CAPE TOWN - Nepi Rockcastle, which owns properties in central and eastern Europe, yesterday undertook a 500 million (R8.32 billion) book build for an unsecured bond issue, a statement said.
The funds would be used for general corporate purposes, including acquisitions, property developments, refinancing and working capital management.
The group, which focuses on dominant retail properties, has a portfolio valued at 6.1bn. The new bonds will mature in October 2026. The group had undertaken another 500m bond issue in May this year.
In its results for the six months to end-June 2019, loan to value was conservative at 35percent. Distributable earnings of 29.02 euro cents per share for the first half were 9.6percent higher than the first half of 2018. It forecast an increase in distributable income of around 6percent for the full year, over that of 2018.
Its property development pipeline, including redevelopments and extensions, exceeded 1.2bn, of which 240m was spent by June 2019.
Of the remaining investments, only 18percent have been committed, which the group said had provided flexibility regarding prioritisation of the projects. The share price closed 0.76percent up at R134.52 on the JSE yesterday.