Roy Cokayne
FOLLOWING a rights issue, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), the largest pension fund in Africa, now owns 25 percent of Delta International Property Holdings.
Delta has a primary listing on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius and a secondary listing on the JSE’s alternative exchange.
Last month, Delta International raised $39 million (R459m) through the issue of 26.35 million new ordinary shares through a private placement. It said on Friday that the equity raised had brought in additional shareholders, including the PIC.
The company has embarked on a strategy of acquiring a portfolio of African real estate assets, excluding assets situated in South Africa, in line with its objective of investing in real estate assets that will provide strong sustainable income from high quality tenants.
The proceeds of the capital raising will be used to fund the acquisition of the Vodacom Building and Zimpeto Square in Maputo, Mozambique, and to retire a portion of debt associated with the completed acquisition of the Hollard Building, also in Maputo.
Delta said the group had commenced applications with the Mozambique Central Bank for the approval of a foreign loan to be brought into Mozambique to complete the acquisition of the Vodacom Building and Zimpeto Square.
The group last month completed the acquisition of the Hollard Building from HM&K Properties for $14.9m. It said it was committed to progressively increasing its portfolio.
But the group stressed that in the short term it would continue to be focused on increasing its investments in Mozambique and Morocco.
Delta, reporting on the three months and nine months to March, said the Anadarko Building in Mozambique was operating as expected and remained 100 percent occupied.
Attractive returns
It added that the day-to-day management of the property had bedded down and it was generating attractive returns on capital.
Delta said the development of phase two of the Anadarko Building was expected to commence by the end of this year and, in addition to the net rental income to be generated on the leased building, the group would share in the development fee without taking any development risk.
Meanwhile, Anfa Place in Morocco was performing well with vacancies improving monthly, it said.
Delta said although the Moroccan dirham had lost significant value against the US dollar since July last year, the Moroccan economy still provided a strong investment case.
Delta’s assets in Morocco made a loss of $6.79m in the three months to March, and a loss of $10.29m in the nine months to March.
The group’s assets in Mozambique made a profit of $3.36m in the three months to March and profit of $10.15m in the nine months to March. This resulted in a loss of $1.9m in the three months to March and a loss of $1.56m in the nine months to March.
It reported a headline loss a share of 14.1c for the three months to March and a headline loss per share of 36.04c in the nine months to March.
The shares on the JSE were unchanged on Friday from the previous close of R19.