All right. Good afternoon, everybody. If you could just take your seats, please, and make yourself comfortable. I'd like to get this show on the road. I think we do have a number of participants online as well, so we don't want to keep everybody waiting. We're gonna try and do this. We've never managed, so, but we'll try sort of an hour, hour and fifteen. Depends on, how difficult the topics are. If okay, we'll just leave the questions till after, if that's all right. Thank you very much. Just again, as well, the online questions, I think Lauren will handle the online questions afterwards. But, thank you all very much for joining us here today, and welcome to Growthpoint's results presentation for the six months to December 2023.
I hope you all enjoy this very spectacular venue that we once again managed to secure. Truly, probably one of the best, best views and best venues, to my mind, in the, in the country to host results. That's for sure. Right, so just flicking through the agenda, I'll give a bit of an overview on the strategy, touch on the salient features for the period under review, looking at the financial side of things as well. I'll present on the international investments and how they've contributed for the period. Estienne will do the South African portfolio and Growthpoint Investment Partners. I'll come back and do the bit on the capital management and various debt and funding initiatives that we have on the go, and then I'll conclude.
There are probably something like 70-odd annexures in the document, providing an inordinate amount of detail, but clearly, if there's anything that you still want to know, please feel free to keep your questions, and we will take them at the end. So just touching on strategy, I think it's fair to say that in this environment, both locally and globally, we continue to be mindful of the upward trajectory in LTVs and in the short to medium term, we're gonna remain focused on various strategic initiatives that will preserve liquidity and the balance sheet in the long term.
Group LTV rose from 40% to 42%, and that's a mix of the Australian LTV rising from 36% to 37.6, and the South African LTV from 32.9% to 34.8. The GAARs increase is mainly due to the write down of property values in Australia, and in South Africa, the increase is mainly due to some increased debt levels. We took on probably about ZAR 1 billion worth of additional debt between the South African business and the funds. At 31 December, we had ZAR 6.2 billion worth of unutilized, committed bank debt facilities, compared to ZAR 6.6 billion at the year end in FY 2023, in June 2023. We had ZAR 1 billion of cash on the balance sheet.
It's down a bit from the 1.7 in FY 2023. And then, with our payout ratio of 82.5% on the dividend, I think the total distributable income is just around ZAR 2.4 billion. The dividend will be just below ZAR 2 billion. We retain in the order of ZAR 422 million before tax, as part of our overall liquidity. Looking at the SA portfolio and looking to continue to optimize the makeup of that portfolio, we sold 9 properties in the period for ZAR 635 million. We also disposed of the residential development down in La Lucia, known as The Kent. Completely sold out. ZAR 141 million of proceeds and a profit of about ZAR 20 million. Spent ZAR 1 billion on CapEx and development CapEx, mainly development CapEx.
Then we signed this power purchase agreement with one of the energy brokers called Etana, securing 195 gigawatt hours of green energy for our portfolio, estimated at about 32 % of our current usage. So that will only come online in June, July, twenty twenty-five. Overall, since 2016, we've disposed of circa ZAR 12 billion worth of assets, ZAR 5 billion of offices, ZAR 3 billion of retail, 2.6 industrial, and 1.4 through our training and development business. Looking at the funds management business, or Growthpoint Investment Partners, as we call it, we have about ZAR 17.9 billion of assets under management there. That didn't change during the period. We're still targeting ZAR 30 billion by FY 2027.
Then there are two effective income streams that we earn from the Growthpoint Investment Partners business. One is dividend income from the co-investment into the various funds, and it has been a bit challenging there. Dividend income is down from ZAR 79 million to ZAR 48.6 million. Provide a bit more detail in some of the later slides on that. On the management fee is the other revenue streams that we get out of the Growthpoint Investment Partners business. And there, the management fees increased from ZAR 48 million to ZAR 52 million. On the international side, 43.5% of our assets today are effectively located offshore by value, and about 32.5% of our distributable income is earned offshore.
The rand equivalent of our foreign currency income, via both the scrip dividends as well as cash, amounted to ZAR 796 million, compared to ZAR 763 million in the prior period. In relation to Capital & Regional, we reinvested the dividend that they paid out post 30 June 2023. That was ZAR 2.4 billion, and then we also invested another 21.8 million, two point four million pounds, rather. We also invested another 21.8 million pounds in Capital & Regional to, as part of the underwrite of their GBP 25 million capital raise to acquire the Gyle Shopping Centre in Scotland. And then the dividend that Capital & Regional has just declared, GBP 3.9 million pounds worth, we will again reinvest that through the dividend reinvestment option that they're offering.
On the Globalworth side, their final dividend, or rather, the interim dividend, June 2023, was EUR 9.7 million. We reinvested that for additional shares in the company, and likewise, the final dividend, which they just announced a few days ago, equates to EUR 7.4 million for us, and we will also reinvest that back into the shares of the company. Couple of highlights or salient features. We call them salient features nowadays. We don't call them highlights anymore because it's a little bit... It's down, our dividend per share, our distributable income per share, and our dividend per share, down 8.4, or sorry, 8.6%.
Now, we did guide at the beginning of the financial year, at the end of the last financial year, that we would be down between 10%-15%. So we are within that range. We're slightly better, I guess, from the first half. But we're still foreseeing a few challenges and rising interest costs in the second half. So as an overall guidance for the year, we have tightened the range a little bit from 10%-15% down to 10%-12% down. Property assets, group consolidated or total assets, if you want, that we're controlling one way or another for the group, ZAR 177.9 billion, just down 1.1%. Interest Cover Ratio, 2.9 x... Sorry, 2.5 x, down from 2.9x.
Group LTV, as earlier indicated on, on one of the slides, 42%, and then our NAV per share, down 3.9% to ZAR 20.67. We always put this slide forward just to try and give a sense of the moving parts. So the total decrease in distributable income was about ZAR 248 million, and the various components of that contributed, were sort of, as listed, on the slide there. So in the first instance, the South African portfolio is about ZAR 74 million down. Interestingly enough, the income side is pretty flat. It's mainly driven by expenses and then a once-off ZAR 26 million rand, profit on the sale of a piece of our management company and the healthcare fund, that wasn't repeated in this period. So ZAR 74 million down there.
RSA finance costs, so clearly with the rising interest rates, and renewing interest rate swaps at higher levels, and also the increased level of debt, a total of ZAR 179 million negative move from the RSA finance costs. The V&A Waterfront, and I see David and a big chunk of his management team are all here, so, thanks, big thanks to them for helping us out during the period. We'll be becoming more and more reliant on them, but a sterling performance from the V&A Waterfront, increase of ZAR 46 million for this particular period in terms of contribution from the waterfront. Growthpoint Australia delivered an extra ZAR 18 million.
