{"id":839885,"date":"2025-10-16T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=839885"},"modified":"2025-10-16T16:50:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T14:50:00","slug":"major-south-african-company-exiting-the-uk-bringing-r10-billion-back-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/839885\/major-south-african-company-exiting-the-uk-bringing-r10-billion-back-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Major South African company exiting the UK \u2013 bringing R10 billion back home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African property giant Equites Property Fund is in the process of exiting its UK operations to focus on its home market in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CEO Andrea Taverna-Turisan said this shift comes after nearly a decade of strong performance abroad but with diminishing prospects for future returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equites Property Fund is a South African-based real estate investment trust (REIT) that specialises in developing and acquiring modern, high-quality logistics properties in South Africa and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the company\u2019s website, Equites Property Fund was listed on the JSE on 18 June 2014 with a portfolio value of R1 billion. Since then, our portfolio has grown, reaching a value of R28.3 billion as at August 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the company\u2019s plan to withdraw from the UK, he stressed that the European market has been massively beneficial for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe\u2019ve really performed well there over the last nine years. The problem is that deploying new capital there just doesn\u2019t give us the returns we\u2019re looking for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taverna-Turisan added that the company\u2019s UK portfolio remains strong thanks to smart financial management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe ran a 100% hedging policy on our debt in the UK, so we haven\u2019t been affected by the interest rate cycle. Our assets are still benefiting from the significant rental increases we\u2019ve seen, but that growth cycle is ending,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that UK rental escalations only happen every five years, unlike South Africa, where they are annual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re coming to the end of that five-year cycle, and we expect rental growth to be more muted going forward,\u201d he said. Over the past five years, rentals across Equites\u2019 UK portfolio rose by around 42% to 43%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equites plans to sell its UK assets and reinvest the proceeds in South Africa. \u201cWe\u2019re bringing back about R10 billion, with a 40% loan-to-value. That\u2019s a significant number to deploy locally,\u201d said Taverna-Turisan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big plans for South Africa <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Equites Property Fund CEO Andrea Taverna-Turisan<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

He said the logistics sector in South Africa remains strong, with huge demand. \u201cNext year is going to be a bumper year for us,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re winning a lot of RFPs [requests for proposals], but it takes time \u2014 from start to finish, including construction, a big warehouse project takes at least two years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is also doing selective speculative developments, but cautiously. \u201cOn the R21 at Riverfields, we\u2019re building about 25,000 square meters,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe total cost is around R240 million. You\u2019d need to build ten of those to spend R2.5 billion, but we\u2019re not going to build ten speculative developments at the same time. We do it in a measured way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that Equites\u2019 balance sheet remains healthy, with a loan-to-value ratio of 37.2%. \u201cWe\u2019re in good shape. Deploying capital intelligently in South Africa, with quality tenants and long leases, is where we see the best opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taverna-Turisan added much of Equites\u2019 success comes from hands-on management. He explained that people think fully repairing and maintaining leases means we don\u2019t have to do anything, but that\u2019s not true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you do nothing, your tenants do nothing. We do condition reports twice a year and make sure tenants are maintaining their buildings properly,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This approach, he noted, helps retain tenants and maintain property quality. \u201cTenants respect how we manage our properties and the fact that we don\u2019t cut corners,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equites also benefits from long-term leases in its logistics portfolio. \u201cOur weighted average lease expiry is 14.1 years,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s much longer than what you see in retail or office. But to play at this level, building 90,000 to 100,000 square meter facilities for top clients, you need a strong balance sheet and land ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s land holdings, valued at approximately 47 hectares and worth over R500 million, provide it with the flexibility to move quickly on new developments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African property giant Equites Property Fund is in the process of exiting its UK operations to focus on its home market in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":839892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[23812,853],"class_list":["post-839885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-equites-property-fund-limited","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839885"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839913,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839885\/revisions\/839913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}