Specialist rural retail property company Diversified Property Fund's maiden distribution for the three months to December is 2,7% ahead of its prospectus forecast.

Diversified, which listed on the JSE in October, on Wednesday announced a distribution of 12,91c a unit.

MD David Lewis said the company was confident the results for the year to June would also be ahead of forecasts.

Since listing, Diversified has been busy on the property acquisition front.

Recently, it acquired Rivonia Village, which is anchored by a Woolworths outlet, for R94 million; the Pick 'n Pay New Redruth in Alberton for R104 million; and a Checkers centre in Queenstown for just over R10 million.

The Checkers centre is adjacent to the existing Bradlows centre, also owned by Diversified.

The company has bold extension plans for its existing property portfolio.

Lewis said plans were underway to expand five of the properties in Diversified's portfolio. Four of these are retail, and one an industrial property.

He said these initiatives were expected to be yield-enhancing.

Diversified said it was evaluating four planned rural retail property developments. The company was going to "stick to larger property developments of preferably more than 15000m²".

It was not focused on increasing its property portfolio size but on growth in distributions.

When it listed, Diversified Property Fund said it would also go into other parts of Africa where it could earn a dollar-based income. It was particularly interested in Zambia and Botswana.

Business Day
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge