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The Bank of Industry (BOI) has made an equity investment valued at N3.5 billion in Ketron investment Limited, which acquired ShopRite stores in Nigeria.
“These are investments that the Group plans to hold in the long term for strategic reasons,” BOI said in its 2021 annual results.
BOI’s investment in Ketron, helped to push up the fair value measurement for all its unquoted equity securities by 95% to N8.6billion as at December 2021, from N4.4billion in 2020.
Ketron Investment Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nigerian property group Persianas Limited, announced the buyout of Shoprite’s operations in Nigeria, last year.
Shoprite Holdings through its wholly owned subsidiary Shoprite International Limited, last year concluded the disposal of its 100 percent shareholding in Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited (RSNL).
Persianas Limited is owned by Nigerian businessman Tayo Amusan who is the chairman of Ketron Investment.
The terms of the Shoprite transaction include both a franchise agreement which secures Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited’s right to continue to use the SHOPRITE brand as well as an administration and services agreement which provides RSNL with administration and technical support from the Shoprite Group for an initial period of five years.
Since its launch in Lagos in December 2005, Shoprite has expanded to 25 outlets across 11 Nigerian states and Abuja, FCT.
Ketron said it will continue operations across all existing outlets, with plans to open additional stores and introduce more Nigerian-made products.
“It is our vision to create fundamental change for the better within Nigeria,” said Amusan.
The Group Profit Before Tax of BOI grew significantly by 75.2% from N35.54 billion in 2020 to N62.28 billion in 2021.
Loans and advances improved by 4.1% to N779.3 billion from N748.96 billion in 2020, due to the increased interventions and support to enterprises.
Group Total Assets however reduced to N1.71 trillion in the year under review from N1.86 trillion in 2020. The decline was largely as a result of the reduction of investment in debt securities and cash balances at the Central Bank of Nigeria.