Business

South African shopping mall owner worth more than Pick n Pay and SPAR heads to another international market

Luke Fraser

 ·17 Jun 2026

Vukile Property Fund is making further international progress, with the group acquiring three retail assets in Italy.

Vukile is one of South Africa’s largest REITs. It has a R19.5 billion South African portfolio of township, rural, urban and commuter malls.

However, the bulk of the group’s assets are in Iberia and housed in 99.7%-owned subsidiary Castellana Properties, where it is invested in a €2.2 billion portfolio across Spain and Portugal.

During the financial year ended 31 March 2026, the group acquired a 35% stake in Pradera, a pan-European retail fund and asset manager with €5 billion of assets under management.

Using Pradera’s track record in Italy, Vukile entered the Italian market post-year-end with an inaugural €115 million portfolio of three shopping centres.

The group acquired Le Due Valli in Turin, Le Centurie in Padua and Quarto Nuovo in Naples. Pradera has managed these centres for a decade and will continue to manage the portfolio’s assets.

“Vukile is replicating our proven Castellana playbook to build Esperia in Italy, where we see the potential to acquire a portfolio in excess of €500m over time,” said Vukile CEO Laurence Rapp.

“Two further acquisitions of a combined €200 million are already lined up at an expected cash-on-cash yield of 9%.”

The group said that Italy offers a compelling combination of improving macro-fundamentals and a resilient consumer.

Italian households hold exceptionally high net wealth and low debt, and Italian culture is renowned for its fashion, food, beverages, and experiential retail.

The market has the lowest e-commerce penetration in Europe, at just 10%, and ranks second for cumulative tenant sales growth since 2019.

Vukile noted that Italian shopping centres exhibit strong trading metrics and that, with limited supply, market dynamics are favourable. “These dynamics translate into an attractive investment case,” said Rapp.

“We see a clear opportunity to build a specialist platform for institutional, permanent capital and unlock income growth through active management, strong tenant partnerships and a lower cost of capital.”

With post-year-end acquisitions, Vukile holds R63.7 billion in assets, of which close to 70% are in Europe.

Vukile currently has a market cap of R36 billion. This is more than SPAR’s R10 billion, Pick’n Pay’s R15 billion, the JSE Limited’s R14 billion.

In the REIT space, it is worth more than the Waterfall City owner, Attacq, at R13 billion, and the Rosebank Mall and Canal Walk owner, Hyprop, at R24 billion.

Financial results

Vukile expects continued strong operational results from its South African and Castellana portfolios. It also has numerous value-added projects planned in Spain and Portugal.

As it beds down its entry to the Italian shopping centre market, Vukile’s capital allocation focus will remain on opportunities in its core markets of South Africa, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

The group added that every business in the broader group operates independently, with growth in one area not exerting operational pressure on the others.

For the financial year ended 31 March 2026, the group recorded 9.3% per-share growth in both funds from operations (FFO) and dividends.

For the financial year ending 31 March 2027, the group expects FFO per share growth of between 8% and 10% and dividend per share growth of 10% to 12%

“We have started the new financial year firmly focused on our clearly defined strategy,” said Rapp.

He said that the group has a “more robust, more diversified retail portfolio, even deeper specialist retail expertise and a pipeline of value-enhancing opportunities to pursue.”