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Johannesburg - Resilient Property Income Fund [JSE:RES] on Thursday said it will benefit from large retailers' focus on pursuing growth in non-metropolitan areas.
Presenting the group's interim results to end-June, MD Des de Beer said smaller towns are still out-trading cities.
The group reported a 9.93% increase in distributions for the period under review. Vacancies declined marginally from 3.2% to 2.9%.
"Our results are just a reflection of this (non-urban) retail strength," said De Beer.
Resilient is one of a small number of retail-focused groups to embark on an aggressive shopping centre development strategy this year. The group avoids urban, well-established nodes, aiming to cater for rural, lower-income shoppers.
According to De Beer, the group's strategy of investing in large, regional malls in areas like Polokwane and Nelspruit is in line with government's intentions to increase social grants - a catalyst of consumer spending in rural areas.
The R7.5bn group's portfolio consists of shopping centres like the I'Langa Mall in Nelspruit, the Highveld Mall in eMalahleni and the Nelspruit Plaza.
The group said it is confident of achieving 10% distribution growth for the full financial year. "We're not expecting fireworks this year, but we're upgrading the quality of our portfolio," said De Beer.
The group said R1.1bn in approved facilities is available for acquisitions and its development pipeline.
Gearing, however, remained low (at 26.4%) due to the sale of property holdings.
"These are recessionary figures," said De Beer. "It's fine for the moment but not where we want to stay."
- Fin24.com
Presenting the group's interim results to end-June, MD Des de Beer said smaller towns are still out-trading cities.
The group reported a 9.93% increase in distributions for the period under review. Vacancies declined marginally from 3.2% to 2.9%.
"Our results are just a reflection of this (non-urban) retail strength," said De Beer.
Resilient is one of a small number of retail-focused groups to embark on an aggressive shopping centre development strategy this year. The group avoids urban, well-established nodes, aiming to cater for rural, lower-income shoppers.
According to De Beer, the group's strategy of investing in large, regional malls in areas like Polokwane and Nelspruit is in line with government's intentions to increase social grants - a catalyst of consumer spending in rural areas.
The R7.5bn group's portfolio consists of shopping centres like the I'Langa Mall in Nelspruit, the Highveld Mall in eMalahleni and the Nelspruit Plaza.
The group said it is confident of achieving 10% distribution growth for the full financial year. "We're not expecting fireworks this year, but we're upgrading the quality of our portfolio," said De Beer.
The group said R1.1bn in approved facilities is available for acquisitions and its development pipeline.
Gearing, however, remained low (at 26.4%) due to the sale of property holdings.
"These are recessionary figures," said De Beer. "It's fine for the moment but not where we want to stay."
- Fin24.com
