Lodestone upbeat on distribution growth

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Recently listed Lodestone Reit manages to grow its diversified portfolio to 22 properties valued at R1.013bn by the end of March.

RECENTLY listed Lodestone Reit managed to grow its diversified portfolio to 22 properties valued at R1.013bn by the end of March, the company showed in its financial results for the nine months to March, released yesterday.

Lodestone, which is part of the Resilient Property Income Fund stable of companies, was listed at the end of February with a focus on industrial and retail properties in areas that had been underdeveloped including various small towns in SA.

A portion of its income is passed onto Siyakha Education Trust, a black economic empowerment initiative that invests in education in rural SA.

The trust owns nearly 10% of Lodestone’s share capital.

MD Jason Cooper said yesterday he was confident Lodestone would grow its distributions 10% for the year to March next year.

Given market projections, this would be higher than the average growth of the listed property sector across that period.

“We built this portfolio from scratch. We intend to grow it aggressively and I believe the management team’s strong experience especially in finding industrial properties and improving them will hold the fund in good stead,” Mr Cooper said.

Lodestone’s portfolio comprised 58.4% retail and 41.6% industrial properties by value.

Geographically, the properties were located in seven provinces, with 60.2% located in Gauteng and 8,8% in KwaZulu-Natal.

The board declared a dividend of 12.990c per share for the four months to March.

This was in line with the 12.970c per share forecast in the group’s listing prospectus.


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