Listed property loan stock company Pangbourne Properties has reported a respectable growth of 7,3% in distributions for the year to June.

The company said its distribution for the year to June was 103c for each combined unit, compared with 96c in the previous year.

CEO Craig Hutchison said on Friday that the company's fixed office and industrial property portfolio had performed well and that it had also benefited from the "pleasing results" coming out of its associate and subsidiary companies, including iFour Properties, Siyathenga Property Fund and residential property finance company Paforma.

About 80% of Pangbourne's portfolio consists of industrial properties, with offices making up about 20%.

"We have an occupancy of over 96% in the portfolio," said Hutchison.

He said Pangbourne had also negotiated higher rentals on leases on renewal.

Pangbourne's fixed property portfolio is worth about R2,6bn and it also has about R1bn worth of investments in associated companies.

The Pangbourne management team has been beefed up by the inclusion of Rob Wesselo and William Midgley as executive directors.

Midgley, a lawyer by profession, was responsible for managing the legal aspects of the iFour listing in 2002 and Siyathenga listing in August last year, as well as various property acquisitions made by Pangbourne and its associate companies.

Wesselo has a long history in merchant banking and worked for Rand Merchant Bank before joining the Pangbourne group.

Pangbourne, which created the retail-focused Siyathenga Property Fund, said its next strategy would be to create an office-focused fund.

"We see offices as being on the up. Earlier this year we decided to create an office fund," said Hutchison.

He said Pangbourne saw itself as a creator of specialised funds.

"Our overall strategy is to give our investors choice. Investors can invest in a specific focused property fund, such as retail-focused Siyathenga, or they can be exposed to the entire property market by investing in Pangbourne, which has exposure to all property types through its stakes in other companies," said Hutchison.

Pangbourne owns a 36,5% interest in iFour, a 43% interest in Siyathenga and a 70% stake in Paforma.

Pangbourne manages its own properties, as well as the property portfolios of iFour and Siyathenga.

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