The purchase of two shopping centres by Synergy Income Fund Limited, in part through a R234 million loan from Nedbank, further underscores the bank’s commitment to the listed and retail property sectors.

Synergy Income Fund today reported its first condensed annual results, achieving distributions in line with its pre-listing projections and delivering 218% growth in its assets for the six-month trading period ended 30 June 2012

“SA’s lower income market is showing the highest growth in retail demand. Yet formal retail in many rural towns and township markets lags demand, owing to a shortage of quality shopping centres,” says William Brooks, CEO of Synergy Income Fund. This lower income shopping spend is driving higher performance for listed property and IPD research now proves that on a risk adjusted basis, rural/secondary market retail centres are performing strongly

JSE-listed property company Synergy Income Fund Limited announced its maiden distributions to unitholders and closed a heavily oversubscribed vendor placement of R370 million in new capital for the fund.The distribution announced is in line with the projections forecast in the Pre-listing Statement for the company and the successful capital raising will increase the market capitalisation of Synergy to approximately R1.1 billion

“Focused specialisation will be a key driver of sustainable investment performance in the SA listed property sector,” says Synergy Income Fund CEO William Brooks. “ This statment follows the fund's recent acquisitions which reinforce Synergy’s specialised retail offering in the listed property sector. Despite recent rumblings from other listed funds about quitting or at least reducing their rural retail focus in SA, Brooks believes that their focus on the lower LSM high growth market will deliver investor value strengthened by strong operational strategies and controls

Full of Ideas but short on stock, for now...

Synergy Income Fund is a specialised retail property fund with a specific focus on mid-sized community and regional shopping centres that are predominantly in the high-growth low-LSM markets as evidenced by its latest acquisitions

Plans to list South Africa’s first dedicated convenience retail property fund on the JSE Securities Exchange are on track for mid-December following the bourse’s approval

Listed property unit trust SA Corporate Real Estate Fund continues to transform its property portfolio by disposing and acquiring new property assets.