On Wednesday evening, Mauritius-listed Grit Real Estate Income Group (“Grit” or “the Group”) achieved another milestone in being recognised for setting global real estate benchmarks in Africa when its CEO, Bronwyn Knight was named Top Africa CEO in Real Estate at the prestigious Africa Property Investment (“API”) Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The API Awards – now in its seventh edition – celebrates peer-to-peer excellence in the African real estate industry, by showcasing successful and innovative projects and initiatives.
This is the second time that Knight walks away with the honours in recognition of her pioneering work in impact real estate across the African continent.
Bronwyn Knight commented:
“This recognition is an absolute honour, especially as our focus is continuously evolving to set global benchmarks in African real estate whilst making an impact that goes beyond buildings.
“It is clear from the API Summit that there is a global move towards a just transition which can act as a catalyst for real estate companies in Africa to access alternative and more sustainable funding sources.
“Our strategy focuses on high-yielding, defensive and impactful asset classes such as healthcare, industrial and logistics, data centre and consular and corporate accommodation assets and positions us well for such a transition.”
Two of the Group’s recent developments in Mauritius also walked away with top honours in their respective categories.
Developed by Grit’s subsidiary, Gateway Real Estate Africa (“GREA”) Unity Building at The Precinct in Grand Baie won Best Commercial Office Development, whilst the award for the Best Alternative Asset went to Artemis Coromandel Hospital.
Greg Pearson, co-founder and CEO of GREA commented:
“To date, Grit and GREA have invested nearly $300 million in Mauritius. We are exceptionally proud of our new head office at Unity Building at The Precinct, the highest green rated development in Mauritius and the highest green rated office building in the Indian Ocean Islands region.
“The Precinct is also the first EcoDistricts certified commercial node in Africa. These aren’t just significant milestones for Mauritius but speaks to our strong focus of delivering sustainable real estate solutions across the continent.
“Mauritius stands out as an attractive investment destination due to its investment opportunities and regulatory framework that fosters a business-friendly environment.
“We have forged valuable partnerships with entities like Safyr Capital and, more recently, Artemis in the development of the Artemis Curepipe Hospital.
“Our strategy is to continue investing in Mauritius. The environment provided for us as foreign investors has been truly exceptional, and with partners like Safyr, we are eager to maintain our commitment to investment in the island.”
About Bronwyn Knight
As founding member of Grit, Knight has grown the Group’s portfolio from two assets valued at US$140m at listing to 60 income producing assets and investments across twelve countries and seven asset classes, valued at c.US$ 833 million as at 31 December 2022.
Knight spearheaded the optimisation of Grit’s capital structure, which culminated in a step-up to a Premium listing on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in 2021, the first African women led real estate business to do so.
She further played an instrumental role in the Group’s secondary listing on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius, which was followed by the Group establishing its head office in Grand Baie.
In 2022, Knight and her team secured a US$306 million refinance agreement, which is one of the largest sustainability linked real estate debt refinancing and syndication transactions in Sub Saharan Africa – excluding SA – to date, setting a new benchmark for African real estate investment.
Under her leadership, Grit is moving to shatter glass ceilings, setting the global benchmark for women empowerment in Africa: Almost half of the Group’s staff are female and 45% of managerial positions or higher, are occupied by females. Women represent 33% of Grit’s board and while staff are employed based on talent, strong emphasis is placed on gender diversity and equal pay policies. Almost all of Grit’s real estate development managers are women and have delivered award-winning buildings in Kenya, Ghana and Mauritius despite the impacts of Covid.
To provide a support network for females working in the real estate sector in Mauritius, Bronwyn established the Women in Property Network in 2017. This platform proved so successful that it was expanded under the umbrella of Women with Grit to include all professional females and recently broadcasted its first podcast to an international audience.
More recently, the Company’s focus on partnerships, as driven by Bronwyn, resulted in the successful diversification of revenue sources by expanding its strategy to include indirect property development and development funding through Gateway Real Estate Africa as well as asset management and co-investment opportunities.
Bronwyn was recognized as the 2019 EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Southern Africa) in the Exceptional Category, is a past winner of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) Top CA(SA) under 35 Award and has received many other recognitions such as API Top Africa Real Estate CEO in 2020.
About Unity Building at The Precinct
The Precinct’s central architectural themes focus on wellness, flexibility and sustainability, optimising staff retention and productivity, whilst lowering utility overheads and environmental impact.
Tenants include Dentons Law, Rand Merchant Bank, Workshop 17, Grit Real Estate Income Group and Gateway Real Estate Africa.
Large floor plates allow for the seamless accommodation of businesses between 150m2 and 1,000m2 providing optionality to expand or decrease space based on business requirements.
Developed by Gateway Real Estate Africa, a subsidiary of London and Mauritius-listed Grit Real Estate Income Group, The Precinct will eventually comprise a trilogy of three office assets, located in Africa’s first commercial EcoDistricts certified zone.
The award-winning Unity Building holds a 5-Star Green Star rating, the highest rated green office building in Indian Ocean Island region.
The development’s central atrium anchors a dynamic, active interior street environment with essential retail shops, a ground floor eatery with an extensive outdoor deck as well as a verdant, landscaped park for the benefit of all tenants and business visitors.
Active and passive sustainability measures ensure a lower carbon footprint without compromising on comfort or productivity. In addition to savings on utilities, tenants are also able to measure and manage consumption.
Some sustainability features include:
- Motion sensor and LED lighting
- Lighting power density
- Use of natural light and ventilation
- Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) air-conditioning system
- Energy sub-metering
- Water meters to monitor consumption and manage wastage
- Water efficient fittings limit the occupant water usage to 0.55L/day/m2
- Recycling waste storage
- Water harvesting for irrigation
About Artemis Curepipe Hospital
Developed at a cost of US$ 20 million, Artemis Curepipe Hospital shows GREA’s intent to deliver impactful developments and be the conduit for healthcare investment in the country. The project created over 400 jobs and onboarded several local suppliers throughout the construction phases which ultimately benefited the local economy.
Having commenced operations in mid-2023, the Artemis Hospital with a Gross Building Area of 8,879m2 will offer a range of health services: radiology, gynaecology, dermatology, physiotherapy, emergency department, ophthalmology, neonatal unit, radiology and paediatrics, among others.
This successful delivery has been done under the oversight of Nilma Dhooky, GREA’s Development Manager and Client representative of the Artemis Curepipe Hospital.
The development is backed by Safyr Capital Partners and operated by Falcon Healthcare Group under an operations and management agreement with Artemis Medicare Services Ltd.
