Equites expects a very rosy future
Many development projects
LISTED specialist industrial property developer and landlord Equites Property Fund has a total development pipeline in progress of R1.3 billion.
Andrea Taverna-Turisan, the chief executive of Equites, said yesterday that the fund had strong in-house development expertise and owned a portfolio of strategic land holdings for future developments.
Taverna-Turisan said in addition to the recently completed developments, the company had concluded a development lease for a 15 155m² modern logistics facility and offices for Premier valued at R165 million in the Lords View Industrial Park in Gauteng and had embarked on three speculative developments at Atlantic Hills in Durbanville with a combined gross lettable area of 14 956m² and a capital value of R152m.
He said Equites had also commenced development in July this year on three speculative developments at Atlantic Hills in Durbanville in Cape Town with a combined gross lettable area of 14 956m² at a cost of R152m.
Taverna-Turisan said Equites had a further 31 hectares of prime, serviced industrially zoned land available for development in Cape Town and Gauteng and was pursuing various opportunities for distribution centres on these parcels of land.
Speculative
In the six months month to August, Equites completed a 3 280m² speculative development in Meadowview in Gauteng, which had been let to Imperial Managed Logistics on a three-year lease; a new 28 527m² distribution centre and head office on a 10-year lease for Rohlig-Grindrod in Meadowview; and the construction of a new 17 598m² distribution centre and head office for Puma South Africa on a 10-year lease in Equites Park in Atlantis Hills in Cape Town.
Taverna-Turisan added that the company had indicated it would reduce its non-core office properties at the appropriate time and had concluded transactions to sell three office buildings situated in Cape Town plus the small office previously occupied by Puma for R234m.
He said more than 97 percent of total revenue was now derived from industrial and logistics assets and they expected to dispose of its last two remaining office buildings in Gauteng in the near future.
Equites made two acquisitions in the UK in the reporting period.
They were the acquisition of a 19 511m² distribution centre that was being developed by Prologis in Stoke-on-Trent in November last year for £18.1m (R324.73m) and a recently developed 19 909m² cross docking distribution centre in Coventry in July this year from Travis Perkins Properties for £41m.
Since listing in 2014, the company has increased its portfolio of industrial and logistics assets in South Africa and the United Kingdom to R6.8bn from R1bn.
Equites yesterday reported a 12.02 percent increase in distributions a share to 60.98 cents in the six months to August from 54.44c in the prior period.
The distribution for the period was at the upper end of its guidance of 10 percent to 12 percent distribution growth for the 2018 financial year.
Revenue rose 5 percent R262.6m from R249.9m.
Property operating and management expenses declined by 4 percent to R38.39m from R40m.
Shares in Equites rose 1.01 percent on the JSE yesterday to close at R21.01. to