Wendy Hall

Consumer Industries Reporter

INVESTMENT property company Acucap reported a 10,5% growth in distributions for the six months to September, achieving its objective of delivering sustainable growth in distributions a linked unit, the company said at the weekend.

The company said "favourable economic conditions and strong property fundamentals across all sectors" provided much of the impetus for this growth.

The group issued an interim distribution of 79c a linked unit for the six-month period.

No new assets were acquired during the period, but Acucap said it had entered into an agreement for the acquisition of East Rand Value Mall in Boksburg subsequent to the six-month period. Two properties were disposed of during the period, which the group did not consider to be core assets.

The Pick ’n Pay centre in Vredenburg was sold to a Cape syndication fund and the Pick ’n Pay centre in Newton Park, Port Elizabeth, to Diversified Property Fund.

Both of these assets were acquired as part of a package, which centred on the purchase of an undivided share of The Bridge Shopping Centre in Port Elizabeth.

Other retail centres in the company’s portfolio include Festival Mall in Kempton Park, Keywest, Krugersdorp and Atterbury Office Park in Pretoria.

Vacancies across the portfolio amount to 2,7% by gross rental income and 2% by gross lettable area.

This is the seventh consecutive reporting cycle in which Acucap presented vacancies below 3%.

Independent interim valuations commissioned by Acucap disclosed a surplus of R237m and an increase from R15,02 to R17,63 a linked unit in net asset value. The valuations took into account the group’s top five retail assets by value, top five office assets by value and all three of the fund’s industrial properties.

Acucap said the prospects for the household sector of the property market would continue to underpin strong economic growth as long as interest rates remained stable.

Property fundamentals remained sound across all sectors of the commercial market and the group expected distributions a linked unit for the full year to be about 10% higher than they were in the year to March this year.