THABANG MOKOPANELE

Property Editor

HUGE transformation and black economic empowerment (BEE) issues still need to be addressed in the property sector because of the under-representation of black professionals, according to Redefine Properties executive director Brian Azizollahoff.

In an interview yesterday, Azizollahoff, head of SA’s second largest listed property group, said not enough black professionals had entered the property sector in the past decade because the skills “are not there”.

He said “listed property companies should drive enterprise development initiatives which will go a long way in addressing under representation of black professionals in the sector”.

“I don’t think the BEE strategy was a right strategy. All traditional BEE transactions have gone under the water and the property sector needs to take a different route if it is to succeed,” he said.

In October 2007, Redefine concluded an empowerment deal which resulted in just less than 10% of the issued units going to empowerment parties.

The Department of Trade and Industry’s codes and the property charter put emphasis on skills development as well as ensuring that previously disadvantaged people are able to acquire assets.

Azizollahoff said Redefine was running two functional enterprise development initiatives in which suitable partners were secured and new companies formed, with the partners having a majority of 51% and the group owning 49%.

“Through our enterprise development initiatives, the group actively participates in skills transfer and training and provides knowledge and resources to its partners,” he said.

The question was how to balance shareholders’ interests with those of transformation, he said.

“How do you maintain an acceptable ownership in listed property companies? There has to be a lot of thought on how to deal with the issue of dilution … ”

The long-awaited property charter is still being promulgated, and key industry players and the government are still in talks.

The charter requires that in five years, 25% of the total equity of property companies must be owned by blacks.

Azizollahoff said the challenge for the property sector was to attract young black professionals and to transfer skills.

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Source: Business Day