Listed property loan stock company ApexHi Properties said on Wednesday it had acquired nine properties from Old Mutual for R137m.

But the company said it had kept five of the properties acquired and already sold four which did not meet its investment criteria.

The four, which were sold for R28m, included three office properties in Pretoria, as well as one in Parktown, Johannesburg.

ApexHi CEO Gerald Leissner said on Wednesday the acquisitions, effective from September 1, were all "revenue enhancing" and were bought at a forward yield of 12,5%.

The five properties which ApexHi would be keeping include two retail properties with 55,000m? of space, situated in Wynberg in Johannesburg and Kempton Park .

Another property in this portfolio is a mixed-use property consisting of retail and office space in Somerset West, Western Cape.

Two of the five properties are industrial properties in Midrand and in Aeroton, Johannesburg, with a total of 26,000m?.

Leissner said there had been about 2,000m? of vacant space at the Kempton Park retail property called Kempton Square when the property was acquired.

"We have let most of the vacant space in the Kempton Park centre already," he said.

Leissner said the retail centre in Wynberg was fully let.

He said ApexHi aimed to acquire properties worth about R1bn in the financial year to June 2007.

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