It's a bit distorting or bit distorted, if you want, because actually underlying, GOZ's had a relatively weak performance, but this is just the dividend that's reflected here. And combination of some currency movement and an overaccrual for withholding tax in the prior period that was released in this period, gave rise to a ZAR 18 million increase here. Capital & Regional, ZAR 39 million, positive contribution. A mix of a pretty decent performance out of Capital & Regional, notwithstanding the challenges in the UK, and an increased dividend from them. Globalworth, ZAR 21 million down. You'll see that the dividend per share is actually reduced quite drastically from 15 cents to 11 cents. But underlying, actually, Globalworth had a pretty solid performance.
The key driver, or certainly one of the key impacts that you see in this number, certainly on the dividend per share, is the fact that Globalworth has been offering the scrip dividend and been offering that at a very deep discount. So in the first instance, the share price is trading at a very big discount to NAV, and then on top of that, the company is offering the DRIP at a 20% discount to the prevailing share price. So you end up with a very discounted DRIP, and that's increased... It's obviously resulting in an increase in shares. I think the increase in number of shares for this period over the previous period is something like just short of 14%. So that 14% of that dilution is attributable just to the additional shares in issue.
But in terms of absolute numbers, the Globalworth actually had a pretty solid performance. The healthcare fund down ZAR 21 million in terms of its contribution. Number of factors there, probably the biggest one is the impact of us selling down our shareholding there. We were at 55.9%. We sold down to 39%.... And then there are some elevated arrears in that fund relating to one of the tenants, so the fund decided to withhold a portion of their dividend just until we sort out that arrear situation. Student accommodation down ZAR 6 million, so these numbers are relatively small. They're not really making a major impact, but student accommodation down 6. Lots of moving parts, I guess, within the student fund.
Obviously, the NSFAS payment or the annual allowance that they allow for accommodation was negatively impacted. And we also had a head lease, or not a head lease, a profit warranty or from the vendor, the Feenstra Group, who sold the portfolio to us two years ago. That head lease or profit guarantee has run out, and we're now exposed to the underlying, let's say, revenues and profits from the fund, which are down, mainly driven by the NSFAS issue. Lango. Lango continues to experience pretty difficult times, so we had ZAR 3 million of dividend there in the comparable period, but no income from Lango for this period. And then Growthpoint Investment Partners got about ZAR 35 million net fee.
After expenses, ZAR 35 million contribution, that's just down ZAR 1 million from the 36 in the prior period. Then lastly, the trading and development contribution was down ZAR 46 million. By its nature, it's quite a lumpy business, and in the prior comparable period, I think we had a couple of big contributors, like the Bakers transaction, where we sold the Bakers industrial development that we did for them, back to them, and pocketed a nice big profit there. That wasn't repeated in this period. Just looking then briefly at the income statement, there's a fortune of numbers here. I'm not gonna go through all of them, just to maybe some of the key numbers. Gross property income at a group level was six short of seven billion, down 0.6%.
Property expenses, just over ZAR 2 billion, up 7.1%. Net property income, down 3.5%, ZAR 4.882 billion, compared to ZAR 5.061 billion in the comparable period. Other operating expenses, up 19.2%, from ZAR 452 million to ZAR 539 million. The two big sort of movers there or contributors there to the negative movement is Growthpoint Australia, GOZ, where the, Fortius Funds Management business that was acquired in 2023 was only in the half year number for 3 months of the half year, and it's in for a full 6 months in this HY-2024 number.
And the other big contributor there is Capital & Regional, where the operating expenses increased from 35 to 77, and that was impacted by an insurance credit that was received in the HY 2023 period for the Walthamstow fire, which we had in the UK, and that income was credited against the expenses. So the 35 million understated in that prior period. Top of the page there, that then leaves our net property income after operating expenses up... Sorry, down 5.8% to ZAR 4.3 billion. Finance costs, a very key feature, and I guess, you know, one of the biggest factors that we raised at the time of our year-end results that would impact this set of results is finance costs and interest, not only in South Africa, but across the board.
Finance costs up 16.9% to just over ZAR 2.1 billion. Then finance and other income, ZAR 657 million, up 4.6% compared to the prior period. Then once you make all the various adjustments for non-controlling interests and foreign exchange losses, etc., we're left with distributable income of ZAR 2.414 billion, down 9.3% compared to the prior period of ZAR 2.662 billion. So the 9.3% is higher than the per share number because of the fact that we bought back some shares. We increased our number of treasury shares during the period. So when you eliminate those treasury shares, it dilutes to the 8.6 number.
This slide just does a reconciliation between our distributable income and the FFO per share. Again, way too many numbers to go through individually, but the single biggest impact there being the fact, the line which deals with the distributable income from GOZ that was retained. So in the prior period, the payout ratio for GOZ was about 70%, and the GOZ payout ratio in this period was 80%. And effectively, therefore, there's over ZAR 200 million there of additional income that was paid out of GOZ, which was not retained as in the prior period. So that leaves the FFO, SA REIT FFO, down 18.5%. On a per share basis, down 18, and as I mentioned before, the DIPS and dividend per share, down 8.6.
A few numbers to just pick out on the balance sheet. Property portfolio, pretty stable, ZAR 140-odd billion, didn't really move by much. Probably, the single biggest move within that was Australia. Australia was down. They marked their assets down by about 4.2% in Aussie dollar terms. Our equity accounted investments, also pretty stable, ZAR 16.2 billion compared to ZAR 16.471 billion in the prior period. Loans granted, that's principally the development loan that we have with the V&A Waterfront, that remained pretty flat. Listed investments, at the investment in that GOZ has in Dexus Industrial Fund in Aussie. So I'm not gonna go through each one of these.
Just to highlight again, in terms of the total borrowings, total nominal borrowings, ZAR 70 billion, up from ZAR 69.3 billion. When we talk about a ZAR 1 billion upward movement in our nominal borrowings, you've got to look at the combination there of RSA and the student accommodation fund. Together, that will give you that billion odd number, increased number in debt. So that leaves shareholders' interest or NAV down 3.7% at just ZAR 70.4 billion. So moving quickly then through the international investments. Firstly, GOZ. We own 63% of the Australian business, cost ZAR 9.6 billion and market cap, 13.9. Market, market value, ZAR 13.9 billion. As I mentioned earlier, it's been a... It was a pretty tough set of results for GOZ, impacted mainly by two things.
I think the first one is interest, again, and its interest costs, you know, rising quite substantially. And then secondly, again, the prior period had a AUD 15 million lease cancellation income included in their prior period. So FFO per share was down 29%. GOZ increased its payout ratio on the dividend from 70 to 80, which then gave rise to a dividend of 9.65, as opposed to the 10.7, and that results in a 9.8% drop in the dividend. GOZ, obviously, still, for us, a very key and core investment, and we continue to support that business, wherever we can. It continues to have a strong balance sheet. LTV is 38.4%.
