Record this afternoon. I'm pretty sure everyone got their announcement this morning, saw that Growthpoint has actually improved guidance. Looks like things are on the up, right? I mean, we've published a couple of reports talking about the bigger focus on the asset portfolio and how those wheels of change are definitely moving in the right direction. Obviously, just to go through the usual housekeeping here, if you guys have any questions, please feel free to just pop them into the chat box. I'll read them verbatim to the management team, and they'll answer the questions. If you guys are joining late, I suppose it won't really apply here, but try to keep yourselves on mute, obviously, to avoid distractions.
you know, without any delay, I'd like to hand over to Norbert to just give us an overview of what's happened over the last nine months.
Thanks, Mauricio. Thanks for the introduction. Welcome, everybody. I think all I'd like to do is maybe just highlight a couple of key themes. I'm not going to go through the announcement in any detail at all. I think everybody's had the opportunity throughout the course of the day to go through the announcement. As I said, please pass through any questions as you have them. Just at a very high level, definitely, you know, things are feeling a bit better. We were able to tighten up guidance a little bit on the sort of upper end of that range of 1-3%, narrowing that to sort of 2-3%. It's in large part, I guess, attributable to continued improvement in the performance of the South African business.
I think that kind of recovery is evident from, you know, most of the key performance indicators, you know, a couple of those, we've cited in the presentation. Just a continuous improvement in many of the key performance indicators that drive the South African net property income numbers and ultimately the growth. The theme of coastal regions continuing to perform substantially better than the inland region continues. We undoubtedly continue to see Western Cape outperforming, followed by KZN, and then inland. It is also evident, I guess, you know, when one looks at all the various reversions, you know, the improvement of the South African performance, you know, evident in the improvement in the various reversions, with, in particular, I think, logistics, industrial, and retail, you know, doing quite well.
Office still, still negative, but significantly better than what we had seen before. The offshore investments and growth coming out of offshore investments remains a bit constrained at the moment. Growthpoint Australia reconfirming their dividend a couple of weeks back. We are still seeing some pressure on, you know, from Globalworth, considering the debt renewals that took place in May 2024, and the impact of a full 12 months of the higher interest costs there relative to, you know, to seven months in the prior period. Relating to the strategic thrusts and initiatives, we continue with the asset disposal programs. For the year, we expect about ZAR 2.3 billion worth of disposals. It'll be a bit short on our original target, but then, you know, we are also continuing to invest.
We've got about ZAR 2.2 billion, targeted CapEx program. That is mainly focused on logistics, warehousing, and retail, particularly in the Western Cape, as well as our renewable energy focus, which we continue to roll out, mainly solar, solar PVs. At the nine months, I think we've spent about ZAR 1.2 billion of that ZAR 2.2 billion CapEx program. On the international investments, we are looking at, continue to look to simplify the business and the international investments. We did sell Capital & Regional in December last year. We do continue to hold the NewRiver stake at the moment, but just to add that, you know, that is not a long-term core investment for us. At the right time, we will consider, we'll consider the stake.
Waterfront, very strong still, you know, seeing significant potential for residential profits coming through there with the residential development that we've done. There's sort of ZAR 4 billion-ZAR 5 billion development pipeline at the moment with enhancing the retail offering, and then obviously also improving the overall hotel offering by bringing in strong international brands into the Waterfront. Lastly, just as a key sort of theme, the, let's call it liquidity and debt position, loan-to-values, interest rate, interest cover ratios. Fair to say that we're particularly comfortable at the moment. It, we, you know, there's no doubt that we have topped out on the interest rate cycle, bottomed out on the valuation cycle. We've seen 100 basis point interest rate cuts. We continue to expect that there'll be some more.
We certainly, when it comes to both the debt capital markets as well as funding being offered from the banks, have probably never been in a better position than we are today, with availability of debt funding, both tenor as well as margin, probably as good as it has been in many, many years. I will conclude with that as a very high-level overview, highlighting a couple of the themes. Mauricio, I will hand over to you for any question.
