company mainly invests in real estate, energy and infrastructure projects in Europe and across various countries in Africa. It has 19 offices across the world and holds valuable assets worth millions of dollars. Some of the notable assets held by the company include Umeme Energy in Uganda, Exchange Building and Accra Mall in Ghana and Jabi Lake Mall and Ikeja City Mall in Nigeria. It also operates different subsidiaries including RX Propellant, auto express, Zuma Energia, Upstream Systems, Suntech, Sigma pensions, profectus capital and Nanjing Micro-tech company among many others.
Investments in Kenya
In Kenya, the company has its offices at the Courtyard building located along General Mathenge road, Westlands area of Nairobi. Some of its investment in the country include;
The Junction Mall
The state of the art mall situated at the junction of King’ara road and Ngong road in Nairobi.The mall first opened its doors in November 2004 and has grown to become one of the most popular shopping mall in Nairobi. It is home to over 100 local and international stores, a three-star hotel and other various social amenities. Some of the notable brands at the mall include Carrefour Supermarket, KFC, Galitos, Samsung shop and Pizza Inn among many others. The mall has Andrew Ndegwa as its director and Knight Frank Kenya Company as the managing and marketing company.
Garden City Mall
Situated along Thika Superhighway, is the popular Garden City Mall which is ranked as the second largest mall in Kenya after Two Rivers Mall. It first opened its doors in 2015 and is home to East Africa’s largest movie theater. The 50,000 square meters mall is occupied by some of the world’s leading brands including Carrefour supermarket, KFC, Pizza inn, Galitos, Hotpoint and Stanbic Bank among others. Other than the mall, Garden city has over 159 world class residential apartments and townhouses that are out to be sold or leased. It also has a Business Park with 20,000 square meters space spread across four buildings that can be used as office space.
Actis Group Leadership
Paul Fletcher is the current CEO of Actis group and has been in the helm of leadership since 2015. In Kenya, some of its leaders include Kabir Chal and Koome Gikunda who serve as directors of real estate while Michael Turner serves as director of Private Equity.
