JLL announced today that the firm is expanding its Sub-Saharan Africa offering to include its hotels service and has appointed regional industry expert, Xander Nijnens as Head of Hotels & Hospitality, Sub-Saharan Africa.
Nijnens
will focus on providing a comprehensive sector specific advisory
offering in Sub-Saharan Africa, and will lead the firm's new regional
hotel and hospitality outpost in Johannesburg. Nijnens will partner with
Mark Bradford, Chairman of JLL's regional Sub-Saharan Africa operation,
to serve the firm's current and prospective client base, as well as
integrating with JLL's 100-strong EMEA Hotels & Hospitality team.
"We
see the expansion of our hotels service offering in Sub-Saharan Africa
as an excellent opportunity to provide our clients with advice across
the real estate asset classes," said Mark Bradford, Chairman of JLL Sub-Saharan Africa.
"JLL has identified Sub-Saharan Africa as a priority region for long
term growth and we have seen an exceptionally positive response from our
global clients to our regional offering."
"Sub-Saharan Africa has
incredible hotel development potential with favourable economic,
demographic and industry trends. There is an increasing interest in this
region from many global players including investors, developers and
operators with many looking for the right market entry strategy to allow
them to benefit from the potential of the region," said Jon Hubbard, Head of Investor Services EMEA for JLL Hotels & Hospitality.
"To date we have already provided advisory and transaction services to
clients in 22 markets in Africa and the establishment of our office in
Johannesburg will allow us to further develop our on-the-ground
expertise for clients."
In his role, Nijnens will assist clients
in a suite of services including strategic consulting, transactional
advisory, corporate structuring, operator selection, management contract
negotiations, feasibility studies and asset management.
Nijnens
comes to JLL Hotels & Hospitality from a multi-branded hotel
operator based in South Africa. Prior to hotel operations, Nijnens
headed up acquisitions and corporate finance for a listed Real Estate
Investment Trust in South Africa and prior this he was based at Horwath
HTL focusing on Africa. He completed his Bachelors in Business
Administration in Hotel Management at the Hotel School The Hague in the
Netherlands with a focus on finance. He completed further studies in
real estate, company law and finance. He brings more than ten years of
transactional and advisory experience in Sub-Saharan Africa to the firm.
"The
opening of our new office in Johannesburg and the hiring of Xander
Nijnens to lead the JLL Hotels & Hospitality's Sub-Saharan Africa
operations reinforces our presence in, and commitment to, Africa," said Hubbard. "With the opening of this office we now have a presence in every region around the globe."
Nijnens concluded,
"Sub-Saharan Africa is an exciting and emerging region for the hotels
and hospitality industry with a highly diverse sector across the region.
In establishing a presence we aim to facilitate cross-border capital
flows into the sector and assist in attracting investment into the
region for our global and regional clients. JLL has an excellent track
record of assisting clients in both emerging and developed hotel markets
and I am excited to be able to bring this level of expertise to this
region as well."
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