Nova group to list Sharemax assets
SILVERWATER, MAGALIESKRUIN
The Nova Property Group is considering the listing of some properties within the group in an effort to repay the holders of the debentures related to these properties.
The board also announced that the full investment capital of the Nova debentures linked to the Silverwater Crossing and Magalieskruin developments would be repaid. Full details of these repayments will be sent to debenture holders in April. In a cryptic communiqué to Nova debenture holders last week, the Nova board says it has been “working during the recent past, and has progressed well, in the process of investigating and considering alternatives in regard to a possible process of procuring the listing on a stock exchange of certain of the group’s properties”.
The statement says this listing would “enable relevant debenture holders to receive payment in the form of cash and/or listed tradable shares, empowering individuals to manage their own capital”.
Apart from these two sentences, no further details were released. Dominique Haese, Nova’s CEO, did not respond to questions.
The announcement raises several questions as to how and which properties will be selected and how such a listing would affect the shareholding of the directors who received a collective stake of 87% in Nova for free when the entity was formed.
The investment value for Silverwater Crossing is listed in the original repayment schedule as R75 million and should have been repaid in 2015. The value of the Magalieskruin debentures is R29.9 million and repayment was scheduled for 2017.
These latest repayments mean that debentures linked to five former Sharemax developments have been repaid – the others being Tarentaal, Centurion Hazel and The Village Mall, between 2013 and 2015.
Haese also did not respond to questions related to these debenture payments and how Nova acquired the cash. At the end of February 2016, Nova had cash resources of R42 million, while the business has not been able to show a positive operational cash flow since 2012.
Haese also did not respond to a question regarding whether Nova sold any properties in its 2017 financial year.
The Nova board did not provide information regarding any individual development, apart from a brief update on the status of the ongoing litigation related to The Villa and Zambezi developments and the developer Capicol. The cases are now ready for a hearing. The communiqué did not provide any insights into the board’s position relating to several Business articles about corporate governance within the group. These articles relate to the apparent over-valuation of the Villa, and an acknowledgement by Haese that Nova fought Moneyweb in various courts to muzzle the publication to allow the board to access external funding.
There is also no mention of an investigation by Nova’s auditor, BDO, into Nova’s financial affairs stretching back to 2012.