Sure. Thanks, Norbert. Just a reminder to all the listeners, just remember that you can type your question in the chat, and then I'll read it out. Just to kick us off, right, obviously with the theme of SA being, you know, almost a core focus, you guys putting a bit more money towards that. I've seen you have spent about ZAR 2.2 billion on the SA portfolio, which is quite significant, right? It's basically ahead of what you'd see for most guys in SA as a proportion of total assets. Is this the kind of new normal we can expect now for there to be a higher spend on the SA portfolio?
Yeah, I'll maybe give it a first crack, and Norbert, you chip in with additional. I think obviously you have to appreciate our SA portfolio is sort of the oven, right? It's the biggest part of the business. With it being quite a sizable portfolio, there is quite a requirement for reinvestment. Strategically, we are investing into new developments, specifically in the industrial side, which has meant that there have been new assets being added. At the same time, we've been spending quite a bit of money in the retail portfolio as well, refurbishing and generally making sure that our assets are the best quality they can be. Some of it is defensive. Quite a bit of that spend is also into solar. We've also been investing.
We've built up now quite a big energy business within Growthpoint. We're going to be close to just over 60 odd meg of rooftop solar. And, you know, that speaks to our e-CO2 initiative, which Bernard can chat about maybe a little bit later if there's time. Certainly, it is a key objective. South Africa is still an investment destination, which we believe has got legs and growth. You know, on the back of that, we will allocate capital to ensure that it delivers on that promise.
Yeah. And then maybe just to add, sorry, Mauricio, just to add that, I mean, that 2.2 is a little bit lumpy, you know, this year as well. You know, we've got a couple of really big projects in there, which are the Table Bay or the assets, Bayside Mall down in Cape Town, which is a number. We have a hotel project, the Hilton Canopy Hotel. I mean, that's like ZAR 400 million, the big chunk of that was spent during this period. We also have 3600 Strayed Om, the redevelopment of the old Invest Decade office building on the foreshore in Cape Town, which is now being prepared for occupation by '91 on the back of a 15-year lease. That's also ZAR 400 million plus, you know. So you've got a couple of chunky numbers there. Your question was sort of run rate.
I would think that maybe this is a little bit heavy on the run rate, maybe one and a half to two as a more sort of realistic, longer term, maybe run rate. It is just a number that I feel comfortable with, in relation, you know, to answer your question.
Okay. Has that been sort of better yielding than going offshore over the last year or two?
I think the reality is that we haven't really had the opportunity, in terms of, you know, further offshore investment. I think there are two things. We feel that up until now, we've obviously been quite capital constrained. We are probably in a better position now and feel a lot more comfortable with our ability to potentially allocate capital offshore. We haven't really felt that comfortable until now. To be honest, the opportunities for further deployment into, let's say, our two existing investments, haven't presented themselves. We haven't been targeting any other offshore investments, given the fact that part of our overall sort of strategy now is to simplify our equity story.
Yeah, I think, you know, the focus therefore has been on the immediate opportunities on our doorstep in SA.
Okay. So just jumping into some of the questions, we've got a few at least asked. I would like to better understand the V&A capital requirements and options being considered based on the FR24 disclosure. LTV was 6.97%. Can future V&A CapEx not be funded out of debt given the lower gearing?
Okay, I'll maybe take that. As you correctly point out, the V&A, the entity which is jointly held between Growthpoint 50% and the GEPF 50%, managed by the PIC, it did not have particularly high leverage. We do have quite a CapEx pipeline for that asset. Developing out new hotels, there is infrastructure we are looking at in V&A. We are doing a residential development. Obviously, that capital will come back because it is luxury units for sale. The pipeline will, in the short term, be funded by using that balance sheet. We have been very successful in raising debt. The banks have actually been particularly keen to provide funding to the V&A through that balance sheet specifically. For the medium term, that definitely is going to be the area that we will be raising debt for all those capital requirements.
Okay. And then the target LTV for the V&A, what's the level that's?
Yeah. I mean, I think it would be sort of consistent with that of Growthpoint's, you know. Given the fact that, at this stage, we do not consolidate the V&A, the V&A at all, it is an equity investment. It does provide us probably a little bit more flexibility. You know, generally, given the fact that we have two institutional kind of long-term real estate investors, we will probably keep the debt levels at similar levels to what Growthpoint would be at.
Okay.
There's quite a lot of runway to that.
You guys are happy to put the money in.
Most of those investments are, you know, delivering good growth, once they deliver.
Interesting question here from Faiyaz Motia from Sunland. He's asked, do you think there's an opportunity for Globalworth to have a go at Mass as well?
Globalworth a go at Mass? No, maybe I'll give that one to you.
Let me just say that it's not being considered at the moment.
Yeah, thanks.
It's pretty crowded there.
There's a lot going on there.
Question from Pranita Daya from Truffle. She's asked, please remind us how much of your energy requirements are being covered by solar currently.
Bernard, I don't know if you want to maybe take that for us.
Yeah, I think, you know, there's two components that we're aiming at. The one is our rooftop solar, and, you know, currently, like Estienne mentioned, we will reach over 60 megawatts of solar installed in our rooftop solar space. We also have a power purchase agreement that we signed that's now going to come into fruition from September this year onwards. The power purchase agreement, in essence, is going to actually cater for around 32% of our energy requirements if we use the energy consumption of financial year 2023 as a base. Our rooftop solar, in essence, is going to be between, you know, 7-10% additional on top of that. You know, that's the penetration of renewable energy into our portfolio.
Also very important to note is the power mix that we acquired from our power purchase agreement is more a 24/7 baseload type power mix. The reason for that is to get a higher penetration of renewable energy into our portfolio.
Were those penetration numbers based on the entire SA portfolio or just retail?
No, the entire SA portfolio.
Okay. Quite strong. Maybe just related to that, how far along are you guys with regards to using up all the potential areas to actually put up solar PV on your retail and sort of parking lots? Because I'm finding that quite a few guys are near the end of using all the space that they've got available.
Yeah. There are still a few opportunities left. We're actually exploring every single roof space that's available to put rooftop solar in. You know, taking into consideration the regulatory constraints that, you know, are provided from a, you know, not feeding back into the network at certain municipalities. Without a doubt, you know, I can assure you that every single roof space is analyzed and there is still a pipeline to be rolled out. You know, we're also doing quite innovative stuff in the solar space of how to track performance of our rooftop solar. We're putting a lot of effort and a lot of resource capacity into that to make sure that our solar plants perform to an optimal level.
Yeah. Just to maybe explore the regulatory constraint, because I'm not sure everybody will be familiar, but in a perfect world, we would be able to cover everything under solar and provide power to, for instance, from our retail to our offices or vice versa, depending on when those facilities are occupied and using power or not. In the current regulatory framework, property A, which is next door to property B, cannot supply property B. The wheeling arrangements in the current regulatory environment are quite constricting. I think that, you know, we've obviously done a deal with a trader, which gives us some flexibility, but it is still quite a constraint with our own generating capacity.
Yeah.
You know, as the industry deregulates, I think that, you know, there might be an opportunity to revisit then some of the capacity on some of the facilities, because the issue is the feasibility on those. If you can't utilize that power 24/7 or at least the full day, you know, and weekends. Weekends is obviously a big issue.
Yeah. I've understood that there's almost some optimism with regards to the wheeling becoming available between the different buildings. Is that, I'm guessing that's, can you give us a, like a timeline and when you think that might be next year or so?
