Liberty Two Degrees announces first results after listing

Cape Town - Liberty Two Degrees [JSE:L2D] announced its first set of financial statements on Thursday following its successful listing as a REIT on the JSE on 6 December 2016.

The results for the one-month trading period ending 31 December 2016 are in line with the forecast provided in the Pre-listing Statement (PLS).

The net asset value increased by 12c per unit, totalling R9.64 at the end of the reported period. The distribution is declared at 4.85c per participatory unit for the period.

According to L2D CEO Amelia Beattie the share price at 31 December 2016 compared favourably to the listing price of R10 and translates to a premium of approximately 8.9% to net asset value (NAV).

Beattie said during an information session that L2D will continue to build its portfolio. Focus areas over the next 12 months will include to effectively deploy the money raised during its road show and to extract value from existing assets to meet investor expectations.

"The trading environment of our shopping centres is great. Our retail portfolio continues to perform very well and that is testament to the good quality of our retail portfolio. We continue to focus on understanding what our customers want and how we can continue to attract customer spend to our trading environment," said Beattie.

"We will also focus on completing developments in 2017."

Beattie said about 94.6% of L2D's retail leases have been renewed so far and there have been escalations in the office portfolio.

"We have strategies in place to lease vacant space left in Sandton, for instance," said Beattie.

L2D is busy with three developments at the moment, namely the East Gate office tower that will be completed this year and which will include a Virgin Active; phase three of the Midlands Mall, which will take it closer to being a super-regional mall for consumers in the Pietermaritzburg area; and the Melomed hospital in Richards Bay, which also looks like it will be completed towards the end of 2017.

"This is a premier retail portfolio we believe will continue to be resilient. Our short term focus will be on our growth strategy in SA and to conclude developments for growth," said Beattie.

The company has R2.8bn cash available for acquisitions.