The Local Authorities Pension Trust (LAPTRUST) is planning to enter the market with the issuance of a Ksh.7 billion income-real estate investment trust (i-REIT).
The trust will be the first pension fund to sell the instrument on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
The I-listing REIT’s will allow Kenyans who are not members of the now-closed pension scheme to benefit from investing in the fund’s real estate portfolio.
“We have sizeable property investments and want to list part of it in this market. We have applied to our regulators and are hoping to get the green light in due course to bring the first ever i-REIT from the pension sector coming from LAPTRUST,” said CPF Financial Services Managing Director and LAPTRUST trustee Hosea Kili.
The expected LAPTRUST i-REIT will be the third on the NSE unquoted platform, following the ICEA Lion Fahari REIT and the Acorn REITS.
The fund had assets of Ksh.33.9 billion at the end of last year, according to LAPTRUST’s 2021 Annual Report, including Ksh.15.9 billion in property investments.
The CPF House, Pension Towers, Freedom Height, which includes a mall and apartments, Metropark Building, and Mann Apartments in Kilimani are among LAPTRUST’s property investments.
The fund was established in 1929 as a pension scheme for employees of the then-Local Government Authorities, but it was closed to new members in 2012.
LAPTRUST is already familiar with the reit space, having invested in ILAM FAHARI I-REIT.
The fund held 2.5 million units of the REIT at the end of 2021, valued at Ksh.15.6 million and purchased at a cost of Ksh.10.70 per unit.