Bernard, closer to the regulatory side. I think, you know, maybe to highlight that we were the first company to wheel between two properties within, you know, Cape Town municipality, between Constantia Village Shopping Centre and the 3600 Straight on the new building that we're refurbishing to 91. That is constantly explored. Within our energy department, we actually focus on three things. That's rooftop solar, implementation of the PPA, and internal wheeling. Internal wheeling, we are at the forefront. We, you know, looking at opportunities and I assure you if there's opportunities, we will explore it.
Okay. Maybe just one last one that's maybe attached to this with regards to the suspended load shedding of last year. I understand you guys were collecting quite a bit and recovering on the diesel costs, but how much of a boost did that give for FR25's, sort of NPI number, maybe more so on the retail side?
Chris, just repeat the question. Sorry.
Yeah. So there's been,
Less diesel consumption.
Yeah, less diesel consumption. What's that sort of boost been?
Yeah. I don't have the number at the end, to be quite honest.
Well, we.
In place.
Yeah.
Also recovered less.
Yeah.
Because it's really a bit of an in and out. That wouldn't have made a significant difference.
Yeah. I figured.
Maybe we'll obviously address that in our year-end results in a couple of months because then we'll have a full year's picture. We didn't actually get that number handy.
No problem. Okay. Question from François Dutoit is asked, can you give a sense of the profit margin expected on the Olympus Sandton Resi development of the ZAR 1.3 billion investments? What is Growthpoint share? Would these profits contribute to distributable income?
Yeah. Maybe just to talk about Olympus. For those that do not know where Olympus is, it is a residential development that we have done in JV with a company called Tricord in Sandton Summit, which is a precinct in and around, if you like, the Discovery building. The usual sort of trend with these developments is you will conceptualize the development and then put it into the market and see if you can pre-sale some of those units. The specific development had 284 units in the one tower and 197 in the other. We went to market with the first tower. To be honest, we were a little surprised to just about sell out that first tower. We opened the second tower to the market, and that has performed well.
We are pretty much close to where the pre-sale requirement is now. We are just going through the processes to, as we call it, green line those potential buyers, which means, you know, you get agreements in place and you get debt confirmation and all those kind of things, proof of funds so that, you know, that is a genuine purchase that is backed by cash. We are 50/50 in that development with Tricord. That development, if we press the button, it will probably be, I do not know, in the second half, maybe like end of first quarter, in this coming financial year, so the 2026 year. Profits from that, we will probably only see in the 2027 financial year.
Yeah, 2027 and 2028, because it's going to take a couple of years to build such a big development, right? Those profits consist of a little bit of development profit, which is sort of a small, kind of really insignificant number, kind of just covering our costs. The second part, which François alludes to, is then the development profits on those. We're not going to disclose, François, the profit margin because that just wouldn't be very clever to do. What we will do is tell you that we think that we'll probably see most of that in the FY 2028, and it'll be distributable earnings, right?
Yeah.
It might spread over the years, depending on how we finish the two towers, the timing of which, and how we transfer those units. They might spread over more than one financial year. It might not be all in one year, in one financial period.
I think, Estienne, just to, I think you mentioned the word development profits twice. I mean, just to distinguish between development fees, which, I think Neil you mentioned, was we should earn about 4% of, of development fees. I don't know if that's to be shared 50/50 with Tricord, so 2% each or 4%. Maybe you can just clarify. but then yeah.
No, it's basically 50/50. Everything's 50/50. So yeah.
Is that 2% each?
Pretty much. Yeah.
Then we, the development profits, obviously on top of that, those will be lumpy and bulky.
Okay. Question from Ridwaan Loonat from Nedbank is asked, will the ZAR 500 million shortfall in disposal proceeds impact capital allocation plans for FY 2026?
I don't think so. I think, you know, the reality is I think we do have significant borrowing capacity. I mean, we've been repaying debt, and it's more just a timing issue. You know, whilst it's a shortfall for this to June 2025, some of those things may come through literally a month or two late. We are certainly experiencing significant delays in transfer once we have signed sale agreements. The process of getting rate clearances, the process of going through the deeds officers, is taking exceptionally long and certainly, you know, significantly longer than we used to experience in the past. It's quite difficult for us to sort of time these things. You know, we project that they will transfer in a particular month, and then they just get delayed.
