Johannesburg - Redefine Properties, South Africa’s second-biggest property company by market value, said first-half earnings advanced 8 percent as a weak rand boosted income from foreign investments.
Interim distribution, or earnings per share excluding non- cash adjustments, rose to 36.4 cents from 33.7 cents a year earlier, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement today.
Revenue increased 36 percent to 2.22 billion rand.
“The rand hedges in our portfolio made a strong contribution to results, with our offshore assets comprising 14.7 percent of our total property base,” chief executive Marc Wainer said in a e-mailed statement today.
The gain comes amid a challenging domestic market and increases in utility costs, the company said.
Redefine, which holds assets of 44.5 billion rand, has about 4 billion rand of acquisitions in progress and the company said it has increased its stake in Fountainhead Property Trust to 66 percent.
“We are on track to deliver similar growth in distributable income per linked unit for the second half of 2014,” Wainer said.
Redefine shares have gained 1.1 percent this year, giving the company a market value of 30.3 billion rand.
That compares with a 0.1 percent increase for Growthpoint Properties, the country’s biggest real estate company. - Bloomberg News