How Resilient’s crown slipped
The cause of property group Resilient’s current problems has an eerie link with the past. The market is not convinced by the investigation, commissioned by the company, that clears it of share price manipulation — and awaits the findings of a JSE/FSCA probe
The Resilient group of property companies, founded by former lawyer Des de Beer in 2002, has been on the receiving end of a dramatic drubbing in recent months. The cause: a series of damning allegations of illicit share dealing that echo allegations made a decade ago. It’s a nasty turn of events for a group of companies that, until last year, had been billed as darlings of the property sector. For years, De Beer’s companies awed investors by producing growth in dividends (distributions, in property terms) that left rivals in the dust. Among hundreds of properties, the group owns Soweto’s Jabulani Mall, Weskus Mall in the Cape, Durban’s former Clairwood Racecourse and prestigious malls in Romania, Poland and Slovakia. Yet shares in the companies — Resilient, Fortress, Nepi Rockcastle and Greenbay — have fallen by between 15% and 63% this year, erasing R137bn in value. It’s taken a toll on the wider JSE too: investors who indirectly held shares in Resilient through exchange traded fun...
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