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Spear REIT

Spear REIT acquires Berg River Business Park in Paarl

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Spear REIT has announced the acquisition of the Berg River Business Park, a 30,000m² multi-let industrial park in Paarl, Western Cape.

The acquisition value is recorded at R182,150,000, with an initial yield to the Spear platform of 9.35%. The transaction will be settled via a Section 42 asset-for-share arrangement, with the sellers receiving the full value of their equity in Spear shares.

Located at 46 Distillery Street, along the Berg River in the Drakenstein Municipality, the Berg River Business Park serves a mix of tenants across the food, agriculture, wine, and clothing sectors. The area forms part of a growing industrial node in the Western Cape and benefits from its proximity to the N1 highway, enhancing logistical efficiency for its tenants.

Key Features of Berg River Business Park:

  • Strategic Access: Proximity to major routes, including Lady Grey Street and the N1 highway.
  • Security Infrastructure: The park features 24-hour security, CCTV surveillance, and electric fencing.
  • Energy Efficiency: This includes solar power generation capacity, reducing energy costs, and reducing environmental impact.
  • Operational Resilience: Offers a power supply capacity of 3,500 kVA and full load-shedding redundancy.
  • Connectivity: Equipped with high-capacity fibre-optic infrastructure.
  • Flexible Industrial Space: Units designed with high clearance, modern amenities, and ample yard areas to support various operational requirements.

Commenting on the acquisition, Quintin Rossi, CEO of Spear REIT, said: “One of the advantages of Spear’s Western Cape focus is that the entire province presents investment opportunities. This high-quality acquisition marks our entry into the Paarl real estate market and our first investment in the well-established industrial node of Paarl Industrial. We are very pleased with the asset type, the tenant mix, and the solid rental growth prospects that this food and agri-logistics park brings to the core Spear portfolio.”

The acquisition marks Spear’s continued strategy to grow its portfolio in high-performing nodes across the Western Cape, with a particular focus on assets that offer income resilience and long-term capital appreciation potential.

Spear REIT’s new Independent Non-Executive Director

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Spear REIT welcomes Joan Solms as Independent Non-Executive Director

Spear REIT Limited (JSE: SEA), a leading real estate investment trust with a dedicated focus on the Western Cape, has announced the appointment of Joan Solms to its board. A distinguished professional in the property industry, Solms joins as an independent non-executive director and member of the audit and risk committee, effective 1 April 2025.

Solms brings significant experience in banking and financial services, particularly within the property sector. A qualified chartered accountant with over two decades of expertise in property and investment banking, she has held several high-profile leadership roles; most recently serving as executive vice president of Standard Bank’s corporate and investment banking division, where she led the Western Cape real estate finance division until November 2024.

Prior to that, Solms served as executive director and chief operating officer of Ingenuity Property Investments Limited, a JSE-listed property investment company. Recognised for her exceptional contributions to the South African property industry, she was named Women’s Property Network’s Professional of the Year in the private sector in 2017.

Commenting on the appointment, Quintin Rossi, CEO of Spear REIT, said:

“We are honoured to welcome Joan to the Spear board. She is a highly respected expert in her field, and her vast experience in the Western Cape property market—particularly in financial services and banking—will add significant value to our team. This appointment comes at a crucial time in Spear’s growth trajectory, and we are excited to have someone of Joan’s calibre join us on this journey.”

Solms reflects on her appointment as a full-circle moment, recalling one of her earliest major banking transactions – assisting the founders of Spear with their initial funding.

“It’s remarkable to see how far Spear has come since those early days. I fondly remember my time at Nedbank in 2011 when I facilitated their initial funding, long before their JSE listing in 2016. Spear’s ethos and commitment to fostering a culture of goodwill, particularly in developing and empowering women in the property sector, resonate deeply with me. I am looking forward to contributing to the company’s continued success.”

Solms’ appointment highlights Spear’s unwavering commitment to maintaining a Board of Directors that are dynamic and experienced professionals with top-tier industry expertise as it continues to expand its presence in the Western Cape real estate market.

Spear REIT FY2025 Pre-Close reflects a transformative year

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Spear REIT Limited (JSE:SEA), the Western Cape-focused real estate investment trust has provided an operational and financial update in its FY2025 pre-close presentation for the period ending 28 February 2025. Spear REIT’s FY2025 stands out in the sector due to its strategic focus and consistent robust financial metrics. The company reported a 13.58% year-on-year increase in portfolio value, reaching R5.26 billion assets under ownership, and maintained a high occupancy rate of 96.02% with a further 100bps increase in occupancies since HY2025. The company remains on track to deliver on its objectives and forecast, reporting impressive performance metrics and continued portfolio growth.

