Safari Investments’ Namibian mall leaves it in the dust
Semi-rural mall owner Safari Investments has urged investors to wait until 2019 for its dividend to improve
The decision by Safari Investments to buy a mall in Namibia has so far backfired for the group, with the retail centre’s weak performance stunting the company’s dividend. Safari, which owns a portfolio worth R3.2bn that includes eight income-generating retail centres as well as a day hospital in Soweto, saw its dividend per share shrink 26% in the six months to September 2018, from the comparable period in 2017. Recently appointed CEO Dirk Engelbrecht said the Platz Am Meer shopping centre in Swakopmund had experienced a difficult year. Revenue earned at the mall had struggled to grow as the Namibian economy battled to gain momentum and the government there also curtailed spending. A delay in the sale of luxury residential units at the Platz Am Meer development also affected dividends negatively. “We have implemented remedial action for Platz Am Meer and expect to see a turnaround in the future,” Engelbrecht said, adding that a number of others factors had weakened Safari’s dividend...
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