Pan-African Mortgage Lender Returns to Market for $1.25 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- Shelter Afrique plans to return to the market to raise $1.25 billion in local-currency bonds by the end of the year as the pan-African mortgage financier emerges from a management crisis that barred it from borrowing years ago.

The Nairobi, Kenya-based lender intends to mobilize a local-currency equivalent of $500 million each from Nigeria and East Africa, as well as $250 million from French-speaking African nations, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Chimphondah said in emailed responses to questions. Shelter Afrique targets separately to raise $500 million from multilateral development financial institutions over the next five years, he said.

“We cannot disclose specific institutional details; however, sufficient to say the said DFIs stand ready to support us with competitively priced and longer tenured funding,” he said.

About five years ago, Shelter Afrique fell into a liquidity crisis that saw a couple of senior executives exit over allegations of misappropriation of funds. It has since repaid a bond that was floated on the Nairobi Stock Exchange between 2013 and 2018.

Shelter Afrique provides long-term credit lines for primary-mortgage lenders, housing micro-finance institutions and re-financiers, including Tanzania Mortgage Refinance Co. and Togo-based CRRH. The company is now developing a demand-side pipeline of as much as $1 billion across 25 of its 44 shareholding nations, Chimphondah said.

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