Highlights

  • Portfolio value: 26 billion, reflecting a 13.58% increase year-on-year
  • Market capitalisation increase of 5 billion to R 3.3 billion
  • Loan-to-value (LTV) ratio: 97%
  • Interest coverage ratio (ICR): 34 times
  • Fixed debt ratio: 18%, with an average debt expiry of 24 months
  • Proposed final payout ratio: 95%
  • Portfolio occupancy rate: 02%

At the pre-close presentation, Spear’s CEO, Quintin Rossi, noted: “FY2025 has been a transformative year for us, driven by the success of the new Western Cape portfolio acquisition. Thanks to our regional operating strategy, the portfolio has been successfully stabilised into the core portfolio ahead of schedule and under budget. Our commitment to the Western Cape real estate market has resulted in sustained portfolio growth, high occupancy levels, and strong cash collections.”

Portfolio and operational performance

  • Occupancy:02%, supported by a strong tenant retention strategy
  • Portfolio in-force escalations:34%
  • Renewals and new lets: 86,359m² concluded versus 84,620m² expiring
  • Cash collections:78% year-to-date
  • Rental reversions: Portfolio-wide positive reversion of 52%

CFO Christiaan Barnard added: “Active capital recycling and disciplined financial management have bolstered our balance sheet, ensuring a resilient and sustainable capital structure. Our lower cost of debt and risk mitigation strategies continue to support our financial stability which has been a positive contributor to overall performance during the year.”

Spear has successfully implemented a R1.15 billion portfolio acquisition, significantly enhancing its asset base and bolstering its market presence with this accretive 93 500m2 diversified portfolio acquisition. “With an entrepreneurial management team that remains laser-focused on active asset and portfolio management, the Spear investment team is looking ahead towards the new financial year with approximately R1 billion in new acquisition opportunities currently under review, positioning the company for continued and sustained growth”, announced Rossi

Spear’s organic development pipeline is set to add future value to the core portfolio, with strategic projects aimed at expanding its industrial and mixed-use asset base. The GTX Park in George, a 30,000m² industrial development, is progressing with a total capital investment over 5 years of R400 million. Bravo Park in Blackheath is set to expand to Phase 2 by 7,000m², with an R82 million capital investment. Meanwhile, the Marine Drive mixed-use development in Paarden Eiland, anticipated to commence the rollout in phases, will require a total capital investment of R1.5 billion over five years.

Sustainability remains a core focus, with over 60% of the portfolio now equipped with solar PV infrastructure. Ten new solar PV systems are scheduled for installation, following the acquisition of the new portfolio. Furthermore, Spear is exploring wheeling projects within the City of Cape Town to enhance energy security and resilience across its portfolio.

Outlook for FY2025

Looking ahead, Spear remains focused on growth, value creation, and sustainable operations. Management reaffirmed its full year guidance of distribution per share (DIPS) growth of between 2% and4% for FY2025 while maintaining a 95% payout ratio.

Rossi concluded: “With strong leasing momentum, solid regional real estate fundamentals, an enhanced portfolio, and our disciplined financial approach, we are confident in our ability to navigate evolving market dynamics and deliver sustained value to our stakeholders in line with our mission statement.”

Spear will release its results for the full year FY2025 on 22nd May 2025.

Spear REIT reports growth and resilience for HY2025

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Strength in strategy: Spear REIT reports growth and resilience for HY2025

Cape Town, 24 October 2024: Spear REIT Limited (SEA: SJ), the only regionally specialised Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) listed on the JSE, has reported its interim results for the half-year ending on the 31st August 2024 (HY2025). With REITs experiencing varied performance due to challenging macroeconomic conditions, Spear delivered solid results, showcasing the resilience of its portfolio and its strategic focus on the Western Cape. The board of directors maintained a 95% payout ratio and announced a Distribution Per Share (DPS) of 39.53 cents for the six months ended on the 31st August 2024.

