East African Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA --Centum Investment is expanding its operation within the region when finally cross-lists in Rwanda and Tanzania after approval from shareholders in September.
Cross-listing in Rwanda and Tanzania is part of the growth strategy in Africa for the investment company.
The plan to list on both the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and Rwanda Stock Exchange will bring more regional investors to take part in the investment companies' growth strategy.
Centum Managing Director James Mworia said that company was exploring investment opportunities in diverse sectors across the continent.
"Expanding to other parts of Africa is central to our growth strategy in the period 2009-2014. We will focus on diversifying our portfolio across our three business lines," said Mr Mworia.
The company shareholders also approved the creation of three subsidiaries namely, Mauritius-based Centum Development Limited, Crested Heights Limited in Uganda, and Centum Exotics Limited. The latter will focus on Private Equity and Quoted Private Equity acquisitions across Africa.
Centum chairman James Muguiyi says that the "Private Equity business line will continue with the value creation initiatives in the investee companies to sustain the growth experienced in the past financial period and will also seek to unlock value through listings and exits."
Centum assets are currently valued in excess of $140m in Private equity, real estate and quoted private equity. With the expansion plans in PE, real estate and QPE, Centum seeks to grow its investment portfolio to about $297m by 2014. The expansion growth plans in Uganda, Mauritius and Kenya are mainly focused on the real-estate sector to match the demand and the Return on Investment the sector provides vis-à-vis the risk. Considering the current economic challenges in the region, real-estate is one with less risk unlike the volatile equity markets in the region.  
 "The Real Estate and Infrastructure business line is focused on developing world class destinations at its properties in Kenya and Uganda. The focus will be to ensure that value is created through the development process," Mworia says.