Johannesburg - Acsion, the listed specialist commercial and residential property developer and owner, is still pursuing its vision of geographic diversification into southern Africa and plans to develop a shopping centre in Mozambique and an office complex in Zambia.
Kiriakos Anastasiadis, the founder and chief executive of Acsion, said yesterday that a memorandum of understanding had been signed with the Mozambican Ministry of Sport to develop a 50 000m2 shopping centre in northern Maputo, but a formal agreement was still to be finalised.
Read: Acsion seeks opportunities in Europe, Africa
He said the Mall@Maputo development would be located adjacent to the main Maputo ring road on an 8.9-hectare site.
He said Acsion would have an effective 85 percent holding in the project with the development completed in partnership with a reputable local Mozambican partner. Anastasiadis admitted there were some delays with this development because of regulatory requirements and changes.
However, Anastasiadis said interest had been received from South African national retailers looking to expand their footprint into Maputo and letters of intent had been received from Pepkor, Woolworths and other retailers.
Anastasiadis added that Acsion aimed to take advantage of Zambia’s limited available infrastructure for multinational companies with its planned Offices@Lusaka development.
He said negotiations were taking place with a local land owner to co-develop up to 20 000m2 of office space on a site located close to the Manda Hill Shopping Mall.
Anastasiadis said several potential transactions in Europe were evaluated during the year to February but none of them met Acsion’s investment requirements and no transactions had been concluded yet but other potential transactions were still under review.
Acsion yesterday reported a 17.7 percent increase in net asset value (NAV) a share to R13.61 in the year to February from R11.56 in the previous year. The company is differentiated from real estate investment trusts in the listed property sector because it focuses on the delivery of superior NAV growth.
When Acsion listed in December 2014, it indicated it was aiming to grow its annual NAV by an average of 20 percent to 25 percent excluding deferred tax.
In the 15 months since listing Acsion has grown its NAV by 27.2 percent.
Revenue rose by 322 percent to R453.3 million in the year to February from R107.4m in the previous year. Net profit after tax improved by more than 1 600 percent to R696.9m from R40.8m.
Operational expenses rose by 276 percent to R210.5m from R56m. Weighted headline earnings a share grew almost 12 percent to 45.88c from 41.06c.
Acsion’s existing investment properties comprise six predominantly retail developments in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo with a total gross lettable area of 204 454m2 valued at R4.02 billion.
Anastasiadis said construction of two of Acsion’s secured pipeline developments, Mall@Carnival Phase III and IV and Hyde Park Terrace, were completed during the year and construction commenced on four others that formed part of its prelisting pipeline. These were Acsiopolis, Mall@55, Trade55 and Mall@Moutsiya.
Anastasiadis said Acsion also commenced development of a new development, the 18 700m2 Mall@Mfula in Piet Retief.
He said construction on Acsiopolis, a 20-storey mixed-use development in Benmore and the company’s biggest development, also commenced during the year and was scheduled to be completed at the beginning 2019.
Anastasiadis expressed satisfaction with Acsion’s overall performance in the year and going forward would continue to focus on the completion of the developments in hand and value-accretive projects in the existing portfolio.
The company’s shares price remained unchanged on the JSE yesterday to close trade at R9.
BUSINESS REPORT