Quintin Rossi, CEO of Spear REIT Limited, commented on the results: “Within the context of the persistently tough trading environment, we are pleased with Spear’s performance in HY2025. The interim period has established a solid foundation to build on for the remainder of the financial year. Our Western Cape-focused strategy, coupled with our hands-on asset management approach, have allowed us to continue delivering value to our stakeholders as Spear delivers a mission statement-aligned financial and operational outcome for the reporting period. We continue to be optimistic as the economic landscape shows signs of improvement, particularly since the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) in South Africa, the easing off of loadshedding thanks to the stabilisation of the national grid, and the commencement of the interest rate tapering cycle by the SARB, which have all positively impacted investment confidence.” According to Rossi, these are encouraging signs for the real estate market, as sovereign bond yields compress, inflation comes under control and economic expansion commences, the property market is likely to see improved occupancy rates, increased tenant activity, and stronger financial performance.

Key financial and operational highlights

  • Distributable income per share (DIPS) for HY2025: 41.61cps (up 2.05% from HY2024)
  • Dividend per share (DPS) for HY2025: 39.53cps (up 3.14% from HY2024)
  • Payout ratio: 95.08%
  • Occupancy rate: 95.08%
  • Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio: 23.93%
  • Interest Cover Ratio (ICR): 3.01 times
  • Tangible Net Asset Value (TNAV) per share: R11.74
  • Collection rate: 98,05%

Spear achieved a 6.34% increase in group revenue excluding smoothing, driven by strong leasing activity, reducing vacancies, and maintaining in-force escalations. The net property operating profit for HY2025 saw an increase of 1.92% compared to HY2024 excluding smoothing, reflecting resilient expense management despite difficult trading conditions. Commenting on Spear’s performance, Nesi Chetty, Fund Manager and Head of Property at Stanlib, said, “Leasing fundamentals across the Spear portfolio have been strong over the last 12 months. A buoyant jobs market, scarcity of land, an increasing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) presence in the Western Cape, along with strong asset management from the company, have contributed to the strong year-to-date occupancies and escalation rates.”

The like-for-like contractual income growth was 9.54%, and the like-for-like net property operating profit grew by 9.48%, driven by decreased vacancies and strong in-force escalations and rental reversions. During the interim period, rental reversions improved to +5.35%, indicating positive outcomes in lease renewals and relets.

At the interim period, Spear’s portfolio was valued at R4.22 billion, consisting of 27 high-quality assets, with a total gross lettable area (GLA) of 405,709m². While the period presented several challenges, including increased property operating and management expenses due to the severe impact of storms and record-breaking rainfall in Cape Town between June and August 2024, profitability was marginally impacted by the higher-than-normal repairs and maintenance interventions required.

Management remains laser focused on absorbing these additional costs in the final six months of FY2025. During the interim results presentation, Rossi commended his team for their hands-on, ‘get stuck in’ approach, which he credits as a core element of the company’s culture and a key driver of its success.

The portfolio’s occupancy rate improved by 200 basis points to 95%, with the commercial office sector being a standout performer, seeing over 9,000m² of commercial office space let during HY2025. This resulted in a 616 basis points improvement in commercial office occupancy, indicating a strong return-to-office trend within the Western Cape. The company’s aggressive marketing and leasing initiatives have contributed to these positive outcomes, as management prioritised reducing overall vacancy rates, particularly in the office portfolio.

At the end of HY2025, the overall portfolio vacancy rate had decreased to 4.92%, down from 6.88% in FY2024. This improvement is well below the national average vacancy rates recorded by IPD and SAPOA, further emphasising Spear’s effective asset management strategy.

Spear’s contractual escalations averaged 7.47%, and the weighted average lease expiry (WALE) remained steady at 26 months, providing stability to the company’s income stream.

Spear’s balance sheet remains robust, with gearing reduced to 23.93% from 31.60% in FY2024. This was largely due to the disposal of non-core assets, including the Liberty Life Building in Century City and 142 Edward Street in Tygervalley. These disposals have strengthened the company’s liquidity position and enabled management to allocate capital into strategy aligned Western Cape investment opportunities.

The company has no immediate debt refinancing obligations, thanks to its proactive management of the debt portfolio, ensuring well-staggered refinancing terms and a defensive expiry schedule across its funding partners.

Spear’s rental collections remained strong, with a collection rate of 98.05% for HY2025, reflecting once again, effective tenant management and operational oversight.

In closing, Chetty added, “From a valuation perspective, Spear is trading at an attractive forward dividend yield, while still reflecting a notable discount to its latest reported NAV. The company maintains a robust pipeline of value-creating opportunities, including planned brownfield redevelopments. Spear is steadily becoming a core holding in many property funds, particularly within the small to mid-cap segment.”

