Mar 24 2004 11:05:40:537AM

Nedcor's wholly-owned subsidiary Century City (Pty) Ltd has sold the property owning, construction and development business of Century City.

Johannesburg - South African banking group Nedcor's wholly-owned subsidiary Century City (Pty) Ltd has sold the property owning, construction and development business of Century City (Pty) Ltd to the Rabie Group for R118m.

In terms of the agreement, which is subject to certain suspensive conditions being fulfilled, the Rabie Group will acquire all the undeveloped land and associated development rights at Century City. Transfer is expected to take place within the next few months, Nedcor said in a statement on Wednesday.

Nedcor will retain options to participate in specific future development projects in a joint venture with Rabie and will be afforded opportunities to finance future developments.

This follows last year's sale of the Canal Walk shopping centre to a consortium comprising Hyprop Investments and the Ellerine Brothers.

The Ratanga land and buildings are included in the agreement and will be transferred to the Rabie Group within two years. The Ratanga Junction rides, which have operated in the summer months on a break-even basis, are not included in the sale.

The Rabie Group will assume the future development of the Villa Italia apartment complex, which has been successfully pre-sold by Century City (Pty) Ltd in recent months.

All staff in the affected divisions will transfer with the businesses that have been sold.

The Rabie Group, which is the largest independent commercial and residential property developer in the Western Cape with a 25 year track record in the industry, is already a significant developer at Century City having launched a R400m luxury sectional title project, The Island Club, last year.

Tom Boardman, CEO of Nedcor, said that the sale was in line with Nedcor's strategy of focussing on its core banking operations and disposing of non-core assets.