Vukile’s release of their 2014 results on Monday coincides with the 10th anniversary of their listing and shareholders would no doubt be happy with a repeat performance over the next decade.
Vukile listed is June 2004 with assets of R3.1bn and a market cap of R1.3bn. Assets have grown to R10.3bn and market cap now stands between R8.5-R8.6bn.
The group delivered a 23.6% compound return in an unbroken period of growth in distribution over the last ten years.
“There’s much to be proud of,” said CEO Laurence Rapp, “but also much to look forward to in terms of growth as we now work on our remodelled portfolio to provide even better growth in the years ahead.”
The highlights of the last 12 month’s performance:
- Gross property revenue is up by 19.1% to R1.389bn.
- Headline earnings per linked unit is up by 20.2% to 163.68c.
- Profit available for distribution is up by 24.7% to R694.
- Net asset value per linked unit to 1 498 cents up 9.42%
- Return on capital for the year 18.0%
Growth in normalised distributions came in at 5% for the year, in line with the guidance given the market.
The true story of Vukile this year is how they’ve been able to transform the portfolio, grow their asset base by over 34% and at the same time deliver a strong operational performance.
Like-for-like growth in net property revenue was a credible 6.8%.
“Vacancies are now trending in the right direction”, said Rapp,
It is down to 6.7% from 7.1% in the previous period.
“If we take out two properties that are currently being sold, and are skewing the numbers, vacancies have dropped to 5.3% and even further when we take into account some progress made post-year end. Vacancies in fact are now sitting below 5% in terms of GLA.”
“91% of leases that were due for renewal have been renewed. Positive reversions were achieved across all sectors with the retail sector performing particularly well with a positive reversion of 7.8%.”
Vukile is conservatively positioned from a debt point of view, with 88% of its debt hedged for an average period of three years.
“We have taken the view that interest rates will rise by 200 basis points in the year ahead,” said Rapp.
“Provided they don’t rise more than that, we think we should be able to deliver growth at least in line with and potentially ahead of the sector averages of 7%-8%.”
Reflecting on the last 10 years:
This article originally appeared on news24.com.