 Outlook for FY2025

Looking ahead, management is optimistic about the prospects for the remainder of FY2025 as it integrates the newly acquired real estate portfolio, valued at R1.146 billion, from Emira Property Fund. This follows the announcement via SENS on 23 October 2024, confirming the successful implementation of the transaction. Following this acquisition, Spear’s total portfolio value has increased to R5.36 billion, with a market capitalisation of R3.2 billion.

Rossi added: “We remain focused on executing our strategic priorities for FY2025. With our high-quality portfolio, strong tenant relationships, and active asset management approach, this is an exciting time for the real estate sector and Spear is well-positioned to continue delivering value to our shareholders and stakeholders in the months ahead.”

Rossi concluded the interim results’ presentation by providing full-year distribution guidance, forecasting DIPS growth of between 2% – 4% compared to FY2024, with the payout ratio maintained at 95%. This outlook is supported by key assumptions, including no load-shedding for the remainder of FY2025, reduced vacancies, successful lease renewals, and stable tenant performance in absorbing rising utility and municipal costs.

“Our full-year guidance reflects the strength of our team and portfolio,” said Rossi. “We are confident that, with these positive indicators, we can continue to achieve our strategic objectives for the year.”

 

Spear REIT successful equity capital raise of R 457 million

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Cape Town, 17 September 2024: Spear, a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) focused on investing in real estate within the Western Cape region, has announced the successful completion of an equity capital raise of R 457,75 million via a vendor consideration placement. This announcement follows the recent unconditional status of the acquisition of the Emira Western Cape portfolio, adding further impetus to its Western Cape-only-focused growth strategy.

The vendor consideration placement will allow the issuance of 50,302,197 new shares to public shareholders at an issue price of R9.10 per share. This equity placement was completed at a 1% discount to Spear’s 30-day VWAP, (volume-weighted average price), being R9.19 per share before 13 September 2024. The listing and issuance of the new shares are expected to commence at 09:00 on Monday, 23 September, 2024.

Spear REIT CEO Quintin Rossi affirmed, “Spear has remained laser-focused on building a high-quality, regionally centred real estate portfolio that consistently generates sustainable cashflows and profitability. The proceeds of Spear’s vendor consideration placement will be put to work to generate a mission-statement-aligned return for all stakeholders after the implementation of the new portfolio acquisition along with seeking out attractive portfolio growth opportunities within the region.” The Western Cape has stood out as the most desirable real estate investment and development market in South Africa as Provincial and Municipal investment fundamentals outpace the balance of South Africa, resulting in improved economic activity, boding well for real estate valuations and rates of return.

Spear is on the cusp of implementing its R 1,146 billion acquisition of a 13-asset Western Cape-only portfolio from the Emira Property Fund, which will see its assets under ownership increase to R 5,3 billion on the implementation date. The acquired assets constitute a diversified portfolio of 93 500m2 comprising high-quality industrial, medical retail and commercial offices in attractive and well-established Cape Town nodes. Following the new portfolio acquisition, management will continue to seek incremental investment and development opportunities, while also exploring diversified portfolio options within the Western Cape, that are in line with its investment strategy.

The proceeds of the vendor consideration placement will be utilised to settle short-term debt obligations and replenish the revolving credit facility emanating from the Category 1 transaction once implemented.

Spear’s loan-to-value following the vendor consideration placement and the implementation of the new portfolio acquisition by the end of October 2024 will be between 33% and 34%. Beyond the transfer date of the new portfolio acquisition Spear’s strong balance sheet will provide sufficient headroom for transactional opportunities for management to act as and when the need arises.

Spear’s regionally focused operating strategy and the fact that it is a fully internally managed REIT allow for focused asset management opportunities to be unlocked across its current portfolio assets and its acquisition and development pipeline.

Management remains optimistic that its growth strategy through acquisitions and developments, including a clear and implementable renewable energy and water continuity strategy, will enable Spear to grow its portfolio value in an income-accretive manner within the Western Cape towards becoming a meaningful mid-cap SA REIT.

Spear recently held its pre-close presentation for HY2025 which showed its consistent Western Cape performance, a contraction in vacancies thanks to strong leasing momentum, and positive rental reversion rates on a portfolio level.

Spear will announce its HY2025 operational and financial results for the six months ending August 2024 on 24 October 2024 at 11:00 via an in-person presentation in Cape Town and a live stream via the company’s YouTube channel.

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