Pretoria - Hyprop, the listed retail property fund, expects its interim dividend a share for the six months to December to be between 15 percent and 17 percent higher than in the previous corresponding period.
This equates to an interim dividend a share of 342.8cents and 348.4c for this reporting period compared with 297.8c in the prior period.
Hyprop said on Friday that the distribution growth was enhanced in the reporting period largely by the inclusion of distributable earnings from investments in south-eastern Europe, none of which was included in the prior interim period to December 2015.
The company in March last year took its first step towards expanding to emerging markets outside of Africa with the acquisition of a 60 percent interest in two shopping malls in Serbia and Montenegro.
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It envisages growing the size of its central and eastern European property portfolio to between six and eight shopping malls valued at e1 billion (R13.64 billion) over the next five years.
Hyprop expects to release its interim financial results on March 3.