Popular shopping mall in South Africa selling for R440 million
The Competition Commission has recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve the proposed sale of Botshabelo Mall to Vukile Property Fund.
Vukile announced in March that it had reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the mall.
The mall is located in the Free State’s largest township, Botshabelo, and will be acquired from Liberty Group. Vukile put the value of the transaction at R443 million.
The group noted that the mall had a net operating income (NOI) yield of 8.5% and a Cash-on-cash (CoC) yield of 8.5%.
Construction of the mall began in 2015 and cost R320 million to develop. STANLIB, the asset manager of the Liberty Property Portfolio, and Khora Investments developed the mall.
The 21,000 sqm mall opened its doors in 2016 and was designed to serve the local community, whose nearest shopping mall was 50km away in Bloemfontein.
Vukile is one of South Africa’s largest real estate investment trusts (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.
The Competition Commission said it is of the view that the proposed transaction is unlikely to substantially lessen or prevent competition in any relevant market.
The proposed transaction also does not raise significant public interest concerns, it added.
Botshabelo Mall Photos
[Headline image credit: Grobler du Preez / Shutterstock.com]
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