PE outfit Compass Capital has taken out a USD 10 mn mezzanine loan from South African fund manager Vantage Capital to fund the acquisition of six office buildings in New Cairo, according to a statement (pdf). The properties are being purchased by Bonyan Development and Trade, a real estate developer acquired by Compass in 2018.

About the properties: The buildings are all located in New Cairo’s central business district, and have a gross leasable area of 47.2k sqm. They are currently fully tenanted, and house multinationals including Nestle, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson and Lafarge Cement, as well as Egyptian firms.

This is Vantage’s second investment in Egypt after lending PickAlbatros Hotels USD 23 mn last year.

A step forwards towards the offering of a real estate investment vehicle on the EGX? “There is currently no easy way for investors to gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of stable, yielding real estate assets in Egypt despite this being a major and fast-growing sector of the economy. Our vision is therefore to build such a real estate portfolio with a view to listing it on the Egyptian Stock Exchange,” co-managing partner Tarek Abdel Rahman said.

Advisors: Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy and Werksmans Attorneys provided legal advice on the transaction.