It's got significant facilities, undrawn debt facilities of AUD 297 million. Because of the property value write-downs, we did see an NAV downward adjustment to AUD 3.75. It was a 6.3% decline. On the debt side, 77% of it's fixed. The weighted average maturity of the debt is 3.2 years, and the weighted average cost of the debt is 4.7, gone up from 4.3. Their portfolio, as I said, down, like for like valuations, down 4.2%. Operationally, the business is very sound, so 94% of the portfolio is leased to government and listed companies. Ninety-five percent let essentially by rental and 97.5% by GLA.
Weighted average cap rate, 5.9%. The weighted average lease expiry is 5.8 years. So all things, I think, looking pretty solid from an operational perspective. There was one disposal in the period, for AUD 35 million. And the in- the like for likes was also impacted by... Sorry, the overall number impacted by the sale of 333 Ann Street in the prior period. GOZ's own funds management, business, Fortius, it's got AUD 1.7 billion of funds under management. That's down from the 1.8 in the prior period. There was a sale of one of the assets, which achieved an 11% IRR for investors over a 7-year term. The fund is actively looking at opportunities to grow.
And, I guess the Aussie market, not too dissimilar to the South African market, in a bit of a state of flux, where buyers and sellers just not really meeting one another yet, where the buyers are looking for real bargains and the sellers not really agreeing to selling their assets at any big discounts. On the Globalworth side, 29.5% stake that we have there, cost of EUR 10 billion and market value of EUR 3.9 billion. We did see that 26% decrease in the dividend. As I mentioned before, a big chunk of that downward adjustment, at least half of that, is due to just the additional shares that they've issued. And, for the rest, you know, the...
If you look at the actual underlying Globalworth results, which were published on, I think it was on Monday, pretty decent set of results, to my mind, coming out of Globalworth, considering the backdrop. Also, a big impact there is the increased interest rate, and probably more so the increased levels of debt, rather than the interest rates. On the balance sheet, EUR 696 million worth of cash on the balance sheet and EUR 265 million worth of facilities. Now, that might seem like excessive liquidity and probably is excessive liquidity, but the key focus of the management team of Globalworth in the last 3-6 months has been liquidity management, garnering more liquidity.
In fact, there was an announcement on Monday about a portfolio sale of the industrial, the 100% industrial assets that were sold for about EUR 174 million. And this is all with a view to refinancing the two bonds that the company has. They've got a March 2025 bond, EUR 450 million, and a June 2026 for EUR 400 million that needs to be refinanced. And the company's involved with various initiatives to look to optimize the refinancing of those bonds. Includes anything from buybacks, to exchanges, to settlement, to a whole range of options. And in order to successfully execute on that, it's important for the company to have this, what is seemed to or deemed to be excessive liquidity.
Property revalue- properties were valued down by about just over 5% in euro terms, and gearing sitting at about 42%. And as I mentioned there, that the big maturity being March 2025 on the bonds. Relatively quiet period in the sort of acquisition and development space. Only 6,000 square meters industrial asset added in Romania. And then in addition to that, they are under construction, another 13,000-odd square meters of industrial assets in Romania. Poland has seen the ongoing redevelopment of the Renoma and Supersam assets. That should hopefully be done in the next couple of months. It's been on this acquisition development list for the last two sets of results.
And then with the entity also did sell the Warta Tower office, office tower in Warsaw for EUR 63 million. Portfolio has about 36 standing assets in Poland, 35 assets in Romania. Very active leasing period with 136,000 square meters let in the period. Again, interestingly enough, operationally pretty sound. I mean, vacancies were brought down from 14.7-odd% to just over 12%. Sorry, 11.7%, 14.5%-11.7%. So, you know, on the ground, things are pretty, pretty solid. But clearly the broader financial markets, you know, having a major impact on the overall result. And then lastly, Capital & Regional. Sixty-eight percent interest we have in CapReg. They managed to increase their dividend to GBP 2.95.
As I said, they put their results out on... It was Friday last week. And again, a pretty robust set of results coming out of Capital & Regional at a adjusted profit. They've got a particular number that they refer to, which is adjusted profit. The adjusted profit number was up, was about GBP 12.7 million, up from GBP 10 million, about a 23% increase in adjusted profit for CapReg. We have reinvested our dividends, as I mentioned before, and we believe that notwithstanding the challenging time that, you know, Capital & Regional is experiencing and the UK consumer is experiencing, we do feel that their strategy with community-based centers remains a robust strategy.
Again, if you look at the operating numbers that CapReg put out in terms of number of leases renewed, additional space let, et cetera, it was pretty, pretty solid. LTV increased a little bit to 43.6%. Debt maturity is there 4.1 years, and the cost of debt, 3.7%, with 70% of it fixed for the next 3 years. Property valuations were pretty flat, and but we did obviously see the acquisition of the Gyle Shopping Centre for just over GBP 40 million. That would have increased the overall value of the property portfolio. NAV 203, down from 106 cents per share to 90, sorry, pence per share. And the big mover there being, I guess, the equity raise that the company did. I forget the exact price.
It was 52 or 54p that we did the capital raise at, and that would have been dilutive to the overall, NTA per share numbers. On the portfolio, as I said, the operating metrics, solid 44 new leases, occupancy 94-odd%, 21 million shoppers. Not quite as many as we get here in the Waterfront, David, with your 25 million. Rental collections, 99%. And I think by all accounts, the acquisition of the Gyle Shopping Centre has been a pretty good one. There's been some decent letting that's taken place there since the acquisition, and there's actually even been a slight valuation uptick as well on that asset. And then some CapEx that we needed to spend. So I think that finishes the section on international.
I'm gonna ask Estienne de Klerk then to do RSA, and I'll come back after.
Christian's done.
Thanks, Norbert. Right. Okay, if we look at the salient features for the South African portfolio, it's the macro remains very, very difficult. I mean, the economy is not growing, and in that context, you know, to buck the economy, given the scale of Growthpoint, is challenging. But in looking at the numbers, there's quite a few positives to be taken out of the movements in the past six months.
... Once again, huge volumes of letting done in the market. That is, the 644,000 square meters is across all three of the sectors. Vacancies have come down marginally to 9.2%, which is a marked improvement from the high. And I think the specific number that we've been focusing a lot of our attention on is the renewal growth rate, which is still negative, but has improved significantly, and hopefully will continue to improve going forward. Given the environment that we're in, the renewal success rate has improved quite a lot, and that's mainly driven by the retail dynamics, which we'll touch on just now.
Expense ratio up a bit, and the reality is that that ratio is being quite materially impacted by administered costs, and there have been... In this period, we did have a specific charge in office, which I'll touch on just now, which skewed the numbers somewhat. Arrears are reasonably flat. Provisions have actually we've reversed some provisions out, and the debt book is looking actually in reasonably good nick. There was some sort of peril long term, let's say, long-term arrears that we've been working on, and we've had some success in getting some of those in. But you know, that's an ongoing situation.