As we sit here today, we've got, what's the date today? 26. We've got like four days to the end of the year. And we're still sitting with a significant amount of transactions in the deeds office. They've actually been lodged. They're sitting here, but transfer should take place literally, you know, today or tomorrow. There's never any guarantees. There's often times, you know, these things get thrown out of the deeds office because you're missing one particular document, or, you know, one particular clearance certificate has expired or whatever it is. It's complex, but I don't think it impacts to my mind, because it'll be a month or two delayed. We do have, you know, significant, let's call it debt capacity, to cover.
Okay. Maybe just related to that, Ridwaan as well, he says, Growthpoint recycled about 10% of current SA portfolio valuation in the last five years. What are the long-term targets or total value of non-core assets that you're looking to sell?
Maybe Neil, I do not know if you want to have a go at that one. Do you have, you know, strategic?
Yeah. Difficult questions.
Yeah. If you think of the strategic plan that we've got, you know, and just talk to maybe the numbers that we've got between now and 2028.
Yeah. I mean, we do have a number and we have identified properties in each sector, and we're running it over a five-year rolling plan. I don't know that it would be right for me to give the absolute number. It is a significant number. At the same time, we are adding to that through, you know, developments, redevelopments. We are recycling a lot of that, a lot of those proceeds from the sales back into the South African business and other parts of the business. On a portfolio of 300, circa 350 properties, you can well imagine that there are a significant number of non-core properties. Typically, those are smaller in value, but they make up a large number. Yeah.
Okay. Understood. I was going to jump.
It's sort of a big, big chance there as well to say that, you know, we, even historically, you know, we've almost reinvested historically as much as we've disposed, right? I think the disposals are exceeding the reinvestment a little bit. So net, net the number, you know, will come down, but not, not dramatically. It's not as if, you know, the overall SA portfolio of 60, whatever the number is now, 65 or billion will go down to 30 billion. You know, it'll come down, but it'll still be a significant portfolio. The intention is that it would be newer, more modern, you know, assets, more energy efficient assets in better growth nodes, and probably with a lighter weighting to office and a greater, and an increasing weighting to both, certainly logistics and, and, and warehousing and, and retail.
Okay. I'm sort of picking up a bit of a theme here around SA just being maybe where the money's going and maybe a bit of a different question. If you guys are given cash right now, would it be basically deployed within SA as opposed to going offshore right now?
Other than, yeah, I mean, we, we're not looking at new markets at the moment. We definitely are, you know, keen to allocate more capital to, to GOZ. GOZ has always been particularly core, to us. We've got a new CEO in the seat there and we've given him a mandate to grow the business, with an emphasis and focus on, on equity light, let's call it funds management strategies. To the extent that, you know, opportunities open up there that require some capital that, that GOZ might need, we would be certainly willing and able to support with some, sort of some capital allocation from, from South Africa.
I think equally with regards to Globalworth, as we try and optimize that particular investment, you know, where we, I think it's fair to say that, you know, the three shareholders have all got different strategies, different opportunities and different, let's say, approaches to capital allocation. In order to, you know, to try and solve that particular challenge that we have there, if it required additional capital allocation from the group, from South Africa, we'd certainly be willing and able to do that.
Okay. So we've got five questions from our Kabelo Moshesha from Mazi Capital. I'll start with the first one. He's asked, any developments around leadership succession?
Yeah, look, I'll take that. I mean, I think yes, the board continues to, you know, is in the process and continues to, you know, work on the leadership succession challenges that we have. I think in the short term, it's basically twofold. It's Gerald will be retiring in September, and then myself will be retiring in, let's call it, 18 months' time. I think there's, you know, ongoing process and work being undertaken by the board, and I think we should be in a position to make announcements in the next couple of months.
