The Group declared a final dividend of US$ 4.43 cents, bringing the total dividend for the year to US$11.28 cents per share.
“Delta International is pioneering direct property investment into Africa’s high-growth economies and we are very satisfied with the underlying performance of the assets and the distributions achieved to date.
The group successfully bolstered its asset base in Mozambique, migrated to the JSE main board and bedded down Anfa Place mall in Morocco.
“South African investors are increasingly appreciating our investment case offering consistent high yielding, dollar based returns and exposure to the burgeoning real estate market on the continent as more countries adopt legislation to facilitate real estate investment trusts, or REITS. Apart from the obvious rand hedge, local investors also pay a lower marginal tax rate on foreign dividends,” commented Mr Sandile Nomvete, Chairman of Delta International.
On 10 July 2015, Delta International successfully concluded its migration to the main board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (“JSE”) in South Africa. It is dual listed Stock Exchange of Mauritius (“SEM”).
This migration to the main board triggered an investment by South Africa’s largest institutional investor, the Public Investment Corporation, who currently holds 25.87% of the Company.
Delta International successfully raised US$127.1 million during the year under review through the issue of new shares. The proceeds of the capital raises were utilised to fund the acquisition of the Vodacom Building, Zimpeto Square and to retire a portion of debt associated with the completed acquisition of the Hollard Building. All these assets, including the Anadarko Building which was the first asset introduced into the portfolio, are based in Maputo, Mozambique and are in line with the investment criteria of sustainable income from high quality tenants.
Anfa Place retail centre in Casablanca, Morocco, is performing well with vacancies improving monthly as a result of management continuing to work with the centre management on bedding down the asset in order to optimise its full potential. McDonald’s has recently been signed up as a new tenant and the much anticipated opening of the adjacent Four Season’s hotel in September 2015 should see further reductions in vacancies and potential uplift in the footfall.
Delta International furthermore announced the appointment of Ms Bronwyn Corbett as its new Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect. Ms Corbett is a founder member of the Company and prior to her appointment served as a non-executive director on the board. She is also a significant investor in Delta International in her private capacity.
“On behalf of the board we congratulate Ms Corbett on her new position and express our appreciation for her input and dedication shown during the interim period,” Mr Nomvete commented.
With its initial assets bedded down, Delta International’s strategy is to acquire assets that provide a sustainable income stream from high-quality tenants across the continent (excluding South Africa) while maintaining an accretive distribution over the long term.
“Our immediate focus will be to capitalise on the brand awareness and footprint in the existing jurisdictions of Morocco and Mozambique that has provided us with a large pipeline of assets. As management we’ll apply our collective know-how to select the highest yielding assets within the scope of our investment criteria.
“We are also considering Mauritius as our next target jurisdiction, where our focus will be on properties with strong counter party tenants,” Ms Corbett added.