Vukile (VKE), which last week announced that it had applied for a dual listing on the Namibian stock exchange (NSX), has expanded its Namibian portfolio through the acquisition of BPI House in Windhoek for approximately 113 million rand.

BPI House is an A-grade office and retail complex in the heart of the Windhoek CBD. It has a total gross lettable area of 12,826m2 and a blue-chip tenant line-up which includes the government of Namibia, Pick 'n Pay, Truworths, Dunns, Engen, Mobile Telecom Company and Ernst & Young. The anticipated net yield is 9.1% in the first year.

Chief executive Gerhard van Zyl said since the Vukile board had decided to expand its presence in Namibia the company had looked at a number of investment opportunities in that country.

He noted that the Namibian economy was buoyant and that with land and construction costs escalating, it was expected that gross office and retail rentals in Windhoek could shortly exceed the R100/m2 level.

\"BPI House, which was recently extensively upgraded, has a prime location between Independence Avenue and Werner List Street, two of the busiest thoroughfares in Windhoek. It also has very good tenants, with more than 70% of the gross rent coming from national companies and government departments, and a low vacancy rate,\" van Zyl said.

Vukile already owns seven commercial properties in Namibia with a combined gross lettable area of some 50,000 m2 and a value of more than 250 million rand. The BPI acquisition increases the company's investment in Namibia to more than 360 million rand.

Van Zyl said the scale of the investment demonstrates Vukile's confidence in Namibia as well as the desirability of a listing on the NSX. The company's total Southern African portfolio is worth almost 4 billion rand