Lighthouse Properties to raise R500m in accelerated bookbuild

Lighthouse Properties has announced an equity raise, targeting about R500m, to be implemented through an accelerated bookbuild process.

The group, which invests in dominant and defensive malls located in large West European cities, said the bookbuild was now open and it reserved the right to close it at any time and to increase the size of the equity raise subject to demand.

Pricing, allocations and the amount raised would be announced as soon as practicable following the closing of the bookbuild, it said in a statement on Thursday.

The bookbuild is subject to pricing acceptable to Lighthouse. Java Capital is acting as sole bookrunner.

Lighthouse, which owns properties in France, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the UK, said it identified and evaluated opportunities within its strategy and managed its liquidity to be positioned for value accretive opportunities as they arose.

In August the group reported higher headline earnings for the first half, driven by the expansion of its Iberian portfolio. 

Since 2023, Lighthouse has bolstered its portfolio with three new malls, costing the company €387.3m (about R7.5bn). The group’s latest acquisition of Alegro Montijo would result in Lighthouse’s direct property portfolio value rising 60% to €1.03bn since the start of the year. Management also expected to close another acquisition in the last quarter of 2024.  

Its Iberian portfolio, which represented 66% of direct property investment, had driven operational and financial expansion, the group said.

Interim diluted headline earnings per share (HEPS) came in at 0.9 euro cents, up from 0.49 euro cents in the first half of 2023, with most of the gains coming from continuing operations.

With Jacob Webster

mackenziej@arena.africa