Over the course of thirteen years, the Heirs Holdings (HH) Group has made significant impact across the African continent and has become a benchmark for ‘building to last’.
With a dedicated workforce of 1,500+ direct employees, HH has consistently delivered value in critical sectors that are vital for Africa’s development, including Oil and Gas, Power, Financial Services, Hospitality, Real Estate, Healthcare, and Technology.
Heirs Holdings has continued to foster socio-economic growth that has positively shaped the future of Africa.
To commemorate HH’s anniversary, find below 13 stories of impact over the past 13 years of operations:
#HHIMPACT STORY ONE
In 2011, Heirs Holdings identified its first strategic investment opportunity, acquiring a controlling stake in Transcorp, Nigeria’s largest listed conglomerate. This investment and introduction of sectoral expertise saw Transcorp leap into an era of year-on-year increase in growth and performance, the delivery of quality services in hospitality, and an expansion into the energy sector, which has led to recognition and awards both locally and internationally, a testament to Heirs Holdings’ track record of business turnaround success and operational excellence.
Transcorp has experienced tremendous growth, reporting a 31% increase in revenue for the half year of 2023.
Transcorp Hotels Plc, the hospitality subsidiary of Transcorp Group has continued to reinforce its position as a leader in the hospitality industry. In 2022, the Company won the award for the Most Outstanding Hospitality Brand of the Year, as well as the Pearl Awards’ Sectorial Leadership Award – Services
(Hotels & Lodging).
Transcorp Hotels’ flagship property, Transcorp Hilton Abuja won several international awards and recognition including Trip Advisor’s Traveller’s Choice Award; Booking.com Traveller Review Award; The Word Luxury Hotel and Restaurant Awards; Africa’s Best Luxury Business Hotel and Nigeria’s Best Luxury Hotel – Seven Stars Luxury and Lifestyle Awards; as well as 5 prizes at the World Travel Awards (Africa’s Leading Business Hotel 2022, Nigeria’s Leading Business Hotel 2022, Nigeria’s Leading Hotel 2022, Nigeria’s Leading City Hotel 2022 and Nigeria’s Leading Hotel Suite 2022 – Presidential Suite).
Transcorp Hotels has continued to record impressive performance, growing revenue by 27% in H1 2023 and profit by 49%. Backed by its commitment to innovation and efficient execution of its growth strategy, the market has responded positively, with the Company’s share price growing by more than 400% over the past year.
In 2013, Transcorp Power acquired 100% ownership and management of Ughelli Power Plc, with 972MW installed capacity, but actual production of only 160MW. Within a year of acquisition, Transcorp Power delivered a 306% increase in the available capacity of Transcorp Power Plant (from 160MW to 610MW), contributing 13% of power generation to the Nigerian national grid.
Transcorp deepened its play in the power sector, with the introduction of a second investment – TransAfam Power – in 2020. Less than two months after the takeover, TransAfam increased the capacity of the Afam Power Plc acquired asset from 48MW to 118MW, achieving an incremental 72MW impact on Nigeria’s national grid. Right after the takeover of Afam asset by TransAfam, the company embarked on aggressive plant recovery and remarkably recovered one of the 138MW units back on the national grid in 2022 after over 15yrs out of service.
This year, Transcorp Power became the first power generation company to fulfill all privatisation obligations and received a discharge certificate from post-privatisation monitoring from the Federal Government of Nigeria. Afam III Fast Power – one of TransAfam’s power plants, commissioned the 8 Units TM2500 Fast Power plant which is an additional 240MW, bringing its total installed capacity to 966 MW – an output enough to power 2 million homes.
#HHIMPACT STORY TWO
In 2012, Holdings made further acquisitions in the real estate and financial sectors: Afriland Properties Plc; United Capital Plc, and Africa Prudential Registrar Plc.
This year, United Capital Plc, a leading pan-African financial services institution, was recognised for the second time in a row among the Fastest Growing African Companies by the prestigious Financial Times London, having received the Fastest Growing Investment Management Company Award by International Finance Award in 2022. This happened following its delivery of impressive growth with a revenue rise of 49%.
#HHIMPACT STORY THREE
Avon HMO, a subsidiary of HH, celebrated a decade of unwavering commitment to exceptional healthcare. Avon HMO has impacted over 230,000 lives through 2,500 hospitals across the world, paying over N24bn ($32m) in claims in 10 years. With the introduction of new health plans to address critical illnesses, Avon HMO is helping people to live healthier, fuller lives.
#HHIMPACT STORY FOUR
In 2015, Heirs Holdings’ philanthropic arm, The Tony Elumelu Foundation launched its flagship Entrepreneurship Programme committing US $100 million to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs over 10 years, across 54 African countries. Today, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has surpassed its initial goal by directly funding over 18,000 young men and women in all 54 countries across Africa, who have gone on to create more than 400,000 in their communities, and has provided over 1.5 million young Africans with access to training via its digital platform, TEFConnect.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation will commence its call-for-application to its pilot green entrepreneurship programme; a pilot initiative co-created by the UNICEF Generation Unlimited (GenU), the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), IKEA Foundation, and the Kenyan Consumers Office (KCO).
