Clearwater Capital, one of listed property loan stock company ApexHi Properties' empowerment partners, has increased its stake in ApexHi through the acquisition of another 30-million ApexHi C units for R138,5m.

ApexHi CEO Gerald Leissner said yesterday this equated to the acquisition of a further 12% of the C units in ApexHi and Clearwater Capital now owned about 27% of the C units.

The additional C units were acquired from four of the five beneficiaries of ApexHi's other empowerment partner, ApexHi BEE Trust.

Leissner said the transaction allowed the participants in the trust to realise a profit of R74,8m.

The C units made up a third of all the units in ApexHi.

ApexHi also had A and B units which offered different returns and risk.

ApexHi announced in May last year it would be introducing new C class units to facilitate its empowerment deal.

In terms of the new C unit structure, all existing ApexHi A and B unitholders would receive 45 C units for every 100 A units held, and 55 C units for every 100 B units held, at no cost to the existing unitholders.

In term of the empowerment deal, the existing unitholders were obliged to sell 30% of their C units to the empowerment partners at R2 a unit.

About 9% of the voting rights in ApexHi are now held by Clearwater Capital.

Clearwater Capital chairman Harish Mehta, said the company was "delighted to have acted as a catalyst in the transaction" and that it further strengthened its relationship with ApexHi.

ApexHi was well positioned. Its asset base and management team would ensure that exceptional returns would be sustained for some time, said Mehta.