The LTV, so just to touch on that, and Norbert will take you through the, the treasury component, but, you know, this number, the 34.9, is effectively Growthpoint to the mothership, the South African balance sheet. And that strips out a lot of the complexity that, we have with, the accounting entries that you find when consolidating international investments and even the local funds from the fund management business. So still conservatively geared. The valuations ticked up marginally, pretty flat. We have continued to invest. We are in a process of turning the business in, in the South African, context, and moving the asset allocation and capital allocation more towards the industrial side, and a lot of that ZAR 1 billion went into industrial property. We've still got commitments of ZAR 1.6 billion.
A lot of those commitments are here in and around Cape Town. We're fixing Ninety One's building. We're building a new hotel, and we're busy refurbishing Bayside, so that's the bulk of that ZAR 1.6 billion. Then we've made asset sales of ZAR 776 million. I mean, it remains a big focus. We're effectively self-funding the South African business, and asset sales make a big component of that. Then we've spent ZAR 73 million on diesel, and we've increased our solar range up to 32 MW. So the target there is to get to close to 40 MW of rooftop solar.
Now, we will touch on the power purchase agreement, but, you know, that power purchase agreement ultimately a bit of a return for us than actually investing in solar, and we can talk about that now. So I'm not gonna run through every single component of every slide. I'm sure some of you have already looked at this, but I'll touch on some of the big themes. So in industrial, clearly the market has been reasonably strong. Our vacancies have ticked up marginally, but actually, in real terms, the like-for-like portfolio actually came down somewhat. So we are busy developing brand-new quality industrial properties, and some of those are coming onto the sheet partially let. So we've had some very, very good success in the letting in this space.
Nationally, vacancies are actually low, so the market is quite conducive. There has been quite significant inflation in development cost of industrial facilities over the past three to four years, and that has opened up quite a gap between, what I would say, second-hand or existing industrial properties, and then the rentals that you would have to achieve, given the yield environment we're in, given the cost in of building these boxes in terms of the new rentals. And over time, that benefit will definitely flow through into this portfolio. If you've got a good quality product that is marketable, you should actually start seeing growth coming through.
Then if we look at the renewal success rate, that is a key component, and, and I think that will continue to improve if, if you have this dynamic, because the, the existing tenant has the alternative of going to a new property or staying in the existing one, where the rental is obviously slightly lower. And now there's quite a big gap, and there's not that much stock available in the market, so our success rate has gone up. The, the renewal growth rate, still is negative at this stage, but, you know, you can see there's been a marked reduction in, in that percentage, and I think, you know, my impression will be that over the next, year or two, there, we will see an improvement in that.
A new statistic that we have provided this time around is just sort of to give you a bit of a trend on, you know, the amount of transactions we are concluding in the six months in, per the sector, and then just the dynamic in terms of those renewal rates. So you can see more than half of the leases that we have renewed have actually been either flat or positive, and we're now still working just on that, the other third that we have, or other 40% that we have to get into the positive territory. But generally, the trend is looking reasonably positive for this sector. Like-for-like growth was 5.8%, and then on the valuation side, it was pretty flat.
In terms of the portfolio mix, we are trying to sell the older, let's call it, less desirable assets, or maybe, assets that are in nodes that aren't strategic for us anymore, and we are trying to develop quality industrial property in nodes where we believe the demand and the growth will be for the future. So quite a lot of effort and money going into new developments, and many of these will be hitting the balance sheet in this financial year. On retail, I think there, generally, the, the trade has sort of improved things for us quite a bit. And it's ironic, because if you think about the macro we are in, the higher interest rates must have a negative impact on the shopper.
And, what we are seeing is a little bit of catch-up from the COVID days. So I think the retailers had a couple of really good seasons, and even in December, trade was very, very strong. So we have, still got some vacancies in our shopping centers. If we strip out some office and some redevelopments, that core vacancy is around about the 3 odd %. We are busy redeveloping, quite a few properties, which have significant vacancies in, so Bayside being the largest, which has got 18,000 sq m of vacancy, where we're busy redeveloping. We're gonna be putting in Checkers and Shoprite, and pretty much that whole development will come on in November, fully let. So I think the vacancy number, hopefully by, let's call it first half of next financial year, should come down quite significantly for us.
The renewal growth rate has also improved significantly from 9 odd% to 3%. And I think the rate of success in keeping our tenants is also a function of the improvement in the trading environment for many of our tenants there. And as you can see from the volume of leases, huge volumes there, but most of them are now positive or at least flat, which is, I think, a marked improvement. Like-for-like growth was just under 3 odd%, and trading density growth was 4.2%. Now, if we just take December, December was a strong month for retail in South Africa, and there, the growth was 5.9% for that month, specifically. Foot count continues to improve, but it's slower.
Certainly in the festive season, we saw those trading densities for the festive season up 26.7% higher than the average in November, and that includes the Black Friday period. Valuations were pretty flat, and, you know, I think it is important to mention that if you look from the period of the 1st of July, 2016, we have written down our retail assets by 17.5% odd, so quite a significant write down. To the extent that the market does improve, I think there will be a bit of positivity coming out of that sort of total return aspect on the portfolio.
And then, we have been successful in selling two properties for ZAR 465 million, and there is still another ZAR 1 billion worth of assets that we're in negotiation with at the moment, and I've already sort of touched on the developments. On the office side, vacancies are coming down quite significantly, which is encouraging. Lots of activity, even in Sandton, believe it or not. I know that most of the analysts have written off Sandton to look something like San Francisco, but that's not the case. We're actually seeing traffic in the mornings into Sandton. It's quite joyful sitting in a bit of a blockade.
I mean, we've done over 30,000 sq m of letting in the six months, and managed to reduce vacancies of over 20,000 in Sandton alone, and by year-end, that will be more, because some of the transactions that we have done only commenced in this current six months that we're in now, the second half of the year. So things are definitely looking better, and we will hopefully see vacancies continue to come down. Obviously, every property we have, we assess on an ongoing basis to see if there are other uses. You have to sort of make a pick, which ones you're gonna back for the long term, and which ones you're gonna refurbish, and where you think you will get growth in the specific portfolio going forward.
That's quite a hot debate internally, because some people would... We've had suggestions from analysts to flatten the properties. We didn't think that was such a great idea. So we've decided, you know, some of them we'll convert, so we've got one that we converted. Not every property you can convert into residential, but it is a ongoing challenge if you've got oversupply in the market. But it does look like things are picking up a little bit in the sector for us. If we look at the like-for-like growth, so here, if we strip out this rates charge that we're disputing, and I think we-- Paul, I think we've been successful on that now. So that'll come back in. It was about ZAR 35 million.
I think that that like-for-like growth number would have been significantly less if it wasn't for that one-off charge, which I think will disappear. So we will see that like-for-like number reduce quite significantly. And then, on the valuation side, given the significant write-down of offices over the past few years, what we are seeing is now that the sort of fundamentals are improving somewhat, valuers are actually writing up the portfolio marginally. Certainly, some of the properties literally are written down to land value, just about. So, so we do believe there will be a bit of upside in, in some of these assets.
