How Purple is leveraging Sukuk Bond to redefine property devt dynamics

Increasingly, Nigerians at both private and public sector levels are leveraging Sukuk Bonds to raise capital for developments. Many government firms and private organizations have gone the Sukuk way to raise funds to shore up their finances. The latest on this least is the Purple Group, a real estate investor.

Purple’s foray into the Sukuk world is part of its strategic approaches to advancing its goal to bridge the property deficit in Lagos state and also to bring innovative residential concept to property development in Nigeria.

The group which was incorporated in 2015 as Purple Real Estate Development Company (PREDCo) commenced operations in September of the same year. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Purple Real Estate Income Limited. PREDCo’s principal activities include the development of residential and commercial real estate with the aim of outright sales or lease of properties to meet the needs of individuals and corporate bodies.

Leveraging on its market knowledge and expertise as well as its network to attract, invest and deliver positive returns to its investors, PREDCO focuses on development/growth opportunities and has equitable board/project involvement. It has consistently raised funds from high net worth individuals and Institutions for its projects.

With regards to real estate, Purple is looking to build on the success of its flagship mixed-use project, the Maryland Mall, and other residential projects and aims to grow its real estate footprint by delivering three to five similar assets within the next five years and up to 1000 residential units.

Read Also: In Nigeria’s first corporate Sukuk, Family Homes Funds issues N10bn

Some of its major existing projects include Bishopsgate Residences and Redworth Terraces at Ikate Elegushi in Lekki; and Purple Maryland, its work, shop, eat, play and drink retail mall.

It has secured locations for delivery under a staggered approach for Lekki Phase 1 which comprises 185 units of 3-bedroom, 4-bedroom and 5-bedroom apartments, and Maryland (Purple Macro) which consists of 130 units of 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom apartments.

While other retail and mixed-use centres are all under the Pre-development phase, construction has commenced on Purple Lekki.

To deliver these projects, the group, therefore, took to the Sukuk Bond to raise bonds. As stated earlier, Sukuk Bond has continued to gain tremendous acceptance among the investing public and private operators alike.

This was not the case initially because when Sukuk Bonds first made its landing in secular Nigeria, it caused fierce religious controversy with many Nigerians, especially those in the South, believing it was another ploy by the North to Islamise the finance sector of the country.

But when some states in the South began taking the Islamic Finance certificate, it looked like the Sukuk pudding may just be good for the eating. Osun State led the way to the Sukuk kitchen and then a South Eastern State also had a bite of the pie. They saw it was good and, ever since, the Sukuk story has been sweet.

The latest bond issue raised by the Purple Group has further deepened the roots of the Sukuk flower in the enhancement and beautification of the Nigerian real estate space.

Similar to a bond in Western finance, Sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate that complies with Islamic religious law commonly known as Sharia. Since the traditional Western interest-paying bond structure is not permissible, the issuer of a Sukuk essentially sells an investor-group a certificate and then uses the proceeds to purchase an asset that the investor group has direct partial ownership interest in. The issuer must also make a contractual promise to buy back the bond at a future date at par value.

Sukuk is a Sharia-compliant bond-like instrument used in Islamic finance and it involves a direct asset ownership interest, while bonds are indirect interest-bearing debt obligations.

Although, both Sukuk and bonds provide investors with payment streams, income derived from a Sukuk cannot be speculative because that would make it no longer a halal.

Sukuk has become extremely popular since 2000 with the rise of Islamic finance, when the first of such products were issued in Malaysia followed by Bahrain in 2001.

In today’s world, the Islamic Finance instrument is used by Islamic corporations and state-run organizations alike around the globe, taking up an increasing share of the global fixed-income market.

Islamic law prohibits what’s known as ‘riba’ or what we understand as ‘interest’ in the West.

Traditional Western debt instruments, therefore, cannot be used as viable investment vehicles or ways to raise capital for a business. To circumvent this, Sukuk was created in order to link the returns and cash flows of debt financing to a specific asset being purchased, effectively distributing the benefits of that asset.

This allows investors to work around the prohibition outlined under Sharia and still receive the benefits of debt financing. However, because of the way Sukuk is structured, financing can only be raised for identifiable assets.

Representing aggregate and undivided shares of ownership in a tangible asset which relates to a specific project or a specific investment activity, an investor in the Bond, thus, does not own a debt obligation owed by the bond issuer; rather, he or she owns a piece of the asset that is linked to the investment.

In other words, unlike bondholders, Sukuk holders receive a portion of the earnings generated by the associated asset. There are similarities or differences between Sukuk and conventional bonds.

In terms of similarities, both provide investors with payment streams. They are issued to investors and both may be used to raise capital for a firm.

Considered to be safer investments than equities, both also have their differences. While Sukuk investors receive profit generated by the underlying asset on a periodic basis, bond investors receive periodic interest payments.

While Sukuk involves asset ownership, bonds are debt obligations. Whereas bond yield is strictly due to its interest rate, the more the asset backing a Sukuk appreciates, the more the Sukuk appreciates.

Assets that back Sukuk are halal whereas bonds are often ‘riba’ and may finance non-Sharia compliant businesses or fuel speculation. While a bond’s price is largely determined by its credit rating, Sukuk valuation is based on the value of the assets backing them.

Trust Certificate is the most common type of a Sukuk and it is also governed by Western law. However, the structure of this type of Sukuk is more nuanced. The organization raising funds first creates a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

The SPV then issues trust certificates to qualified investors and puts the proceeds of the investments toward a funding agreement with the issuing organization. In return, the investors earn a portion of the profits linked to the asset.

These are the principles governing the Sukuk-Purple bond, as it were, which it is leveraging in its bid to redefine the dynamics of property development in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s real estate and construction sector is one of the key sectors of the economy being the 6th largest contributor to GDP and accounting for about 9.8 peercent of GDP in 2019.

The recent growth in the construction sector has largely been driven by the increase in foreign direct investments and local private capital as well as increased infrastructural development, particularly in Lagos State.

The sector witnessed a slowdown in growth in 2016, as it was one of the most negatively impacted sectors during the nationwide recession. But with improving macroeconomic fundamentals, the real estate sector is expected to return to pre-recession growth levels.

Following the establishment of the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) with the purpose of promoting homeownership while deepening the primary and secondary mortgage markets, credit to the real estate sector is expected to increase.

In Lagos and Abuja, which are prime locations and key cities in Nigeria’s real estate market, there is a high demand for commercial buildings and residential apartments. Incidentally, this is the turf the Purple Group has continued to dominate, especially with its mixed-use architectural masterpieces.

Expectation is that with this Sukuk energy, PREDCO is about to soar beyond the height of the eagle and may soon become the prime property development driver in Nigeria. Its goal is to add 1000 keys to the residential real estate market in Lagos.