The announcement would come as no surprise to the market as the company said on December 5 last year that it planned to sell its entire property portfolio to property loan stock giant ApexHi Properties for R415,3m.

The company said it had decided in favour of ApexHi's unsolicited offer because it would be in the best interests of Shops For Africa unit holders.

The deal was subject to approval by Shops For Africa unit holders at a general meeting on March 12. Shops For Africa will also seek approval for its planned delisting at the meeting.

MD Anton Botha, who was also a director of Catalyst Property Asset Managers, which asset-manages Shops For Africa's property portfolio, said the full proceeds of the disposal, after costs relating to the transaction and winding up had been deducted, would be distributed to unit holders.

Botha said the effective date of the disposal transaction was April 1, and it was estimated that the company would be unwound six months later.

The effect of the transaction would be that 16,4 ApexHi A units and 16,4 ApexHi B units would be distributed for every 100 Shops For Africa units held, he said.

The transaction was beneficial to Shops For Africa unit holders because the proceeds represented a premium on the historic price at which Shops For Africa units had traded.

Angelique de Rauville, MD of listed asset management company Provest, part of Investec Bank, said that in terms of the transaction ApexHi would be diversifying its overall portfolio "out of exclusively CBD properties to include retail properties".

"For Shops For Africa unitholders, this is a cheap entry opportunity into ApexHi, which offers an investment in a larger and more diverse portfolio and a stock that has been more trad able than Shops For Africa."