By Abdi Ali
Published April17, 2016
A Port Louis (Mauritius)-based private fund has acquired 100% interest in the InterContinental Hotel Lusaka in Zambia’s capital.
QG Africa Hotel LP, a company of the Quantum Global group, bought the hotel for US$35.9 million from Kingdom Hotel Investments in a transaction that closed on March 31, 2016.
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The acquisition is said to be in line with the buyer’s plan of investing in emerging opportunities in hospitality across sub-Saharan Africa.
The 244-room city landmark is situated at a prime location in Zambia’s capital. It not only benefits from a strong image among international travellers, but also offers significant re-positioning and expansion potential.
Just two kilometres from Lusaka Golf Club and three kilometres from the city’s main thoroughfare–Cairo Road–this hotel on Haile Selassie Avenue in Cathedral Hill area offers Wi-Fi, flat-screen TVs, minibars,an outdoor pool, a gym and tennis courts, a day spa, a sauna and steam room.
Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, Founder of Quantum Global, says of the purchase, “I’m very pleased with this first acquisition of QG Africa Hotel LP. It underlines our commitment and investment strategy for the hotel sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. The InterContinental Lusaka is strongly established locally and will benefit from the planned refurbishment that will expand and reposition the asset, thereby generating value-added returns for our investors.”
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Strong economic growth supported by a more transparent and relatively stable political climate, experts say, is attracting an increasing number of international business travellers to Africa, while also boosting cross-regional business traveling. These trends are driving up steady demand for increased and better business hotel accommodation across sub-Saharan Africa. A US$500 million investment vehicle, QG Africa Hotel LP hopes to capitalise on the emerging opportunities in the hospitality sector.
“As a long-term direct equity investor in hotel projects across sub-Saharan Africa,” a media release from Quantum Global Group says “the investment structure targets real estate and real estate-related investments in midscale to upscale business hotels.”
These real estate and real estate-related investments, Quantum Global Group stresses, are built to high quality international standards, with modern construction and design, and aim to respond to the growing need for hotel accommodation in sub-Saharan Africa.
The group says it “seeks investment opportunities in established growth markets, with a particular emphasis on prime locations within the continent’s major cities and airports.”
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Quantum Global projects itself as “an international group of companies active in the areas of private equity investments, investment management, private wealth management as well as macroeconomic research and econometric modelling.” Its private equity arm, it says, “manages a family of funds targeting direct investments in Africa in the sectors of Agriculture, Healthcare, Hotels, Infrastructure, Mining and Timber“ as well as a sector agnostic structured equity fund.”
