Vukile spends on properties

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