KITEA S.A. announces a capital raise and welcomes Tana Africa Capital into its shareholding
Casablanca, [TBCth] February 2018 – KITEA, the leading Moroccan retailer of household furniture, office furniture and home accessories, with additional operations in Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, announces a capital raise and welcomes Tana Africa Capital Limited (“TANA”) into its shareholding.
KITEA announces the completion of a capital raise and the acquisition of a significant minority stake by TANA, an Africa-focused investment holding company. This capital raise will fuel KITEA’s growth strategy within Morocco as well as beyond.
Faced with a complete absence of formal furniture retail offerings in Morocco at the time, Amine Benkirane founded KITEA in 1993 with a first store in Casablanca and has progressively grown the business into the market leader in furniture and accessories retail with an innovative offering adapted to the Moroccan consumer. The business was historically focused on medium-sized stores, but later pursued an innovative expansion strategy by pioneering the Moroccan big-box furniture concept in 2007 as well as opening its first franchisee outside of Morocco in Kinshasa in 2012.
Against the backdrop of the recent global financial crisis and the arrival of new competitors in the market, KITEA has demonstrated resilience through the pursuit of its growth strategy and continuous innovation of its product and service offerings to satisfy the needs of its customers. As a result, KITEA possesses a leading and established distribution network with more than twenty outlets in various formats across all of Morocco.
TANA was thus attracted to KITEA’s impressive existing operations as well as ambitious development plans. Over the next few years, KITEA plans to pursue its growth strategy both in Morocco and in the rest of Africa.
About KITEA
KITEA is a major furniture retailer present across 17 cities and 25 stores in Morocco, as well as 2 franchise stores in sub-Saharan Africa. The company was founded in 1993 by Amine Benkirane with the opening of its first 300 sqm store in Route d’El Jadida in Casablanca with 5 employees. Today KITEA has a cumulated showroom area of over 50,000 sqm and employs more than 1,000 people. KITEA achieved its initial expansions in Morocco through co-location partnerships with major retailers, and since 2008 has evolved into developing its own big-box shopping centers termed “KITEA Géants”. KITEA has always made use of conventional financing through its banking partnerships to fund its growth, and now opens its shareholding to further boost its development plans.
About TANA
Tana Africa Capital is an Africa-focused investment holding company founded by the Oppenheimer family from South Africa and Temasek Holdings, an investment company owned by the Government of Singapore. TANA acquires significant minority or control equity positions in established businesses. Following the successful deployment of her first allocation of US$ 300 million, TANA’s shareholders entrusted her with an additional US$ 300 million in 2017. TANA primarily targets investments in FMCG, retail, education, healthcare, and the agribusiness value chain. TANA has two offices in South Africa and Côte d’Ivoire with a team of 8 investment professionals. KITEA is TANA’s second investment in Morocco, the first being in the education sector in 2015.