It said on Thursday that the results had been achieved in a difficult macroeconomic environment with continued fallout from the global credit crisis and the South African economy in recession for most of the period.

Resilient's strategy is to invest in dominant retail centres in non-metropolitan areas tenanted predominantly by national retailers.

These centres outperformed similar centres in metropolitan areas due to customers having lower levels of personal debt and the underpin provided by increases in social spending.

Vacancies in the portfolio remained static at 3.2%.

Most of the currentvacancies are at The Grove and The Galleria which opened during September and November respectively. Vacancies are expected to decline during 2010.

Arrears and bad debts were lower than budgeted and no significant deterioration is anticipated.

"Resilient is taking advantage of the downturn in the construction cycle to enter into contracts to develop new malls with the most reputable and competent construction companies at attractive rates.

"Construction of the 75 000m2 GLA Mall of the North and the 33 000m2 GLA Brits Mall commenced in 2009.

"The board intends to commence construction of Pick `n Pay Tzaneen and Burgersfort Mall before the cycle turns, but this is dependent on delivery of services," the group said.