Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa November 2016 | Page 11

BEN KODISANG where he served as President until his term ended in 2009 . Ben served the association as Director for a total of 6 years .

BEN KODISANG where he served as President until his term ended in 2009 . Ben served the association as Director for a total of 6 years .

He served as Chairman of SA Corporate Real Estate Fund Managers Limited until 2011 . SA Corporate Real Estate Limited is a Corporate REIT ( Real Estate Investment Trust ) listed under the Real Estate , Diversified REITs sector of the South African Stock Exchange , the JSE Limited ( JSE ). SA Corporate is one of the oldest and most established property companies in the South African market . The Company features an attractive portfolio diversified across 178 properties , which covers 1,39 million square metres of lettable space .
In August 2012 he was appointed Managing Director of STANLIB Asset Management and later STANLIB Africa where he served until December 2015 . STANLIB manages and administers over R584 billion ( assets for over 500 000 retail and institutional clients and has a presence in ten African countries . In terms of property they invest in South African , African , Emerging Markets and Global listed and also do direct property investments .
On 1 June 2016 Ben was appointed as CEO of Sanlam Alternatives , which includes single manager hedge funds , Africa investments , private equity and direct property investments . On listed property they focus on developed markets and emerging markets including Property Exchange Traded Funds ( ETF ’ s ).
ABOUT BEN
Age : 46 Marital status : Married with a daughter aged 16 What are you reading at the moment ? My Own Liberator – Dikgang Moseneke What is your life motto ? Live inspired and Care

Q & A

1How did you first become involved in the property industry ? I first became involved in the property industry when I got appointed to lead Old Mutual Properties as Managing Director . My appointment was firstly to provide succession to Ian Watt who had successfully lead the diversification of the property portfolio into the retail sector and established some of the first Super Regional Shopping Centres in South Africa . Secondly , I was tasked with growing Old Mutual ’ s property portfolio . The journey saw us significantly growing the property portfolio from around R4bn of assets to circa R32bn of assets at the peak . We acquired properties , bought property companies such as Marriott and developed a lot of our properties to make them relevant and attractive to tenants . We also diversified our property portfolio to other geographies such as Namibia , Saudi Arabia and India .

2Share any highlights and insights gained during your career journey . From an industry perspective , property requires a partnership between industry and government ( national , provincial and local ) given the size of the industry and its impact on the economy . The advocacy that SAPOA and the industry does to align objectives , remove roadblocks and establish relationships with the public sector is important and vital for the success of the industry .

The property industry is about relationships with all those involved in it . It is largely a transactional environment in most aspects of it . Time spent establishing and maintaining relationships with the key players is vital for success .
Transformation has been a key priority for many years with mixed achievements of what is needed . Progress has been made in other areas but ownership of the sector by black people and women as well as leadership of property companies still has a long way to go .
Property is about detail . The more we educate ourselves on the different aspects of the property value chain , the more we can better design , develop and manage our built environment . The various performance benchmarks by the likes of MSCI ( IPD ) have gone a long way to enable efficient management of our property portfolios to enhance yield and return for investors as well as better transaction values of properties through better information that is now accessible .
Property is about a conscious evolution . The establishment of the Green Building Council and the work that has gone into educating and establishing standards for our built environment will do lots for the industry and society in terms of efficient
BENS ’ PROPERTY INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY
1 Always do your homework before investing . Whether you are acquiring a business , a property , doing a development , read as much as you can about the opportunity and understand the environment surrounding the opportunity .
2 Understand the numbers and make sure the investment case makes sense and you understand the sensitivities behind the assumptions you have made .
3 Buy or partner with people who have skin in the game and a vested interest in the success of the venture and people that you can trust and have a demonstrable track record . 4 Invest in what you know . 5 Diversification , diversification , diversification
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