Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa May/June 2019 | Page 47

Atlantic Leaf Properties EPP obtains funding
RESULTS FOR YEAR-END 28 FEBRUARY 2019 TRANCHE 2 OF M1 TRANSACTION
PHOTO Paul Leaf-Wright CEO Atlantic Leaf Properties CEO EPP, Hadley Dean
Results Highlights
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Conversion to UK REIT, redomiciled to Jersey
•
Successful debt refinance
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Net property income: GBP 24.5 million, up 5.4%
•
Dividends: 9.3 GBP pence per share, up 2.2%
•
Asset under management: GBP 356 million, up 1.1%
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Properties valued At GBP 6.9 million
Atlantic Leaf Properties Limited is a UK-based REIT
that focuses on commercial property assets in strategically
positioned light-industrial and distribution nodes in the UK.
The Company announced a full year distribution of 9.3 GBP
pence per share, an increase of 2.2% from prior year. EPP is listed on the stock exchanges in Johannesburg ( JSE)
and Luxembourg (Euro MTF). EPP successfully completed
an equity raise of ZAR 1.45 billion equating to approximately
EUR90 million. The Polish retail company will use the
equity to fund tranche 2 of its M1 portfolio transaction. The
company expects to complete tranche 2 of the M1 transaction
by June of this year. The deal is expected to add an additional
184,000 sqm of retail GLA to EPP’s portfolio.
Commenting on the results, CEO Paul Leaf-Wright said,
“2018/2019 was a tough year for property companies and we
are pleased that notwithstanding the challenging environment,
to deliver an increase in distributions to shareholders.”
A key event subsequent to year end was the conversion of
the Company to a UK REIT on 1 March 2019 (previously
a Mauritian real estate company). Leaf-Wright commented,
“Becoming a UK REIT was a goal we had previously
communicated to shareholders. We believe that, especially
given the pending changes to tax in the UK (where all
our properties are held) that this move will have material
long-term benefits for all shareholders. It also means that
Atlantic Leaf ’s future distributions will now be more directly
comparable to other listed REITs, where distributions are all
on a pre-tax basis.
EPP is the largest owner of retail real estate in Poland.
It operates like a REIT, with a current portfolio of 19 retail
properties, six office buildings and two development sites in
Warsaw, with one currently under construction, offering a
total of over 835,000 sqm in Poland’s most lucrative cities.
“We’re pleased with the market’s faith in our growth plans.
This equity raise provides us with more liquidity ahead of the
next step in our M1 transaction, but more importantly it will
give us the ability to continue to deliver strong returns to all of
our stakeholders,” said EPP CEO, Hadley Dean. EPP was the
top performing stock in the listed property sector on the JSE
last year and the company announced its third year of record
returns last month.
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine MAY/JUNE 2019
45