Insurer Jubilee has completed the purchase of a 116,350 square-foot commercial property in Nairobi’s Upperhill neighborhood that was formerly occupied by Coca-Cola East Africa.
Jubilee paid Ksh1.1 billion for the property. Nizar Juma, the chairman of Jubilee Holdings’ board of directors, called it a “excellent agreement.”
The main feature of the property, which sits on 3.2 acres in Upperhill, a high-end business zone, is a three-story Grade A office structure. It has 130 parking places, a sound-proof theatre, a gym, and a restaurant, among other amenities.
In 2019, it was listed for sale with the real estate firm Knight Frank. Coca-Cola was said to be looking to sell for more than Ksh1 billion at the time.
Until 2019, the property functioned as Coca-regional Cola’s headquarters. The move to a new location in Lavington was characterized at the time as part of the company’s change to’more open and less formal’ workspaces, as well as an effort to bring employees closer to residential areas.
According to Juma, they hope to move into the Upperhill building in September. The company’s current headquarters are located on Wabera Street in the Central Business District’s Jubilee Insurance House.
They’re adding a storey to the former Coca-Cola building and renovating it in preparation for the big relocation.
The Upperhill building will also house Jubilee’s investment management, life, and health operations.
The NSE-listed insurer had a solid profit year in 2021.
The NSE-listed insurer’s profit after tax increased to Sh6.83 billion in 2021, up from Sh4.08 billion the previous year.
“In 2021, our primary focus was on product and service improvement through the deployment of new offerings especially in the SME and Micro segments. As a result of leveraging on enhanced distribution capabilities through our digital platforms, we were able to transact premiums of over Sh150 million. This represented a 700 per cent YoY growth compared to 2020”, Group CEO Julius Kipng’etich noted.
