The fund will start small with just over a billion rand and follow the Growthpoint example.
JOHANNESBURG – Specialist Bank and Asset Manager Investec (JSE:INL) is looking at launching a new listed property fund in South Africa, valued at over a billion rand come next year.
“We are waiting for our property division to come forward with the final details. I assume on the back of the success they had in Growthpoint, which is the biggest capped property fund, we have got a huge amount of expertise. We hoping in the new financial year we will be up and running,” Managing Director Bernard Kantor said following the groups interim results.
“We have a portfolio already which we can put into it and it’s a matter now of getting into the technicalities and the regulatory issues.”
Asked about the value of the fund, Kantor added:” I think we are going to start off at a good R3bn-R5bn and grow from there. We will start it smaller and build it like we did with Growthpoint.”
Property group Growthpoint used to be managed by Investec. The property arm of the specialist bank and asset manager helped build Growthpoint into a formidable asset. When Investec sold Growthpoint the size of the property group was about R15bn-R20bn, according to Kantor, from less than R100m.
Investec said the business outlook for its property activities in the next six months remained cautiously optimistic. It believes there are opportunities to acquire direct and listed property at attractive prices.
For its half year results to end September 2010 Investec posted an operating profit of £16.4m (about R180m), an increase of 39.8% versus the same period last year.
Write to Phakamisa Ndzamela: phakamisa@moneyweb.co.za
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