Acsion builds a portfolio worthy of a bourse listing

Published Nov 26, 2014

Share

Roy Cokayne

ACSION, a specialist property developer and owner, plans to list on the main board of the JSE on December 9.

Prior to listing, the company plans to raise a maximum of R200 million via an initial private placement with institutional and qualifying retail investors and clients of selected stock-broking firms.

The private placement opened last Thursday and closes on Friday.

Acsion is offering 19.8 million shares for a subscription range between R10.10 and R10.80 a share.

If the offer is fully subscribed, Acsion at the time of listing will have between 413.47m and 414.76m fully paid shares, giving it a market capitalisation of at least R4.2 billion.

Acsion’s existing portfolio comprises six properties heavily weighted towards retail with a total gross lettable area of 188 416m2 and independently valued at R3.2bn.

It includes two Gauteng regional malls, Mall@Carnival in Brakpan and Mall@Reds in Centurion, and three prominent community malls – Mall@Eba in eMbalenhle in Mpumalanga, Mall@Lebo in Lebowakgomo, Limpopo, and Moreleta Square in Moreleta Park in Pretoria.

The remaining property in the current portfolio is the Simarlo Rainbow light industrial development in Centurion.

The current 119 416m2 development pipeline comprises seven secured development opportunities, with the roll-out expected to take place over a three-year period from listing.

Acsion expects these properties on completion to add scale to its developed investment portfolio, provide sectoral diversification into residential and student accommodation, and geographic diversification within South Africa.

Projects being developed for ownership include phase three of Mall@Carnival, Mall@Moutsiya in Limpopo, phase one of Mall@Ruimte in Centurion, Development@Benmore in Sandton and phase one of Commercial@Ruimte in Centurion.

Two projects developed for sale include Residential@Moutsiya and Hyde Park Terrace.

The fair value of the developing pipeline is currently estimated at R339.6m but over time was expected to contribute about R865m to the NAV of Acsion.

Future possible development opportunities include the co-development of a 50 000m2 regional shopping centre in Maputo in Mozambique; the co-development of up to 20 000m2 of office space in the Manda Hill Shopping Mall precinct in Lusaka in Zambia; and the co-development of 15 870m2 of luxury residential accommodation in Sandown in Sandton.

Kiriakos Anastasiadis, the founder and chief executive of Acsion, said yesterday the listing would mark the next evolution in their quest for growth.

“We have a 17-year history of identifying and extracting value from development opportunities. Our track record speaks for itself and we have increased Acsion’s net asset value by more than 100 percent a year over the past 10 years.

“This listing will provide investors with a unique opportunity to participate in sustained capital growth prospects and invest in a specialist property developer and owner on the exchange.”

The intention of the listing is to provide Acsion with a platform from which to accelerate future growth opportunities, particularly as its current gearing of 7 percent is exceptionally low for the sector and provides significant headroom for growth.

Related Topics: