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Fourways Mall. Picture: SUPPLIED
Fourways Mall. Picture: SUPPLIED

JSE-listed Accelerate Property Fund, the co-owner of Fourways Mall, has once again delayed publishing its financial results, raising fears in the market that all is not well with the company’s books.

The group on Wednesday said it now expected to release its results in the next few days.

“Shareholders and noteholders are referred to the Sens announcement released ... on July 9 2024 and are advised that there is a further postponement of the publication of the company’s audited financial results for the year ended March 31 2024,” the company said.

“The postponement remains due to a delay in the finalisation of the audited annual financial statements for the year ended March 31 2024 and the auditors’ sign-off thereon. It is anticipated the financial results will be released by no later than July 21 2024.”

Aeon Investment Management chief investment officer Asief Mohamed said developments at Accelerate were concerning.

“Delaying the publishing of financial results can be a red flag of potential governance issues and lack of oversight. Earlier this year, Accelerate Property Fund had to raise a R200m rights issue that was used to repay debt,” he said. “A major shareholder in Accelerate may also have defaulted on a loan, which resulted in Investec Bank owning about 8% of Accelerate Property Fund.”

His concern was shared by Opportune Investments founder Chris Logan, who said: “This sends a message that the company is far from being optimally managed and that there are possibly serious problems causing the delay.”

Accelerate owns half of Fourways Mall, SA’s largest mall with a gross lettable area of 178,000m2 and more than 350 stores. Gross lettable area is the space in a commercial building that can actually be rented by a tenant.

The other half is owned by Azrapart.

The R8bn Fourways Mall was given a facelift just a year before Covid-19 rocked SA and the world, hurting most consumer-facing businesses. The redevelopment nearly tripled the mall in size from 64,000m2.

Accelerate and Azrapart in May scored a victory in their R1bn interruption of business claim against some of SA’s biggest insurance groups over lockdown restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Accelerate owns other assets in the Fourways node, including BMW Fourways, Cedar Square, The Buzz Shopping Centre and Waterford, as well as Portside in Cape Town.

Makwe Masilela of Makwe Fund Managers said Accelerate must get its house in order. “It’s a bad reflection because the delay simply means investment decisions will be made on outdated information and preparing annual financial statements or interim statements shouldn’t be a difficult thing for them as they’re expected to keep management accounts, and often a delay is a sign of possible troubles.”

Junior miner Salungano was the latest company to delay its financial results. Professional services firm KPMG severed ties with Salungano, which supplies coal to Eskom, for failing to meet its “risk evaluation criteria”.

KPMG, in its independent auditor’s report for Salungano’s year to end-March 2023, gave a disclaimer opinion, essentially meaning the auditing firm is distancing itself from providing any opinion related to the financial statements.

khumalok@businesslive.co.za

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