Okay. Second question, I think you've already answered. Third one is, please share the color on the rising vacancies in retail, plans to reverse that and paths to reverse the trends.
Kevin, you're on the call, right?
Yes, I am. Happy to answer the question.
The retail currently sits at about 5.8% of GLA. That includes a fair amount of offices within that space, the likes of Golden Acre that is ready for transfer. There will be some diminishing of that. The core retail vacancies sit at about 4.3%. Where we do see vacancies is in the likes of Alberton Centre with the closure of Game. We are redeveloping that space, currently putting Shoprite in, taking Pick n Pay out, and we are converting some of that space to supermarket support parking. The other large vacancy has been in Brooklyn Mall, again with the closure of Game. The upside is it has given us a good opportunity for redevelopment. Largely, the vacancies beyond the Game closure were historic to office and cinema closures previously, and that asset has been addressed through a strategic redevelopment plan we are busy with at the moment.
and then we've been through some cycles of vacancies in the Northgate space. We there have opened up the Shoprite yesterday, taking up a large chunk of that. So strategically, we are continually heading into the reduction of the vacancies and looking forward, that number will decline to the number below the 4.3%.
Okay. Question number four, he's asked, any initiatives looking at improving regional retail asset performance? You kind of answered this, but maybe you can focus more on getting the turnover up or maybe footfall or something along those lines.
Yeah, the regional asset performance, you know, we've seen a year-on-year growth of trading density sitting at about 4.5%. That's a good healthy number. In the last three months ending March, we saw that tick up to 5.5%. We trade on those trading densities at an average of ZAR 36,000 a square meter per annum. That fits very close to the MSCI benchmark for regionals. You know, as we look and redevelop these centers, the likes of Bayside standing and looking at investment in Paarl, and as we work through today and some introduction of the Red Band at Long Beach with the builders, these densities are rising. Similarly, the tail under that with the disposal strategy, there are assets that are being exited that aren't meeting those criteria.
The densities are fairly in the benchmark, across the rental sales to those trades are in line with the MSCI benchmark. Regionals are continuing to perform upwards as we've seen over the last year. They should follow through with initiatives we have.
Okay. Then the last one is, trends around your logistics developments and capacity to absorb space. Any updates there?
That's, you know, maybe pause to Errol.
Errol, are you there?
I'm here. I just want to make sure I understand your question. Do you mind just repeating it in terms of the logistics space?
Yeah. What are the developments that are taking place in the logistics space, and do you have capacity to absorb more?
We do, most certainly. We are in a fortunate position that we do have a substantial amount of land bank at our disposal, more particularly in the likes of the Centralpoint or Samrand node. We have capacity to expand quite extensively out in the Charting area. We also have capabilities in KZN. Given the demand for logistics-type space across the country, without a doubt, there is opportunity for us to expand that component of the business.
Okay. Thanks. Similar theme, right, from François Dutoit. He says, in light of Growthpoint appetite for Western Cape logistic developments and the spec build that's added to vacancies in the Coastsite, can you discuss the expected returns on these investments, your hurdle total return rates for such investments, and your outlook for finding a tenant for such a spec build?
Yeah. I might just say that it certainly was a speculative development, and that was basically completed towards March this year. As of July, we will only have one unit which is still vacant. We have managed to let all that space but one unit, given the demand for space, which is why I think we have timed the cycle quite nicely to ensure that we have got stock coming to the market when there is demand for such space.
Just to give a quick reflection on the returns, I mean, generally speaking, we'd be targeting 9.5%, minimum 9.5% initial yields based on feasibility rentals. We often have a, well, we have a look back at, you know, the actual versus feasibility on a regular basis. And it's fair to say that the guys are coming in at or above their feasibilities that they present to the deal forum when you look at these opportunities. You know, when one considers a sort of a 7% odd escalation on top of that, we typically targeting 15.5%-16.5% odd IRRs as part of the approvals.
That'd be a bit higher than maybe some of our competitors.
