AFTER 35 years as a listed property company on the JSE Securities Exchange SA, iProp Holdings, formerly known as Rand Mine Properties until a name change in 1999, will be delisted on July 14 and voluntarily wound up.

 This followed a management buyout by Clidet, a company formed by the management of iProp Holdings. An offer of R67m for the assets and liabilities of the company, as well as 7-million iFour linked units was accepted by shareholders on Monday, iProp Holdings MD Petro Heydenrych said yesterday.

 She said iProp Holdings, which had a market capitalisation of R94m, used to have both a property investment portfolio and land development business. The property investment business was sold to iFour in June last year, of which part of the purchase price was paid in iFour linked units, leaving just the land development business.

 She said it was decided to delist and unwind the group as iProp shares were only trading at R2,85, following the unbundling of the property portfolio.

 There was also no liquidity or tradeability because the shares were very tightly held, Heydenrych said.

 "It was a very small company and the cost of listing was too high," she said.

 The revenue from the land development business "varied greatly from period to period", which had negatively affected the group.

 Heydenrych said the members of Clidet, the management buy-out company, included herself, Richard Bennet, John Martin and Coleen du Preez.

 The holding company would not be left with any assets, other than the proceeds from the sale, she said. Heydenrych said that shareholders would receive a cash dividend in liquidation of R4,02 a share, and the 7-million iFour linked units would be distributed to them. A circular sent to shareholders said if shareholders decided to sell their iFour linked units they would ultimately receive a dividend of R6,18.

 Heydenrych said that iProp, the unlisted subsidiary, would keep its name and it intended to remain focused on land development.

 IProp Holdings also announced its results for the six months to March 31 this year, showing a loss of R500000 in land sales. In the corresponding period a year ago it showed a R1m profit, the company said yesterday. It said the main reason for this was that guarantees on significant concluded sales had not yet been received. The group also reported a drop in revenue to R15,7m during the period.

 Heydenrych said this was not, however, comparable with the corresponding period last year because the group still held the property portfolio at the time and had been receiving revenue from it for most of the prior financial year.

 The group reported a headline loss a share of 0,1c for the period, from 33c a share a year ago. The company said the operating profit of R1,3m was not comparable with the operating profit of R17m achieved in the previous year because of the sale of the property investment portfolio to iFour.