You know, the ZAR 200 million, so pretty much the bulk of the improvement in our valuations for the portfolio came out of the, ironically, out of the office portfolio, which everybody had sort of written off, right? Then, on the disposal side, we've sold 2 properties there. The significance of certainly one of the properties was it's totally vacant, so that helped the vacancy numbers a little. Certainly, you know, ongoing discussions with many investors, it is the toughest sector to sell assets into, given that investors are clearly concerned or less confident, at the moment, given all the, the rhetoric around office, to, to invest into the specific sector. But we are making some good progress there.
The idea is to obviously reduce our our concentration to Gauteng somewhat, and in fact, the two coastal areas are actually performing very, very well. So our vacancies in Umhlanga Ridge, I think, is 1 odd %, so the market is quite strong there. And then, if we look at the Cape Town market, you know, even here, we're starting to see strong demand, and if you're looking for 3,000 square meters of office space in Cape Town, you're in trouble, really. And we will see definitely some rental growth coming from that. And then, on the new development side, we've mentioned the Hilton Canopy, just up here in Longkloof Studios, and the refurbishment of the Cape Town Ninety One property. Our trading development team remain active.
The one transaction that we thought was worth mentioning is that at Liliesleaf Mall, we did have additional bulk, and we commenced a residential development there that we pre-sold, and that property we gave transfer in this period. So got ZAR 141 million in, made a 20-odd million profit on that development. So it was a very nice transaction for us. We're also busy with Riverwoods, which was the old AXA offices in Linksfield, and we're converting those offices into 254 residential units. The first 80 of those have actually been handed over to the buyers already, and that's been 80% pre-sold that whole development.
Then, you know, we are—this, the department, clearly the biggest client, Growthpoint, so building for our own balance sheet, but they're also increasingly working for our funds. They've got two developments that they've just completed, which was Horizon Heights, right next to UJ, and Fountains View, which is just up the road from the University of South Africa, UNISA. And both these properties have been fully let out. And so letting has been phenomenal in terms of the new product that we have brought to the market, so that is pretty exciting. We are now currently busy with two new developments. Both of them for Wits. One for the... So 33 Princess of Wales is for Wits Medical School.
So it's in the area close to the Sunnyside Hotel, which is well-positioned, and we're very confident that we'll be able to let that to many of the students there, because the facility is quite a bit closer than any of the competition. Then the Podium is right next to the Apex, which was the development we did at Wits. 900 beds, was fully let out, and we're confident that this property, which will be a similar size, will let out equally as strong. Then we're busy looking at extension to the Hillcrest Hospital for Busamed. Just on this renewable energy transaction, it's quite an innovative transaction. So it's the first time that we, that there's been a deal done from multiple generation sources.
So in other words, we effectively will be getting our energy from a hydropower station, from a wind turbine farm, and from solar. And we can then wheel that through the transmission network, through various distribution networks, so not just limited to Cape Town. So you would have noticed, we did a little wheeling deal here in Cape Town, from Constantia Village to the 36 Hans Strijdom property, and that was a sort of a test run to see if this whole process works. And that really unlocked... It was the final key to really being able to put this whole transaction together. So ultimately, what it means is we can acquire from multiple sources, we can give our clients green power, at the building that they are in, and, and at an attractive rate.
Over time, we have also locked in on one of the deals, a limited escalation on the cost of that electricity. So that is one of the benefits. The hydropower station and the wind turbine station will be completed in the middle of next year, and that will be effectively when we commence with this. But ultimately, the idea would be that certainly it will help our letting for our office building, specifically, where it's not really financially feasible to go and put solar on the roof because it doesn't really supply sufficient power for these properties. Moving on to the Waterfront. So I was actually gonna spend hours on the Waterfront because it's such an easy discussion.
Given that you guys are all here, I'll try and keep it really brief, but certainly some of the numbers are popping, you know, from, in a global context, to be honest. The net property incomes increased by 17.2% for the period. It's driven by a 109% increase in the turnover rental, largely driven by tourism, so in our hotels, in the retail, and in some of the attractions. Then our visitor numbers, I think Norbert touched on already. We had 3 million in the month of December, and it's 25% up on the prior December, and 25 million for the year. International visitation, so the traffic through the Cape Town Airport has increased significantly, even compared to pre-COVID levels.
Retail sales, just in the month of December, was ZAR 1.2 billion, which was 16% up on the prior period, and there are hardly any vacancies in the property. Alex, is there still anything left? I thought you gave that last piece away at record. Still there. It's done. Right. So if you need space, you better come quick. Obviously, the load shedding continues. We are fully backed up here in the V&A, and we provide power for our clients at our cost, given the premium service that we provide. Then on the funding side, we have introduced debt onto the balance sheet of the V&A. The V&A has got several development projects, and it is more efficient for us to fund off this balance sheet.
So there's ZAR 1.3 billion of total debt and another ZAR 1 billion of undrawn facilities and ZAR 52 million of interest expense, of which ZAR 22 million was capitalized in this period, so at an average rate of 9.76%. On the retail side, retail sales for the period increased by 18 odd %, and compared to the previous six months, it was up 45%. So the 45% on 2019. So you can see, you know, even compared to pre-COVID levels, it's really next level where the trade is at. And the nice thing about this increase was also that it wasn't just in the luxury goods. It was actually significantly broader than the luxury segment this time around. So trading densities increased by 21% on a rolling twelve-month period.
You know, certainly, it's the rentals are in excess of what most shopping centers in the country can achieve by a long shot if we go on the MSCI numbers. And then we also opened the new Time Out Market. I'm sure everybody would have been there, so that's old news for most of the Capetonians. And on the marine and industrial side, so all the shipping here and the marina, we've seen, with certainly, I think, impacted by what's happening in the Middle East. We've seen significantly more traffic coming through the cruise terminal, and the charter boat section has also performed particularly well with a 22% increase on the same period in the previous year.
And then casual berthing is performing very, very well, and then the marina was literally fully occupied over November and December. On the office side, Investec have moved in. I think you can see their building just through the window here, and they're apparently very happy, lovely offices. And I think there's also been excitement. As the whole precinct is full, in fact, David had to move out of their own offices, and the team had to move out of their own offices, and they were actually busy preparing new offices for themselves in the Cape Town cruise terminal, and a client walked in and said, "No, no, well, we like the space more," and they wrote David a nice lease, and it's all let now. So I'm not sure, Dave, where you guys are gonna be operating from now, man?
So, yeah, it's a wonderful story from an office perspective. You know, very, very strong demand in the V&A. And ultimately, what we certainly will see is that the rental levels, I think, will continue to grow, given the demand, and the negative reversions were marginal at 2.1 for this period. Hotels, NPI up 45%. RevPAR was up 22% for the six months compared to the previous year. And then, hotel occupancies grew by 5%, and the average daily rate was up by 36%. Cape Grace, in this time, was mostly closed because they were busy refurbing it to become a Fairmont, and I think that's open now. And then City Lodge and One&Only have both been refurbished.
