Johannesburg - Property loan stock company Vukile
on Tuesday announced that it had concluded agreements with the Sanlam
group to acquire a portfolio of 13 commercial properties for R775m.
The property acquisition is subject to a number of conditions precedent,
including approval by Vukile's unitholders and the raising of the required
funding, said Vukile.
It said this acquisition was a direct consequence of the previously
announced transaction in terms of which Vukile would acquire the asset
management business of Sanlam Properties as it related to the property asset
management of the Sanlam Life property portfolio, obtaining a call option to
acquire R500m of properties from Sanlam Life and obtaining a
right of first refusal on most of the remainder of Sanlam Life's property.
In this regard, the company also announced that the formal agreements to
give effect to the Asset Management Acquisition had now been concluded as
well, subject to certain remaining conditions precedent.
Once the Asset Management Acquisition has been finalised, Vukile will,
in addition to doing the property asset management for its own property
portfolio, also provide property asset management services to Sanlam Life in
respect of Sanlam Life's property portfolio and thereby obtain the benefits
of economies of scale, said Vukile.
The 13 properties being acquired are spread over six of South Africa's
provinces from the Western Cape to Limpopo and cover more than 140 000 m2 of
rentable retail, office, industrial and storage space.
Vukile chief executive Gerhard van Zyl said the acquisition was in line
with the company's objective of building a quality portfolio of properties
with strong contractual cash flows.
Vukile already has a portfolio valued at some R4.5bn.
- I-Net Bridge