LISTED property stocks had a reasonable showing in the Financial Mail’s top empowerment companies index for this year, with a several funds making it onto the top 185 empowered companies list.

The transformation drive in the property industry is gathering momentum. With the keenly awaited property charter due out in June this year, analysts are expecting a great deal more activity from the listed property sector.

Among the companies that featured in the empowerment index were listed property loan stock companies Spearhead (ranked 97th), Growthpoint (166th), Pangbourne (178th) and Resilient (163rd). Listed property unit trust Martprop (176th) also featured.

The Financial Mail’s criteria included black economic empowerment in ownership structures and management, and also focused on employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, enterprise development and corporate social investment.

The property companies that featured scored the majority of their points on black economic empowerment in management structures. None of them scored highly when it came to empowerment in ownership structures.

Spearhead was the top empowered company of the listed property stocks.

The fact that Spearhead is involved in a major empowerment deal at the moment was not taken into account. Last month Spearhead CE Mike Flax announced that his company had negotiated deals which would result in 25% of its shareholding being in black hands.

The transactions will make the company the most empowered in the South African listed property sector.

Spearhead CEO Mike Flax says all three of its equity deals will have been completed by the end of the month. These transactions should push Spearhead further up the Financial Mail list next year.

One company overlooked was listed property unit trust Capital Property Fund. Until Spearhead’s transactions are finalised, Capital Property Fund is the most empowered property fund on the JSE Securities Exchange SA’s real estate index.

In July last year, Cyril Ramaphosa’s Shanduka Properties acquired 5% of Capital.

Shanduka also acquired a 50,4% interest in Property Fund Managers, the asset management company of Capital in a black economic empowerment deal facilitated by Old Mutual.