Ascension grows asset base to R2.3 billion since JSE listing

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“We set a portfolio growth target of R1 billion per annum, and comfortably exceeded this in our first year”, said Shaun Rai, Executive Director and one of Ascension Properties’ founder shareholders. “We set a portfolio growth target of R1 billion per annum, and comfortably exceeded this in our first year”, said Shaun Rai, Executive Director and one of Ascension Properties’ founder shareholders.

Marking their first year after listing on Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Ascension Properties Limited today reported that its asset base has increased by R1,5 billion to R2,3 billion.

The black managed and substantially black owned property loan stock company’s portfolio is expected to grow to over R3,3 billion once recent acquisitions have been transferred.

The fund has shown phenomenal growth since listing in June 2012 and has delivered on all its objectives set twelve months ago. 

The quality of the portfolio has improved with the average value per building increasing to R122 million whilst vacancies have remained constant at around 8%.

To date the fund has delivered total returns (income distributions and capital growth) of 29% to their A-linked unitholders and 42% to their B-linked unitholders. 

“We set a portfolio growth target of R1 billion per annum, and comfortably exceeded this in our first year”, said Shaun Rai, Executive Director and one of Ascension Properties’ founder shareholders. 

“By sticking to our acquisition strategy of focusing on acquiring predominantly government-tenanted buildings centrally located in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town, with market or under-market related rentals at yield accretive prices, we have managed to not only grow the size and quality of our portfolio but also to provide superior returns to our unitholders.  At the same time, strong market and unitholders support have allowed us to follow a conservative gearing and interest rate strategy with the majority of our debt at fixed interest rates for three years,” he said.

“Our successful growth to date, together with yield-accretive acquisitions and lower cost of capital, have enabled us to recently provide guidance that we expect our distributions per B-linked unit for the 2014 financial year to improve from 21.29 cents to 22.5 cents per unit, a growth of 20% over the previous year,” said Mr Rai.

Ascension’s market capitalisation has increased by R1,1 billion to R1,9 billion.

In February, the company reported increase in its distribution for the six months ended 31 December 2012 of 3.17 cents per A-linked unit and 1.43 cents per B-linked unit, propelled by a solid performance by its property portfolio.


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