Six UK-based properties acquired

ATLANTIC Leaf, the property company listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius with a secondary listing on the JSE’s AltX, had exchanged contracts to acquire a portfolio of six UK-based property assets for a total of £107.8 million (R2.5 billion). The company also reported that it had successfully raised £49.6m of new equity capital in the first week of this month through a private placement of 44.2 million Atlantic Leaf shares to invited investors, increasing the total funds raised since listing in April 2014 to £135m. It said the capital raised would be deployed into the six UK-based property assets, comprising three industrial properties and three commercial office properties. The latest acquisitions boost the total asset value of Atlantic Leaf’s portfolio to £267m. Prior to this transaction, Atlantic Leaf had acquired 48 properties valued at £158m that were let to seven tenants, all but one of which was part of Financial Times Stock Exchange listed group. The existing portfolio consists of a mixture of retail warehousing and industrial distribution centres in England, Scotland, and Wales. Shaun Fourie, the head of asset management and operations at Atlantic Leaf Properties, said the new office properties provided a solid base of stable income, which would allow management to extract value from the current portfolio through strategic asset management. Shares were unchanged at R26.25 on the JSE yesterday. – Roy Cokayne