Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa October 2016 | Page 46

LISTED PROPERTY FUNDS Need funds for your Property Portfolio? Listing on the Stock Exchange BY JACQUES MAGLIOLO A fter 16 years as corporate strategist and advisor to multinationals around the world, I repeatedly get the same response when I suggest that clients should “Stop messing around with private investors and just list your business.” Their reaction is often “My business is too small” or “Are you crazy – nobody would want my shares.” Both reactions are naïve and simply not true. To raise capital from private equity, for that matter, takes as long as it does to list. And you have to jump through as many hoops. The difference is that once your business is listed, you have access to a market through shares, whereas private equity will make you jump with every new funding you want. So, it may take six months to list your property portfolio, but it will be the answer to your current and future funding headaches. 44 OCTOBER 2016 SA Real Estate Investor The Four Phases of Listings The first step in the process is to appoint a corporate advisor to prepare your business for a listing, which coincidentally will professional your skills, business and corporate structure so that if you ultimately decide not to list, you will find that your corporate governance will attract business from the international market. So, get yourself a corporate advisor to guide you step-by-step through the four phases to prepare you for a listing. The First phase is for the advisor to conduct thorough due diligence. The aim is to determine how your business compares to global and regional best practice. As such, research is conducted on, among other: • Global, Regional and South African industry, market and similar companies to analyse your competitors, which enables your advisor to www.reimag.co.za