The new MD of property loan-stock company Pareto Ltd insists on mixing his own caf latte from froth and espresso served separately. Alex Phakathi (39) is a man whose thoughts are precise and, like his coffee, carefully blended.

Pareto is an unlisted company with an unashamed preference for big shopping centres. Its multibillion-rand portfolio consists of seven regional malls in SAs three largest cities. Apart from a minority stake in Sandton City, Pareto has majority holdings in Southgate, Cresta, Westgate and Southgate Value Mart in Johannesburg, Tyger Valley in Cape Town and the Pavilion in Durban.

The fund is 60% owned by the Eskom pension fund and 40% by the Public Investment Commissioners.

Though he is the head of one of the largest retail property funds, Phakathi never intended getting into property to begin with. Like all good BCom students, I wanted to be an accountant, he laughs.

But during his BCom studies at Wits University, he took a filler course in property economics and that changed his destiny.

Once he was bitten by the property bug, Phakathi crafted a three-part career plan. His first aim was to get property development experience, before immersing himself in property management. The final step was to work in corporate finance.

I reckoned I'd need all three aspects to be a rounded property practitioner, he says. And over the past decade, he has brought that plan to fruition.

After graduating with majors in business economics and economics, he worked for Engen, where he learnt about site assessment and how to compile feasibility studies for new service stations.

By 1995, Phakathi wanted to widen his exposure beyond service stations, so he joined Eskom Properties as the national head of commercial property management.

With the first two stages in his plan fulfilled, he cast around for opportunities in corporate finance. In 1999, he was appointed a corporate finance consultant to Eskom and then a director of Motraco (Mozambique Transmission Co), which buys electricity from SA and sells it to Mozal in Mozambique.

Motracos asset base tops $140-milllion and the company has an annual turnover of about $80-milllion. Talk about diving into the deep end of corporate finance.

It was all part of the plan, Phakathi grins.

So when the position of MD of Pareto came up, he felt ready to take the challenge. His thinking on Pareto, its portfolio and its future path are well mapped.

There is much property industry talk of major institutional listings. But though Pareto is considering a listing, Phakathi says it is not his priority right now.

Of all the plums in the Pareto portfolio, Phakathi is most upbeat about Southgate in southern Johannesburg, which he says has already undergone what all SA shopping centres will eventually undergo: real transformation in shopper profile.

Its an issue close to his heart and he says he sees Pareto as an investment vehicle capable of driving transformation, something he intends to focus on during his time at the helm.

Phakathi is one of several recent high-powered appointments at property institutions (Property November 5). And he believes strongly in the need for empowerment through wider property ownership. Now we have a real voice, we need to use it and speak out, he says.

Teaching is Phakathis other passion and hes a born pedagogue. Throughout the interview, as he speaks he pulls out a pen and paper to sketch his ideas for me more clearly. When Wits University asked him to take over the property investment course in 1997, he jumped at the chance.

Though Phakathi had to stop his lecture programme because of the travel demands made on him by Motraco, hes determined to return to the classroom eventually.

And, as Ive come to expect, he has a plan. When I retire, Ill return to academic life, he says.

In anticipation of this, he has registered for a PhD under the tutelage of property doyen Prof Chris Cloete of the University of Pretoria. The core of his thesis is an econometric model that explains the determinants of shopping centre rentals.

For a corporate executive, he already has an impressive list of seminar papers and publications, covering topics from property syndications to the rental gradient in Johannesburg. His MCom, which he completed in 2001, examined the opportunities for outsourcing property management in the local marketplace. He presented a paper on his findings at the American Real Estate Society conference in 2001.

Phakathi and his wife, Charity, have a nine-year-old son, Thami, and a four-yearold daughter, Zaba.

But he probably doesnt see as much of them as he would like to, because he is also president of the African Real Estate Society, a pan-African organisation that fosters property research and academic contact across the continent. Its part of the global International Real Estate Society network.

He serves, too, on the board of the SA Property Owners Association, the industry organisation for commercial and industrial property. And he is a member of the Institute of Black Property Professionals and the SA Institute of Directors.

Unsurprisingly, Phakathi finds little time for his other hobby, golf. But my golf clubs look very decorative in my study, he laughs.

Financial Mail
Publisher: Business Day
Source: Business Day