Maryland Mall Receives $12.5m in funding from Vantage Capital

Dolapo Omidire . 6 years ago

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Maryland Mall Receives $12.5m in funding from Vantage Capital

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Earlier this week Vantage Capital announced that it provided $12.5 million of funding to Purple Capital, the developers of Maryland Mall. According to Purple Capital, the new capital will enable them 'reset, consolidate and gear up for exciting opportunities in the future'. Maryland Mall is a 6,000m² neighbourhood shopping centre in Maryland, Ikeja that has been…


Earlier this week Vantage Capital announced that it provided $12.5 million of funding to Purple Capital, the developers of Maryland Mall. According to Purple Capital, the new capital will enable them ‘reset, consolidate and gear up for exciting opportunities in the future’.

Maryland Mall is a 6,000m² neighbourhood shopping centre in Maryland, Ikeja that has been trading for over a year with tenants such as Shoprite, Miniso, Uber, Genesis Cinemas, Stanbic IBTC and The Place. Footfall at the centre is 35,000 on a weekly basis. It was designed by CMDesign Atelier, the building has been nicknamed ‘The Black Box’ and is home to one of the largest LED visual display screens in West Africa. The project cost ±$25 million and debt financing was initially provided by Stanbic IBTC Capital but AXA Mansard Investments also came in during Q2:2016 with an N800m deal that included a mix of debt and convertible debt stock. It is not clear how this new deal with Vantage affects their convertible debt stock.

The Purple investment is Vantage Capital’s sixth transaction in Fund III, a $280 million (R4 billion) fund, with a 55% allocation to countries outside South Africa. Purple Capital represents the 24th transaction executed by Vantage across three generations of mezzanine funds with aggregate capital deployed to date of $277 million (R4 billion). In March 2016, Vantage Capital also provided mezzanine funding to Landmark Africa to finance construction of a mixed-use development in Victoria Island – Lagos, refinance existing debt, and fund working capital and other capital expenditure. Other real estate transactions the Vantage team has been involved in across Africa include United Africa Group, Servest and the Simba Group.

Warren van der Merwe, Chief Operating Officer of Vantage Capital, explained that The Purple team epitomizes the best of Nigeria’s entrepreneurial spirit with its ability to navigate a demanding operating environment to create market-leading developments. Johnny Jones, Associate Partner at Vantage Capital, added that Vantage have reviewed over fifty real-estate opportunities since their latest mezzanine fund was launched but have only selected four to support.

Laide Agboola, Managing Partner of Purple added:

“’We are excited about Vantage Capital’s partnership with Purple on this refinancing and investment transaction which helps us reset, consolidate and gear up for exciting opportunities in the future. It also provides a valued seal of approval and increased possibilities for growth across our focus areas of financial services and real estate development.”

Obinna Onunkwo, Managing Partner of Purple also added:

“Our focus on good corporate governance, high-quality deal origination and execution was a strong attraction for Vantage Capital as an offshore investor. Their investment acts as an enabler to our long-term growth strategy in Africa’s largest economy.”

Vantage was advised by Adepetun Caxton-Martins Agbor & Segun, a Nigerian commercial law firms known for its finance and cross-border M&A work, and Werksmans a leading South African corporate and commercial law firm. Purple Capital was advised by Bloomfield Law Practice, a ‘practical and hands-on’ Nigerian law firm with expertise in corporate commercial, private equity, real estate and financing matters.