Annual residential vacancies in the units that we let was also very marginal at 3.3%. But all these facilities are now fully backed up with power, and they've all had a brand refresh. Then the helipad, which is out on the point over there. If you want to go and see the whole of Cape Town, you've got three operators. They've got beautiful helicopters and a wonderful helipad to go to now. So it's a nice place to go to. And as a result, you've seen a magnificent increase in trading there, up 122% and 138% for November and December. Moving on to the funds, and I'll just run through these quite briefly, just some of the main things that have changed.
I think for, on the, on the healthcare fund, we acquired the Johannesburg Eye Hospital for ZAR 106 odd million. In one of the debt agreements with the IFC that we have, they had a right to convert to equity. They've chosen not to do so. So we're in the process of discussing a restructure of that debt package with them or with other financial institutions. We'll still make a decision as to exactly which way we go. And we've also signed a renewal with Netcare to extend at N1 City Hospital here in Cape Town, as well as the medical chambers, and that's a 20-year lease.
As part of that lease, we've made a commitment to refurbish and have CapEx available for the hospital of up to ZAR 65 million. And then the dividend is slightly lower. There is currently arrears, you'll notice from the pack of around ZAR 75 million in the fund. We have concluded documents or agreements rather, with one of the tenants that will reverse those arrears, hopefully before year end. And we're working with the other tenant, and hopefully those arrears will also be predominantly wiped out before June. So those are all very positive things, and I think then there will be a bit of a catch-up on the distribution to the extent that those are eliminated.
Then on GSA, clearly, this fund, there's huge demand from students for quality, purpose-built accommodation all across the country. And we have seen investors certainly interested in participating in this. So we've in the time, we've raised money from Eskom Pension Fund and Vulindlela, and then we've acquired Brooklyn Studios for ZAR 450-odd million, and, as I mentioned earlier, we developed two properties. So this fund will probably be close to 10,000 beds, 10,400 beds by the end of this year, with the new developments that we are completing. And in this period, what we've also seen is that NSFAS have come out, and they've increased the rate they prepare to pay per bed.
A little complicated, but hopefully we'll get roughly about ZAR 50,000 a bed for the beds that we have let to students that are reliant on NSFAS. We have, over the time, reduced the reliance on NSFAS, so the amount of students that now rely on NSFAS is probably about 15% less than what we had in the prior year. The distribution there is roughly 12%. As Norbert mentioned earlier, that really is a combination of NSFAS and then the underwrite that we had from the original developer. Total debt on balance sheet is ZAR 1.27 billion. In Lango, only things that have changed here materially is that we've refinanced a large component of their debt, ZAR 120 million.
40-odd% of their senior debt's been refinanced at, improved terms. I think the operating environment remains very, very difficult, in, in Africa, and certainly, the dynamic in the currencies, you know, is making, you know, having a negative impact on, on the distributions of, of the fund per se. The property quality remains good, and, the... Clearly, the US dollar liquidity in Nigeria, very topical, given some of the other results that have snuck through before we could get out to town. And, you know, that liquidity, I think, is actually improving, in that, but, clearly, the exchange rate now becomes a challenge for, for most of the companies invested there.
We are looking to redomicile Lango to the UK, and that will assist in recommencing distribution payments for Lango. Okay, Norbert, I don't know if you want to come talk about the capital management quickly. Thank you.
Been notified that there's some load shedding on the way, so it's nothing... Certainly, in an effort to speed things up a little bit, we'll try and get this done before load shedding. We've got, like, one or two minutes left or what. Otherwise, I mean, you do have hard copies, I guess, of the presentation, and we can still finish. But, I'll try and do this as briefly as I can. Very, very active period on the funding side. So we've got Yusha', our treasurer, here with us today again.
So anybody in there, over there, want to ask any tricky questions, Yusha' is available. So we have ZAR 41.8 billion of total nominal debt. That includes the healthcare fund and the student accommodation fund. On the bond side, ZAR 910 million of unsecured bonds were issued in a public auction, 7-year and 5 years. So we are trying to turn out our debt a little bit by going for 7-, 5-, and 10-year type debt. You'll definitely see the impact in the weighted average duration of our facilities. Margins that we've been achieving have been, you know, very encouraging and probably better than we have in many years.
We did a ZAR 1 billion green bond that we placed privately with IFC. There was some ten-year, 6.50, ten-year, and 350 million, seven-year, again, at some pretty decent margins. We also termed out a EUR 65 million debt facility that we, that we have in place. And, post the year end, we had a ZAR 1 billion, in, in... Sorry, post the half year, we did also issue another ZAR 1 billion worth of unsecured bonds in a, in a private placement for ten years, at the best margin I think we've ever seen for ten-year money as Growthpoint at, at 185.
On the hedging side, equally a very busy period, so on the interest rate swaps, we had ZAR 934 million worth of swaps that matured at a weighted average interest rate of 7.5%. We had ZAR 980 million worth of interest rate swaps that we entered into, new swaps, at an average rate of 7.9%, keeping our hedge ratio above the 75% level. Another ZAR 2.4 billion of the swaps will mature between in the second six-month period to June 2024 at a weighted average interest rate of 8%, and these will refinance as required, and we'll be obviously monitoring the rates as these expire, to see whether we re-hedge or not.
On the cross-currency interest rate swaps, we had mainly Aussie dollars, big chunks of Aussie dollars that came up. AUD 132 million matured in September 2023. The weighted average interest rate on that was 2.8%, and it was refinanced at 4.1%. And post the half year 2024 mark, we had another AUD 166 million cross-currency interest rate swaps that expired at 1.4%, and we refixed those at 4.2%. So you can see here the actual movement in interest rates, you know, quite material. You know, having 1, 1 and a half odd percent, Aussie interest rate swaps and refinancing them at 4. So that's putting additional pressure, obviously. So you've got a bit of a double whammy happening.
In Australia, Aussie itself, on their balance sheet, they're seeing more expensive debt and refinancing of their debt. And in terms of our investment, our equity investment into GOZ, we've got some debt in relation to that, and we're seeing upward pressure there as well, and that's what, you know, coming through, obviously, in the numbers. At an overall level, 76% hedged. Our weighted average interest rate's 9.6%. It's up from the 9.1% at FY 2023, and 7.1%. If you include the cross-currency interest rate swaps and the effective interest rate of the Aussie dollars and the euros, we're at 7.1%. So the key debt metrics. The average term of our debt is 3.4 years. 51% of it is secured debt and 48% unsecured.
