Investec Property Fund reported strong results today, the property fund is a South African Real Estate Investment Trust having listed on the JSE on 14 April 2011 and obtaining REIT status on 1 April 2013. It currently comprises a portfolio of 69 properties in South Africa with a total Gross Lettable Area of 693 256m² valued at R5.8bn and a R288.7mn investment in Australia.
The objective of the Fund is to grow its asset base by investing in well priced income producing properties in the office, industrial and retail sectors to optimise capital and income returns over time for shareholders.
The board of directors is pleased to announce an 8.6% increase in the final distribution to 57.74 cents per share (cps) for the six months ended 31 March 2014 (31 March 2013: 53.16 cpu). This brings the total distribution for the year to 108.20 cps, representing an 8.2% increase over the prior year, supported by performance of the base portfolio and the underlying property fundamentals of acquisitions made in both the current and previous financial years.
Although not material, given its size relative to the total portfolio, the base portfolio (R2.1bn) grew 5.5%, distorted somewhat by the vacancy of one office building (6 759m²). If this was normalised, growth in the base portfolio would have been 7.9%. In addition, the results reflect management’s continual focus on tenant retention and strategic lettings with over 69 167m2 of space let during the year, keeping vacancies low at 2.6% (31 March 2013: 2.9%), one of the lowest levels in the sector.
