Fund aims for R1.3bn JSE listing

STOR-AGE Property, which claims to be the country’s largest self storage property fund, is set to list on the JSE next month. When it lists an initial R1.3 billion portfolio of self storage properties, it will be the first real estate investment trust (Reit) of its kind listed on the JSE. Prior to listing, the fund plans to raise about R700 million from institutional investors and has set aside another R15m for staff, customers and suppliers. It is targeting a market capitalisation of about R1.2bn on listing, but the price a share will be finalised after the institutional bookbuild. The fund is forecasting above average distribution growth in the medium term and maintains it will be following in the footsteps of international self storage peers, who have in recent years consistently outperformed the listed property sectors of the US, UK and Australia. Stor-Age was founded in 2005 by the Lucas family, who remain the core of the executive management team and will continue to hold about 30 percent of the company. Gavin Lucas, the chief executive of Stor-Age Property, said yesterday that the majority of the fund’s listing portfolio assets were considered mature in that they had more than 80 percent tenancy. – Roy Cokayne

PSG GROUP

DAWN

DISTRIBUTION and Warehousing Network (Dawn) reported yesterday that its headline earnings a share for the six months to September were expected to be between 192 percent and 210 percent higher than in the six months to December. Earnings a share for the reporting period will be between 87 percent and 89 percent lower than the 231.9c achieved in the six months to December at between 25.5c and 30.5c. Dawn attributed this largely to the once-off net gain on the acquisition by international sanitary fittings group Grohe of a 51 percent stake in Dawn’s Watertech companies for R880 million cash in the previous comparative period. Shares fell 2.86 percent to close at R5.10. – Roy Cokayne