The key objective of this mission-aligned partnership is to create a holistic, sustainable, and youth-led green entrepreneurship initiative that is focused on empowering youth in the waste sector [in Kenya], and the green sector [in Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, and South Africa], through the first-ever green African entrepreneurs’ training, mentoring and funding, to advance Africa’s social and economic prosperity, while addressing the triple planetary crisis by reducing inequalities and creating sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their peers.
By 2025, #BeGreenAfrica aims to train 1,000 Kenyan youth in the waste management sector, and economically empower 120 of them, as well as empower 25 green sector entrepreneurs each in Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, and South Africa, all under the age of 35.
#HHIMPACT STORY FIVE
In 2018, Avon Medical Practice, a healthcare subsidiary of Heirs Holdings, launched a state-of-the-art ultra-modern Dialysis Centre in Lagos, Nigeria, in line with its mission to provide quality healthcare. Since 2016, Avon Medical has treated over 43,000 patients across 33 clinics and the Avon Dialysis Centre has carried out 45,000 dialysis sessions since its inception.
#HHIMPACT STORY SIX
In January 2018, Non-Executive Director of Heirs Holdings, Dr. Awele V. Elumelu OFR, was appointed as the Private Sector Champion for Immunisation in Africa by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI).
#HHIMPACT STORY SEVEN
Afriland Properties Plc, a property management, investment, and development company, grew its portfolio size to over N10 billion, becoming one of the largest land banks in Nigeria. In 2020, Afriland completed the upgrade of Raymond House to Afriland Towers and commissioned Heirs Towers in 2021, contributing aesthetically to the Lagos skyline.
#HHIMPACT STORY EIGHT
Heirs Holdings successfully acquired OML17 from Shell, TOTAL, and ENI in what became the largest oil and gas transaction in Africa for the year 2021. OML 17 has a 2P gross reserve of 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Heirs Energies has committed to deepening Nigeria’s energy mix through a ramp-up of gas production for power generation and industrial/commercial use. Heirs Energies has consistently created value within its host communities with the implementation of several community-wide projects.
#HHIMPACT STORY NINE
In 2020, Heirs Holdings launched digital-first insurance companies, Heirs General Insurance (HGI) and Heirs Life Assurance (HLA), to democratise access to insurance and drive financial inclusion.
Since their launch, both companies have hit several milestones including the launch of multiple digital channels – Mobile Apps, USSD, and a chatbot, Prince, that provides instant responses to inquiries.
In line with its mission, both companies also launched InConnect, a revolutionary platform enabling people and businesses to resell insurance.
Combined, both companies serve hundreds of thousands of customers with a retail spread across 11 locations and fast-growing, achieving our dream: financial inclusion for all.
In 2023, Heirs General Insurance and Heirs Life Assurance announced seventeen (17) young creatives across Africa as the recipients of the USD30,000 Tony Elumelu Storytellers Fund.
#HHIMPACT STORY TEN
Africa Prudential Plc a premium share registration service with over 50 years of capital market experience expanded into digital solutions to help businesses thrive. In 2023, Africa Prudential launched i-Academy to unlock the potential of tech talents through education and development opportunities.
#HHIMPACT STORY ELEVEN
Heirs Holdings is committed to championing diversity and inclusion by continuously and intentionally building a workplace where everyone thrives without bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.
With 45% of CEOs across the Group being female, which is significantly higher than the global business average of 9%, Heirs Holdings is committed to building a legacy of women in leadership.
#HHIMPACT STORY TWELVE
In 2022, Heirs Holdings launched the Heirs Academy and welcomed the pioneer set of fresh graduates into its Graduate Trainee Programme, a key element in the organisation’s commitment to ‘building to last’, by equipping future leaders with the necessary skills needed to become leaders of change.
#HHIMPACT STORY THIRTEEN
Heirs Holdings won the Great Place to Work awards for the ‘Best in Leadership’ Category in 2019 owing to its impressive corporate culture and core values – Excellence, Enterprise, and Execution – the 3 E’s.
About Heirs Holdings
Heirs Holdings is a leading pan-African investment company. Its investment portfolio spans the power, oil and gas, financial services, hospitality, real estate, and healthcare sectors, operating in twenty-four countries worldwide.
Heirs Holdings is inspired by Africapitalism, the belief that the private sector is the key enabler of economic and social wealth creation in Africa. Driven by this philosophy, Heirs Holdings invests for the long-term, bringing strategic capital, sector expertise, a track record of business success, and operational excellence to companies we invest in.