Yeah. Okay. Question from [Fyar Amid] . Can you quantify the expected impact of the Transnet vacates on the office vacancies? I suppose maybe what the effect would be. Are you seeing any demand for the space now?
Tim, that's a nice one.
It's actually about 1.25%.
You put your camera on, Tim. Sorry, man.
Sorry, I thought I had.
No problem.
It should be there.
It's not.
Apologies, it's something technical on Kenny Amin.
Okay. You can just carry on then.
Okay. Good. It actually constitutes about 1.25% of the vacancy. It's about 20,000 sq m. It's two separate buildings across a road. We do actually have interest in the buildings. They are two different buildings, and one is a potential residential conversion. There's quite a bit of that type of activity in the node. The other is for rental, as some sort of rental opportunity going forward. That's specifically the question and the answer.
Okay. Just because you actually considering residential there, again, maybe just out of left field, have you guys considered also doing anything storage related? Or is that just not something you guys will be willing to get into?
Not storage. I mean, we will investigate those types of things. You must remember storage is quite technical. There are floor loading issues that are under consideration and also efficiency. When these things are considered, by the time you look at the strengthening and other requirements, that could be a different consideration. Yeah, alternative uses, education, other things like that are all under consideration.
Every property gets assessed. If it's not meeting our kind of strategic requirements, then it gets assessed and we look at all the alternatives that it potentially can, you know, be, what's going to give us the best return on exit. What we have found obviously is that, you know, the high density developers have been pretty much on the front foot, taking quite a bit of space out the market in that space, which is obviously beneficial in terms of the demand supply dynamics in, you know, nodes like Sandton and other places.
Okay. Next question from François Dutoit. How does the 23% EBIT growth from V&A compare to the EBIT growth at 31 December? I suppose at interims, can you give a sense of the distributable income growth from the V&A up to the 31st of March, or better still, if we can go a bit later than that, to the last bit here, guidance for V&A distributable income contribution to FY 2025?
It's a bit key. I don't have a detailed question there, François. Yeah. You sure you don't want me to just give you the distribution for December next year?
Jokes aside, I mean, obviously the numbers are reasonably consistent, right, towards the end of the year. What has to be appreciated is that in this last quarter, we have taken the Table Bay out of operations, and that Table Bay is being refurbished. It has impacted the growth number, I would say negatively relative to the number you have seen to March. That closed in February, end of February. It was only in for one month and now it is going to be in for another three months in this last quarter towards the end of the year.
I think what I'm saying is you should expect the number to come down in terms of a growth rate for the V&A coming to Growthpoint. As a result, the distribution level is quite a bit higher than last year, but it's not going to be up, you know, the kind of percentages here.
Okay.
Adventure, just, I mean, the time as to how it translates to our June to June, let's say, periods is difficult. If I'm just thinking waterfront numbers March to March, we should be looking at double digit, you know, certainly low double digit growth out of the waterfront into next year on the March to.
Yeah. Sounds quite strong. Serena has asked as a follow-on from Riley's V&A question. Can you give an update on planning for V&A Granger Bay expansion? It will need significant investment from joint owners PIC. When can we expect relevant provincial approvals and timeframes?
Yeah. It's not so much, it's quite a complex question. The application is in for roughly 440,000 sq m of bulk rights, mixed use, predominantly sort of towards the Granger Bay side of things. That process is currently being dealt with through council. I think it has to go through about 16 different departments, and each one of those departments are assessing it. So far, we've had really positive feedback. If they, I think in the next month, we should probably know more or less where we stand with that process. Let's say for instance, one of the departments then gives us a negative nod on that, then we can go to municipal tribunal. That'll probably take another two to three months and then it goes to the mayor, mayoral council and they can override all of that.
