Hammerson to pursue secondary listing on JSE

Shoppers use a walkway to enter the Selfridges & Co department store, part of the Bullring shopping center, operated by Hammerson Plc. Hammerson Plc owned 5.3 billion pounds of real estate at the end of last year, 86 percent of it malls or retail parks in Britain and France. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Shoppers use a walkway to enter the Selfridges & Co department store, part of the Bullring shopping center, operated by Hammerson Plc. Hammerson Plc owned 5.3 billion pounds of real estate at the end of last year, 86 percent of it malls or retail parks in Britain and France. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Published Jul 26, 2016

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Johannesburg - Hammerson, a FTSE 100 European retail property specialist, plans to pursue a secondary inward listing of all its shares on the main board of the JSE.

Echo Polska Properties, in which JSE-listed Redefine Properties holds a strategic 49.9 percent stake, yesterday reported its intention to list on the JSE in September, after listing on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) next month.

Hammerson also hopes to list on the JSE in September.

David Atkins, the chief executive of Hammerson, said the listing on the JSE was in response to growing demand and would allow Hammerson to access a wider pool of international capital.

Improve liquidity

“Our register already includes a highly diversified global shareholder base, including a number of South African funds and this listing is expected to further extend the depth and spread of investors and improve liquidity for existing shareholders,” he said.

Hammerson is one of the UK’s leading retail real estate investment trusts with a £9 billion (R168bn) portfolio of retail and leisure destinations.

In its financial year to December, Hammerson delivered a total property return of 12.4 percent and grew its dividend a share in the five years to December by 7.7 percent compound annual growth rate.

Hadley Dean, the chief executive of Echo Polska Properties, said the company’s planned listing on the LuxSE and the JSE was expected to provide it with significantly improved access to expansionary capital and provide shareholders with an opportunity to invest in a dynamic and highly-attractive economy.

Dean stressed the listing was aimed at Echo raising new equity capital to fund acquisitions and the existing shareholders would not be exiting their investment on the listing.

The value of Echo’s initial portfolio six offices and 10 retail properties at the end of last month was e1.2bn (R18.8bn).

Dean said Echo had the potential to double in size over the next two years.

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