Investment holding
company moves into
education.
It is ten years since Cape Town
property guru Allan Groll and
business partner Arnold Shapiro
picked up cash shell Trematon for
50c/share and turned it into an
investment holding company with a
bent towards property.
Since then the JSE-listed company
has not garnered much attention,
though its share price has quietly
rerated. Trematon has established
a reputation for buying poorly
performing or misunderstood
assets at a discount to net asset
value and making something
of them.
Now might be the time to pay closer
attention to what the company
is doing.
There are several reasons for this.
The West Coast’s Club Mykonos,
which Trematon acquired as a
over the past year. It acquired
the 50% of residential company
Resi Investments that it did not
own from JV partners. It now has
full control of the R350 million
portfolio and by all accounts has
substantially reduced expenses and
boosted revenue.
The new business, in which
Trematon has a 75% stake, is called
Generation Schools. The other 25%
is held by an NGO, the Children’s
Campaign Trust.
Arbitrage Property Fund, in which
Trematon has a 67% stake, has
been rebranded as Aria Property
Fund. Notable acquisitions include
the Redefine North Wharf building
on the Cape Town foreshore;
R200 million worth of commercial
property from Redefine, and
Northgate Island, which i X