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Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za SIRIUS Real Estate, owner of business and industrial parks in Germany, has acquired Helix Investments, holding company of BizSpace, for £245 million (R4.96 billion) cash as it enters the UK market for the first time. Sirius also yesterday announced a £135m capital raise, which will include an offer of shares to UK, South African and other institutional investors, and an offer to UK retail investors. BizSpace is a leading provider of regional flexible workspace, offering light industrial, workshop, studio and out of town office units to a wide range of businesses across the UK. Sirius’ board said in a statement the acquisition was an “attractive and important opportunity” to allow Sirius to enter, at scale, an under-served wider UK market, with a one-step acquisition of…
Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za REDEFINE Properties’ share price surged after a robust balance sheet by the end of the year to August 31 gave it room to resume dividends as well as make an offer for the rest of shares it does not own in Poland’s leading shopping centre group, EPP. Undrawn facilities and cash amounted to R5.8 billion by year-end, while loan-to-value fell to 41.6 percent from 47.9 percent following significant debt reduction. The Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit), one of the most heavily traded shares on the JSE in terms of volume, declared a 60.12 cents dividend, after not paying one for the 2020 year, and lifted net asset value 2.3 percent to 733.24c. “We have used the opportunity of the pandemic to reset…
Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE RAND opened the week at a near two-week high yesterday, breaking below the R15 mark to the US dollar as risk appetite in the markets improved and investors wait for Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s first medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS). At its strongest yesterday the rand reached R14.93 to the dollar before retracting to R15.02 in the afternoon. TreasuryONE currency specialist Andre Cilliers said risk appetite had grown ahead of the MTBPS on Thursday and emerging markets currencies were on the front foot after the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England maintained the dovish stance last week. “A sustained break of the R15 level will bring the R14.85 target into play. This week we have Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s MTBPS to look forward to,” Cilliers…
LAST WEEK I mentioned that Business Report (BR) is investigating a loan by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) into Sunrise Energy via the Mogs group. The PIC’s loan to Mogs is more than R1 billion – indirectly to Sunrise Energy – this loan has not been serviced over a period of five years, according to sources. Mr Sekgoela, PIC media spokesperson, told BR the loan was serviced, but could not provide any evidence by close of business yesterday “on how the loan was serviced”. Sources confirmed that this is not the case. Sunrise Energy also received a loan from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to the amount of R1bn in 2011. BR queries why Sunrise Energy was not part of the Mpati Commission of Inquiry, even though it is…
Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za DELTA Property Fund, which came out of suspension on the JSE in July, saw its share price rise by more than 24 percent at one stage yesterday after it reported progress to reduce its debt in the six months to August 31. The company lifted its distribution 15.57 percent to 24.86 cents per share in the interim period, but decided not to declare an interim dividend while it continued to reduce its loan-to-value ratio. The share price closed 19.35 percent higher at R0.74 yesterday on the JSE. Interim chief executive Bongi Masinga said Delta had made signifi- cant traction with its debt reduction programme. Four properties were being sold for R176.5 million, the proceeds from which would be to reduce debt. The…
Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za RAUBEX Group performed strongly in the six months to August 31, while the roads, infrastructure and construction materials group’s order books remained robust, chief executive Rudolph Fourie said yesterday. The group lifted headline earnings per share by 615 percent to 137 cents in the six months to August compared with 26.6c per share headline loss at the same time a year before. Revenue increased 52 percent to R5.99 billion. Operating profit shot up to R435.2 million from R21.7m. But Fourie said these results were not strictly comparable because of the impact of the pandemic in the first half of 2020. Headline earnings a share, however, when compared with the second half of the 2020 financial year, which was a more normal trading…
