Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa April/May 2019 | Page 45

Reits
REITS
G
rowthpoint led the REITS news this month as it is
the biggest listed property player on the bourse an-
nounced interim results and commented on the Edcon
deal. The REIT is invested in commercial, retail and industrial
properties and boasts a portfolio worth R77bn. So when this
property company speaks, everyone takes note. ‘There is zero
business confidence in SA,’ CEO Norbert Sasse said at the
presentation of the company’s interim results in March.
‘Ongoing political rhetoric doesn’t help either. Tenants just
aren’t prepared to sign a five- or ten-year lease in this uncertain
climate,’ he said. The group reported negative rental renewal
growth for all three of its market sectors: offices, retail and
industrial. However, it’s foreign operations in Australia and
Eastern Europe took the edge off of the local results. The
group announced a 4.5% increase in distributions for the six-
month period to December.
Key assets: The V&A Waterfront, The Towers in Sandton
and Discovery 1 & 2 in Sandton
Size of property portfolio: R77 billion
Countries invested in: South Africa,
Poland and Romania
Australia,
Store-Age:
The self storage property REIT bucked the negative
distributions trend and raised its interim dividend by 9% in
March. The group owns 63 properties (49 SA, 14 UK) and
has ten properties in the pipeline. According to the group, in
SA, 54% of customers store for more than one year. In the UK,
51% of customers store for more than one year.
Key assets: Storage facilities with easy access from arterial
roads in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Cape Town and Durban
Size of property portfolio: R5.3bn
Countries invested in: South Africa, United
Kingdom
The board of directors of Grit Real Estate Income Group
Limited appointed Sir Samuel Esson Jonah, as an Independent
Non-Executive Director of the Company with effect from 21
February 2019.
Winning back trust and investors
Last year was a terrible year for the listed property sector.
It was the worst-performing sector on the JSE as the
Resilient group and its associates (Fortress Reit, Nepi
Rockcastle and Lighthouse Capital) were thought to have
inflated profits through party-related deals. Fresh out of
Steinhoff ’s blowup investors were understandably freaked
out. So now the SA Reit Association has released a new
set of best-practice recommendations, to improve the
reputation of the listed property sector and ease investors
back into the asset class. According to the Reit Association,
these guidelines will be the accepted standard for reporting
key metrics. It is intended that analysis and comparison
of different Reits will become easier.  This would prevent
people from inflating dividend growth to unsustainable
levels, as well as underreporting the debt levels on property
companies’ balance sheets.
Sir Samuel Jonah, aged 69, is ‘one of Africa’s leading
businessmen and internationally recognised as a leading
business executive’, the group said in a release. Grit is pan-
African real estate company focused on investing in and
actively managing a diversified portfolio of assets underpinned
by predominantly US Dollar and Euro denominated long-
term leases with multi-national tenants. Jonah is currently
Executive Chairman of Jonah Capital Limited, an investment
holding company in South Africa, and is former Executive
President of AngloGold Ashanti Limited.
Key assets: Barclays House (Mauritius), Anfa Place
Shopping Centre (Morocco), Buffalo Mall (Kenya), Vodacom
Building (Mozambique)
Size of property portfolio: US$1.1bn
Countries invested in: Kenya, Morrocco, Zambia,
Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Ghana
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine APRIL/MAY 2019
43