However, the company delivered pedestrian distribution growth of about 6,1%, to 87c, while several companies that have reported results in the past few weeks have delivered double-digit growth.
CEO James Nunes said the company did not engage in any “property development” and did not buy “vacant buildings for turnaround opportunities”; instead it focused only on “fully tenanted buildings”.
“A lot of the other companies have managed to make development profits and then bring the properties in at higher yields than we are,” said Nunes.
He said this was part of iFour’s strategy to maintain a “low-risk profile” by not engaging in property development or purchasing vacant buildings.
“Based on this strategy we should see sustained growth in distributions.
“We have been able to grow our distributions on a sustained basis and maintain the quality of the portfolio.”
The company said it had received other income of R2,1m and that this related primarily to units it owned in fellow listed property loan stock company Paramount Properties.
IFour said these units were received as part payment for a property it sold during the year.
The company also made four acquisitions totalling R243m during the year, including three newly developed decentralised rural retail centres.
Nunes said the Palm Springs Shopping Centre in Orange Farm was bought for R96,3m.
He said that the 16500m² shopping centre, completed last year, was dominated by national retailers, which made up more than 76% of the centre.
“We have anchors such as Shoprite and Cashbuild with 10-year leases,” said Nunes.
He said iFour had also bought the R61,8m Ziyabuya shopping centre, midway between Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage, as well as a 75% stake in the Kwamashu shopping centre outside Durban.
“Community shopping centres represent 20% of the total portfolio by value and we believe this will give us long-term sustainable growth.”
Nunes said the company had reduced its exposure to offices to 27% of the total portfolio by value, from 33%.
Industrial property makes up approximately 30% of the portfolio by value.
