Property fund’s new trust aims to empower through education

THE shareholders of Redefine Properties on Friday approved the establishment of a trust worth R3bn as the JSE’s secondlargest South African-based property company looked to significantly boost its empowerment credentials.

At a general shareholders meeting in Johannesburg, the shareholders voted in favour of issuing up to 300-million shares to the newly established empowerment trust, funded by a loan advanced by the company.

Redefine’s market capitalisation is close to R41bn.

“The overwhelming support of our shareholders to create this trust reaffirms our group’s commitment to sustainable empowerment,” said CEO Andrew Konig. He added this was a “significant step” towards achieving the company’s B-BBEE (broadbased black economic empowerment) objectives.

“Our approach to transformation is to create sustainable, robust, credible and broad-based benefit and value, and we believe that this transaction will generate long-term value for all stakeholders,” he said.

The trust, structured as a capital preserving trust, would continue in perpetuity and its main focus was on activities to improve education and training through the provision of scholarships, bursaries and community development programmes.

Beneficiaries include preschool children, school children, students at tertiary institutions, black entrepreneurs, community upliftment programmes and poverty alleviation organisations. “We have been very clear about the tangible social impacts we want to make with this trust. We believe that by empowering South Africans at all levels through education, we can go a long way towards overcoming the barriers to transformation and, at the same time, create the kind of skills that the country really needs,” said Mr Konig.

“Beneficiaries have therefore been carefully categorised according to four classes to ensure the appropriate allocation of funds,” he said.

Maurice Shapiro, fund manager at Ma’alot Investments, said Redefine had improved its portfolio and management team over the past five years, which would stand the property company in good stead.