Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa April 2014 | Page 14

MASTER INVESTOR
Atterbury formed Attacq in 2005 which, in addition
to Attfund, undertook numerous developments. Attacq
bought the rights to develop the prime Waterfall land
between Johannesburg and Pretoria from the Mia
family in 2009. The transaction was funded through
the issue of Attacq shares to the Mia family and when
Attacq sold its Attfund portfolio to Hyprop in 2011
they used the proceeds to buy back the shares from the
Mia family.

“Louis attributes Atterbury’s
success to the fact that its
employees are also shareolders
of the company. ”
Attacq listed on the JSE in October 2013, and holds a
25% stake in Atterbury. Atterbury owns 20% of Attacq
Waterfall Investment Company.
This company holds all the commercial development
rights at Waterfall, where there are already six
completed office buildings. Its biggest development
in Waterfall will be the Mall of Africa, which is part
of a total development area of more than 1,7 million
square metres of development rights and is its biggest
investment in South Africa. The remainder of the
development will keep Atterbury busy for the next 15
years.
Atterbury also began developing in sub-Saharan
African in countries like Mauritius in 2009 and then
Namibia, Ghana, Zambia and Mozambique. These
developments are always with local partners who
have a strong understanding of the local markets.
Atterbury developed the Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius
and is currently developing three malls in Ghana. It has
subsequently formed the Atterbury Africa Fund, a joint
partnership between Hyprop, Atterbury and Attacq.
In 2013 Atterbury moved further abroad to Eastern
Europe to countries like Georgia to focus on two new
retail developments.
Louis attributes Atterbury’s success to the fact that its
employees are also shareholders of the company. This
gives people ownership of the company and everybody
shares in the success. Furthering its accomplishments,
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Atterbury’s staff members are relatively young and
dynamic and have the freedom to be entrepreneurial.
The ease with which Atterbury partners with
other players in the property sector also benefits its
performance and the company slogan “it’s a matter of
association” underpins this mantra.
Louis’s goal is to continue to build Atterbury into
a formidable world property player. Almost 50% of
its current developments are outside the boarders of
South Africa.
Louis has been recognised for his remarkable
achievements and recently received the University
of Pretoria Alumni Laureate Award. In 2009 Louis
received the Christo Wiese Medal for outstanding
Entrepreneurship from the South African Academy
for Science and Arts.

LOUIS’S TOP TIPS

1

The DIY method of being involved on day to day
basis then the best option is to buy a residential
house, flat or student accommodation and rent it
out.

2
3
4

Another option will be to buy a small office and
rent it out to a number of people who would
like to rent

5

If you want cash flow then the large listed
property funds like Hyprop become a great
investment for the investor and you know you
can get an average of around 7% dividend
return per year

6

If you want to build up the capital reserves and
you are a longer way from retirement then a
share like Attacq becomes a good option as
they won’t be paying out dividends for the first
few years as most of the available cash is largely
being used for development. That is where you
can get excellent capital gain.

Another hands on option is become a small
townhouse developer where you can develop,
buy and sell property
If you don’t want to be involved hands and
don’t have the knowledge on then the decision
must be made if you want to get cash flow or
get capital growth as he believes you cannot
get both at the same time.

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