This exposure will contribute to the debate about the capacity of property fund managers to handle securities which come in the form of listed property.

In a R125m transaction announced this week, Pangbourne took about 22-million ApexHi A and B linked units in exchange of 18 properties it sold to ApexHi.

Pangbourne already has about 10-million ApexHi A and B linked units acquired in a previous sale transaction.

Pangbourne corporate finance manager, James Ross Stewart, said in the main, the ApexHi deal served the group's strategic objective of focusing on industrial property. The portfolio sold to ApexHi was made up of retail and office buildings located in the Pretoria and Johannesburg central business districts.

Stewart said there were not many cash buyers for CBD property on the market and the transaction represented a good opportunity to reduce exposure in noncore areas and also delivered a good asset ApexHi's linked units.

He said Pangbourne was not planning to hold ApexHi linked units as a long-term investment and would sell them in when the conditions were right.