Background
The Board of Directors wish to convey very warm greetings to all the share holders of Home Afrika.
The Home Afrika dream that we all started together two years ago has come true. We had a great vision to be leading property developers in Afrika with a major emphasis on providing mass housing. The journey of 1000 miles starts with one mile. Our first mile was raising capital for our company which has been very successful and achieved beyond our initial target of Kshs.200 million. This was the seed capital that will see us expand our company beyond our borders.
Second Annual General Meeting
We are happy to convene the second Annual General Meeting scheduled for Saturday the 24th July 2010. Over the last 2 years, we have been able to convene a General meeting every 3 months to keep our shareholders actively involved in the dynamic growth and policy formulation of Home Afrika.
Our attitude is to be consultative and have a team approach, create synergy and eventually shared success. The purpose for the annual general meeting is to review the performance of our business, receive reports and formulate policy and elect the Board of Directors.
Board Meetings and Board Committees
The board has continued to meet every 2 weeks in order to manage our business in the best way possible. The Board Committee has been very active and has also continued to meet to support overall company development. From the third year, the board shall meet on a monthly basis after strengthening the secretariat and recruiting a C.E.O
Corporate structure
Home Afrika since formulation has been restructuring from a start up business to a corporation in order to manage its business in the most corporate way possible. This is line with our vision of going public in the next 5 years. The audit committee has taken the lead in working with the board to review our operations and formulate guidelines and company manuals and as well structure to ensure we advance our corporate profile.
Morningside Office Park
Our first project was a building and major undertaking to develop up market office suites for sale through a joint venture partnership. The joint development company Suburban Limited has done us proud and worked very hard to implement a complex project. The suburban directors from Home Afrika Dr. Mbira Gikonyo, Eng. Mbugua Kamau and Dan Awendo have put their time and energies to ensure quality and timely implementations. Home Afrika secretariat has played the role of the Project Manager for which we have received Management fees. The project is expected to conclude by the end of the year.
Relocations of Home Afrika
Home Afrika is currently located in rented premises in Lavington. Our lease shall expire at the end of this year. As a company with a great vision, we need to have permanent offices. We have therefore recommended purchasing one of the office penthouse suites at the Morning side Office Park to be our offices. The mortgage repayment is about the same as the rent and other costs we are currently paying at lavington. We seek approval to go ahead and conclude the purchase. We have already given a letter of offer.
Future Growth Opportunity
In line with our vision to undertake large residential developments; The Board of Directors has been looking at various opportunities. In our strategic board meeting held in March 2010, It was agreed to concentrate our efforts on looking for large parcels of land for Land Banking and also for immediate development. The projects committee has been spearheading this agenda. We now report that we have identified and negotiated a strategic coffee farm 6.5 km from Kiambu town on Rabai road. The firm is 774 acres in 6 land parcels owned by a couple. We undertook the search and the land is clear.
The negotiated cost is Kshs.1.42 million per acre with a total price of Kshs.1.1 billion. Previously we had identified another 1000 acres parcel of land in Ruiru which is further out and the vendor gave us a final offer of Kshs.2.2 million per acre non – negotiable
Land prices are increasing at a tremendous rate and we must take this opportunity immediately. The land opportunity was brought by two shareholders, Robert Muchoki and Steve Gichohi who have been looking for land to develop separately. They invited Home Afrika to be their partner at a 60; 40 basis. They would invest 40% and Home Afrika 60%. We shall have a legal binding agreement with their companies.
Our project and Finance Committee have prepared a detailed Financing plan for this purchase that would be presented in the meeting for adoption. Following the purchase, we see the asset doubling its value within the next 2 years thus creating the 1.0 billion assets we needed. Our purpose to develop integrated housing, leisure Golf Estate over the next 6 years in 3 phases each of 2 years for sale. A site visit to the land has been arranged after the meeting.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to thank all shareholders for the effort and positive participation in Home Afrika We thank the staff for the hard work and effort to ensure that we meet our targets We thank the almighty God who has given us favour and blessings to achieve what we have done to date and pray for continued blessings into the future
Arch. Lee. G. Karuri
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