Sorry, the other way around, 51% unsecured, 48% secured. And we have another ZAR 4 billion of debt coming up for maturity in the next 12 months. Our credit rating with Fitch and Moody's remaining stable. And then the liquidity, very good liquidity still, with ZAR 6 billion of unutilized debt facilities. So I'm not gonna read the rest on that slide. I'm gonna move to the conclusion. There are also a number of questions that I'm trying to get to, so if I'm, you know, a bit rushed here at the end, please excuse us.
I think, you know, the conclusion is really just so, you know, reinforcing, I guess, our message that we're still foreseeing a 10%-12% negative outlook or DIPS outlook for the financial period, for the financial year ending June 2024. We see the SA sector actually performing in line with budget and pretty stable. You know, this is notwithstanding, I think, what's happening globally and also domestically. Clearly, elections in May, who knows what, you know, what might transpire. We hope everything goes down smoothly, and we don't have massive disruptions and violence like we saw in KZN a year or two ago. GOZ has reaffirmed their distribution guidance of AUD 0.193.
V&A, you know, V&A obviously continuing to grow in strong demand, but the base keeps rising, so it's impossible to keep growing the waterfront at 10% and 20% and 30%. So we're seeing high single-digit growth for the waterfront over the next... through to the, to June 2024. Growthpoint Investment Partners, on the fee side, things are stable. On the dividend side, there's still a few challenges, in relation to, you know, any final outcome with NSFAS on the one hand, and in the healthcare, in the healthcare fund, we've got that arrears issue that we, we're pretty confident we're gonna resolve that satisfactorily, but, it remains a little bit uncertain. UK, again, seeing that as being stable.
In Eastern Europe, the Globalworth contribution, given the debt refi and the initiatives that they're busy with, we think that there's gonna be some additional pressure on the dividend out of Globalworth. Expecting a lower dividend for the second half of our financial year. Then, yeah, we continue, obviously, to evaluate our strategic options in relation to Globalworth and Capital & Regional. Notwithstanding, I guess, the upward trajectory on LTVs, we remain focused on, you know, these strategic initiatives, which will preserve liquidity and balance sheet strength in the long term, and as I mentioned a little bit earlier, DIPS down 10%-12% for the year.
... So I think that concludes the formal part of the presentation, ladies and gents. Thanks very much. I know that there are a couple of questions on the online platform, which, between Estienne and myself, we're happy to cover them, and then please feel free yourselves as well. Let me deal with the ones online quickly. I don't think there are that many. There were three or four when I looked earlier. Pick n Pay.
I'm gonna deal with that.
The question is, our view on Pick n Pay and what we think about them and, what's happening. Okay, so clearly, the results came out. Everybody's totally freaked out. And, I think maybe our view is the following. So just to give you some statistics, they occupy about 109,000 square meters in our portfolio. It's roughly of our revenue for just retail. It's about 6.3%, roughly. It works out, if you put it over the whole of Growthpoint's South African portfolio, brings it down to about 2.3 odd%, 2.5 odd%. So, you know, we'd be relatively less worried than those focused retail funds, maybe. But the reality is, we are discussing, their occupancies with them, so it's ongoing discussion.
There will be maybe some space that will be canceled. They have got leases. They will have to buy themselves out of those leases. So that's the one side of the coin. We think that's gonna be roughly, maybe about 10,000 odd sq m at worst. Then there will be some space that they might wanna reduce. That might be another 5,000 sq m, maybe. Once again, all has financial impacts. We don't have that many expiries. There's a—I think the first one comes up in two years' time, and in most of the scenarios, we've got alternatives. So we're reasonably confident that we'll be able to manage if the situation goes really, really badly. We think, though, they'll, they'll. They trade reasonably well in several of our shopping centers, so we're reasonably confident about that. Then second question-
If I may just add to that.
You want to add?
Yeah, just a very... I mean, we're talking, I think Estienne said maybe 2.5% odd of our gross income is the exposure-
Mm.
- in total, and that's without mitigation. So if we're able to relet half of it, maybe it's like 1.25%. You know, I don't want to poo-poo it. It's still a decent number-
Mm.
But it's not certainly as material potentially as it might be for some of the other funds that are retail-focused only.
What was the yield on the Gyle?
The Gyle acquisition was done. I think it was about 13.5 or so % yield, running yield. So it looks optically very high. It was, it was high, but you've got to appreciate that there's some CapEx to be spent on that asset. So, and some of that CapEx will not be revenue generating. It'll be a sort of, let's call it non-revenue generating CapEx. We estimate that once you've spent that CapEx and done some of the key reletting that you need to do on that center, you can get a stabilized yield there of double digits of 10% or just over 10%, in the UK, which we think is, you know, pretty, pretty, pretty decent.
GOZ's valuations?
Question is whether GOZ's valuations have sort of run its course now in terms of the downward trajectory and whether we will continue to see more downward valuation at GOZ. Our view is that until the interest rate cycle actually turns, now everybody's talking second half of this year, when you start seeing up to 100 basis point, perhaps cut in interest rates, that's obviously not gonna affect our financial year to June 2024. Everything will be coming into the 2025 year. But it is our view that there would be probably some more write-down to come, both in GOZ and Globalworth, on the basis that interest rates will only start reducing, let's call it, in second half of calendar 2024.
We think there's probably still a bit more to come on the downward valuation for Globalworth and GOZ.
And then there's a question in respect of GSO, the Student Accommodation Fund, what drove the increase in expenses or operating costs? So the addition of The Peak and Apex Studios, as well as the addition of Brooklyn Studios, obviously added between the two of them, close to ZAR 33 million. If we then look at the additional load shedding that we've experienced through the period, that also added another just short of ZAR 3 million. The CapEx spent on beds and mattresses was an additional ZAR 2 million. And if we look at the other movements, effectively... Let me just check what was the last one here. No, the others- the other is about ZAR 1.3 million, so that would be the main drivers.
Then, there was another question around, I think, Pick n Pay we've dealt with. Anybody got questions off the floor? Over there, if you wouldn't mind just, just please stand up and speak loudly. I don't think we got a roving mic. Have we got a roving mic? We do have a roving mic.
We have a mic.
Okay.
Speak loudly. But maybe for the online guys, let's just... Testing. All good?
Yeah.
Probably gonna get pushback on this one, but considering we are basically three months away from the start of the 2025 year, and it's quite a depleted base year that you'll then have, could you see a situation where 2025 yields some sort of nominal growth in DIPS again, notwithstanding all the other unpredictable things that could happen?
It is a good question, and, look, we're not in the habit, really, of giving projections beyond the financial year that we're in.
... I would say that, all things being equal, one feels that, you know, things should be bottoming out. The real question mark is still interest rates.
Mm.
Where are interest rates gonna end up? How long are they gonna? You know, the rhetoric is higher for longer, right? I think. So we all expect interest rates to come down. They're not gonna come down back to where they were before the interest rate rise cycle started. If anything, maybe sort of halfway down again. We have the challenge, I guess, that we have, is embedded in our swap book. And we've actually, for the first time, disclosed a lot of detail. Analysts have been asking for detail on the swap books and how the cross-currency interest rate swaps and the interest rate swap book is repricing.
