Investec Property Fund is back on the radar and doing rather well
Investec Property Fund’s (IPF) share price hasn’t exactly shot the lights out in recent years. In the two years to July 12 the stock is down about 6%. But the counter has probably been overly punished following the dilutive R7.1bn Zenprop deal that was announced in late 2015.
The transaction, one of the largest concluded by a listed property fund in 2015-2016, nearly doubled IPF’s portfolio at the time, taking total assets from R8.7bn to R17bn. Another transaction that provided further scale was the Griffin deal in 2015, which comprised 22 properties, mostly industrial buildings, from Griffin Holdings for R826m.
Though the R7.1bn acquisition from Zenprop was regarded as a coup for IPF, as it bulked up the fund’s portfolio with a number of quality shopping centres and office blocks, shareholders were not overjoyed that it was going to place a damper, albeit temporary, on dividend growth. The latter slowed from 6.1% for the year ended March 2016 to 2.4% for the year ended March 2017. IPF may also have lost some favour because it hasn’t grown its offshore footprint as aggressively as some of its peers. The fund’s only offshore exposure is to the Australian property market via a R1.3bn stake in sister company Investec Australia Property Fund, which amounts to close to 6% of total assets of R18.8bn. That compares to an average 15%-30% foreign exposure offered by many other SA-based property stocks. In addition, IPF is externally managed by Investec Property, whereas investors nowadays prefer property funds to be internally managed. IPF is likely to start reappearing on investor radars now that t...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.