Letlole La Rona commits to expansion
Letlole La Rona ( LLR) Limited remains committed on expanding its Portfolio as well as seeking opportunities to grow into the rest of Africa.
The company’s investment portfolio value now stands at P1.2 billion which is a 22 percent increase from last year’s P1 billion, primarily driven by the acquisition of a 32.79 percent stake in JTTM Properties ( Proprietary) Limited ( JTTM). JTTM is the sole owner of Rail Park Mall, a 32,000sqm prime commuter mall, situated in the heart of the Gaborone bus and taxi terminus.
Recently, LLR launched its newly refined ‘ GoTo- Africa’ Strategy which defines the strategic direction of LLR and seeks growth in the best interest of the Company and its stakeholders. The new strategy seeks to optimize and diversify the Company’s portfolio, drive growth of the balance sheet, enhance stakeholder value and sustain investor returns.
Presenting the financial results for the year ended June 2022, LLR Chief Executive Officer, Kamogelo Mowaneng said the revised mission was developed to integrate ‘ Basket of Wealth’ into the African economy, through value enhancing real estate investments which unlock superior returns whilst connecting and empowering communities. “Being a Botswana company, we remain committed and focused on optimizing and expanding our Botswana Portfolio as well as seeking opportunities to grow into the rest of Africa which, given the scale of potential transactions, has the potential to be value accretive to our stakeholders.”
The company’s acquisition of Rail Park Mall for P152 million in December 2021 showed a 13 percent growth in value to P171 million for the year under review and substantially boosted the share of profits from associates.
“We are very pleased with the Company’s sustained, strong growth.
This not only unlocked value for shareholders by way of a higher distribution, but also through the rerating of our share price. Prudent capital allocation decisions in the 2021 financial year and our relentless focus on property fundamentals supported our performance for this financial year,” said Mowaneng.
Revenue increased by five percent to P108 million. This growth was on the back of average annual lease escalations of 6.7 percent, supported by extremely low vacancy rates of less than one percent. Mowaneng said there was a significant improvement in collection rates which exceeded 100 percent of the total monthly rentals billed, resulting in the credit loss allowances during the year, being 35 percent lower than the prior year figure of P3 million.
She said in the short- term, they will be embarking on environmental initiatives that will reduce carbon footprint. These will include the implementation of solar power at key strategic assets as well as retrofitting of lower energy consumption LED lights across the portfolio. “We are extremely excited by the solid platform the Company has built over the past 12 years that has positioned it to expand and diversify its Portfolio through making yield- enhancing and impact- driven investments.”