There's no doubt that, in particular, for the international, let's say, for the hard currency debt, effectively that we have, and the Aussie, mainly Aussie, I'd say 80% of it is probably Aussie. There's a graph in the annexures, which will show you that, there's still gonna be quite a bit of upward pressure where we have historic swaps at 1.4, 1.8 odd %. Now, assuming we're going to refix those, we're gonna be up at the 4, 4.3, et cetera. That is gonna push the weighted average cost of our debt, is still gonna... We haven't peaked there yet.
Mm.
So we're showing an average of weighted average cost of debt for SA debt at 9.6. We think that's, it's still, it's gonna go up, but it maybe, you know, by a couple of, by twenty basis points or something, maybe that goes to sort of a 9.8. On the foreign debt, if you include the foreign debt into our weighted average cost of debt, it takes us down to 7.1. The 7.1 is still gonna be going up, mainly driven by the foreign stuff. So 7.3, 7.6 out of that. It depends, obviously, where rates are when we refix those. If we marked all of those to market today, you'd probably end up at the 7.6 odd. So that pressure is gonna prevail for into the FY 2025.
Mm.
But we do feel... And as I said earlier, you know, within the underlying investment, certainly within Globalworth, as they refinance debt, their debt cost is gonna go. You know, the bonds that they, they're paying 3% on those bonds. So, as they refi in whichever, whatever format they're gonna be refi-ing, whether it's vanilla bank debt or back into the debt capital markets, you know, you're looking at, I don't know, euro. Anybody borrowing euros today for five years, you're probably looking at 7%, 6%-7% there or thereabout. So there will be that pressure. CapReg, not so much. GOZ, I mentioned earlier, GOZ, GOZ's underlying cost of debt, their own weighted average cost of debt is also rising.
So I think there's still a bit of pressure around, so it's difficult to say whether that ultimately translates into nominal growth or whether it's flattish, or whether it's-
Yeah.
nominal down. But one would hope that, you know, it's we sort of hitting the bottom of the, of the cycle. Yeah.
Good afternoon, guys. Can you hear me?
Sure.
Am working. Just a question on Globalworth. So there's a diminishing return profile, yeah? So I just want to get a sense, from you in terms of what, what do you think the end game is? I mean, do you think perhaps we could see a recapitalization? Would you be compelled to sort of participate in a recapitalization, just in terms of how the story may play out with the refinancing, et cetera, or whether you would actively look to dispose of your exposure there?
So look, I mean, whether there's additional equity, whether there's, could be, be a need for additional equity, I, I don't... Not what I can see at the moment, not what we're seeing at the moment. We, the company is very active in managing this refi cycle of theirs. As I mentioned, they sold the industrial portfolio. The industrial portfolio is about EUR 300 million. Some of it's 100% owned. The other piece is, let's say, joint venture, 50% owned with a development partner. The 100% owned portion was sold, and we announced that deal, or the company announced that deal on Monday. A EUR 170 million. There's some debt against that. I think net cash back to the center is about EUR 70 million.
So, in addition to that, the company has been, all of the, the debt, historic debt being in the bond market has been unsecured. So the company's gone and taken on, normal bank loans, secured debt, by offering the assets as security, putting in place facilities and actually drawing down on those facilities and putting the cash on balance sheet. So you can see the cash sitting there, EUR 360-odd million worth. And, you know, all things considered, we believe they get through the refinance cycle, without the need for additional equity. In relation to our own investment, I mean, clearly we sit in there as a minority investor, so, we don't really like being minority investors. You know, we would be open to, you know...
Let me put it to you this way as well. Fundamentally, we actually don't—we still quite like, you know, the CEE region as an investment destination in terms of risk profile, returns, et cetera. And if you look at the operating metrics, it's not bad, even though it's all office, it's pretty much all office. I mean, the actual, we got 8.5% sort of growth there in rentals through the indexation, through this particular period, is what they announced. So, at an NOI level, I think NOI for Globalworth was 5% up year on year. So, you know, it's a bit of a, you know, a mixed bag, but the region is definitely still a region that we actually, you know, quite like.
So in the final analysis, is there a solution where, I don't know, we, we keep a piece of it, or, you know, if, if somebody were to make a, an offer, we would have to evaluate it on its merits and then decide whether we could-- We're not, we're not particularly driven by selling out of the CEE region. It's more just, let's call it the efficiency of the structure and the minority position that we have, et cetera, which is, which is not optimal for us. Don't know if that answers your question. Other questions? No, François, you always come with difficult questions. Come on.
Mic was close, so-
We can't hear you. Just make sure that's on.
The mic was nice and close, so I thought I might as well ask a question. Just on the rates dispute that you mentioned in the offices, so you've provisioned ZAR 35 million, if I'm not mistaken, and that could reverse.
You pay first, argue later.
Okay. Okay.
Like SARS.
Yeah. So does that help explain why the office cost to rent ratio went up as much as it did?
Yeah. I think it's... Is it 36? What was the number? What was the number? 36. 36. I think it's 36, and if you strip it out, to go, you like for like growth. 26 or 36? It's 36. There's Paul. Paul? 35. Okay, 35. 35. Sorry, that's the number I had in mind. Yeah, 35. So it, it, it'll bring that like for like, would have brought it down to, I don't know, just on three-ish.
Thanks. That's helpful. The level of vacancies is still elevated. It's coming off nicely, but maybe if you could just talk to the environment and where you see that going, any interest in your empty spaces?
Yeah, yeah. Maybe, Paul, if you want to take that one, it'll be good. That's unfair. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I could just, before Paul answers, yeah. I mean, just some perspective there, Francois, from my side. If you look at, if you analyze the letting that we've done now in the last six months, there's a fair chunk of that is BPO, call center type, demand. I mean, the reality is, guys, there's not a hell of a lot of demand out there, right? I mean, very few corporates, banks, lawyers, accounting firms, our traditional tenants, nobody's really growing. There's still a trend of consolidation. There's still a trend of reduction, you know, and optimization, et cetera.
But what we've seen is Cape Town and Durban have benefited massively from BPO in the last 3-5 years. So much so that the Durban, our Durban portfolio is something like, I think it's 60% or 70% of the tenants are BPO. And they've run out of space in Durban and Cape Town. There's always been arguments why Jo'burg doesn't suit. We've taken active steps to meet with the various associations to try and understand why Jo'burg doesn't suit. It doesn't instinctively make sense if your rentals in Jo'burg can be half of what you're paying in Durban and Cape Town. It should work. We've been very successful there. I think we did three BPO deals, 10, 13, 15 thousand squares or something. I forget the exact number. Paul will have the exact number for us.
And then maybe beyond that, Paul, if you want to answer what other activity you've seen.