Business
South African firm, Southern Sun, to exit Nigerian market
South African investment company, Southern Sun Africa, has concluded plans to leave Nigeria’s hospitality business amid financial troubles.
The firm is expected to sell off one of its subsidiaries, Southern Sun Hotels in the Ikoyi area of Lagos to offset its debt.
The COVID-19 pandemic had negatively impacted Southern Sun Africa’s revenue and in a bid to cut its losses, the company will sell its 75.55 percent stake in the hotels to Kasada Albatross Holding for $30.4 million.
The deal currently awaits the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s approval.
Southern Sun Africa chose to save its Mozambique subsidiary with the sale of its business in Nigeria.
READ ALSO: Nigeria omitted as South African advisory firm reveals top 10 investment destinations in Africa
The deal will provide the firm with enough cash to offset its $26.6 million debt owed foreign creditors in the Southern African nation.
It will also free Southern Sun Africa from the $12.8 million debt owed by the Ikoyi Hotel, and allows the South African company to restructure its operations following the financial loss induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ripples Nigeria gathered that the new owner of Southern Sun Ikoyi Hotels, will change the name to Novotel, falling under the French-owned multinational hospitality conglomerate, Accor Group.
The Accor Group is one of the investment vehicles backing Kasada Albatross Holding’s parent firm, Kasada Hospitality Fund LP.
Kasada Hospitality Fund LP also draws capital from the Middle East sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority.
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...