Let's assume you can get through all of that, you can get your then approvals to do what we want to do in the V&A, which is very ambitious. We will also need environmental approval. We've already commenced that process, but in terms of the NEMA Act, which is the Environmental Coastal Protection Act in plain English, we would have to take that approval through parliament and that could take effectively two years. This is a long game. Some of those rights will be developed without that, you know, that environmental study, and it all boils down to land reclamation out of the sea. The reality is if we go for the full hog, then it's going to take a little bit of time.
We are sort of in new territory because nobody's ever taken anything through parliament. It is a brand new act, but it will be absolutely amazing for Cape Town. You have to support the financially supportive shareholders in the form of both Growthpoint and the Government Employees Pension Fund, right?
Okay. No one's been really asking about the finances for, I mean, just maybe can you guys give us a sense of where you are writing new facilities for both SA and what you expect in Australia? Right. You've been watching your average cost of debt slowly dropping, but of course that's an average. I'm quite keen to know what's happening right now if you were to write new, new facilities.
I'll show, Treasury will take that job.
Yeah, I'll do the SA portion. Both with base rates coming down over the last year, we haven't done any new financing for this year, just given the, you know, the level of disposals that we've had in the business. We've actually been reducing debt through the year. Typically at this time of the year, we go through a refinance process with our banks and we have seen a significant reduction in credit margins as well. I think the market's come down in general. We are seeing the benefit of that coming through, which you'll see in the June 2025 results because we are in that process at the moment. On the hedging, the average hedges that we are doing are still a little bit more expensive than what's rolling off the book. That kind of adds a little bit back on again.
I think in general, both with the floating rate, with base rates coming down, with charter coming down over the last year, as well as credit margins coming down, we are seeing they've been coming through the book.
Would your new facilities be higher or lower than 9.1% in SA right now?
Lower.
Okay. And then within Australia?
Yeah. With Australia, they're probably ticking up. In company, in company on that balance sheet, it's ticking up still. Just to contextualize, I mean, rates there went from circa between 50 basis points, base rates from 50 basis points to a percent up to 435. They have come down 50 basis points, give or take. They're around 380, between 370 and 380 ish. You are still refining on that balance sheet more expensive, which is having a negative impact on that dips. On our side, obviously we have cross currency swaps and the like in those. I should get my.
Refinanced also at a slightly higher rate. The last year for those, if I can call them the historical cheap swaps, will be FY 2026, and post FY 2026 should be clean after that.
What is the quantum of the ones that are expiring in 2026?
AUD 200 million. Aussie dollars. Yeah.
Okay.
It's like a quarter.
About 900.
Now it's a short decade. It's about a quarter of the total hearing.
Okay.
I mean, those rates have come down a little bit though. You know, they went up to about 4.5%, 4.6%, the swap rates, et cetera, and they've come down. I mean, the three year is about 320 at the moment. They are coming down slowly. They're a little bit behind us in terms of interest rate reductions, but yeah, we are seeing them starting to, I think they've had two interest rate reductions by now.
Yeah. It took them a while because those guys have very different inflation and very different economy.
Exactly. I think, look, before the folks in the Middle East were throwing phones in, the sort of general trend was that interest rates in South Africa as well as Australia were going to systematically come down. You know, given all the uncertainty, I mean, we were optimistic because we had quite a strong vote for the May reduction and one party that voted for basis points. We expected maybe now another in August, another 25 basis points. In Australia, they actually messaged that they were going to sort of bring it down at the next meeting again, you know. If they are consistent with that messaging, then you should get another interest rate reduction. The issue is that we have quite a few hedges.
We protect the balance sheet, you know, but we are a little bit shorter. In the South African context, we've gone a little bit shorter so that if rates do come down, then we'll benefit. In this world, rates can go up again, you know. It is a very difficult move to take an active position, but we are a little bit shorter than we have typically been.
Okay. Another question from François has asked, what would be the impact on retail vacancies of the disposal of Golden Acre, given vacancies were 26% there at FY 2024? What was Golden Acre's vacancy at 31st of March 2025?
Okay. Kevin, maybe if you want to give that a crack.
Yeah. I don't have the exact number of the vacancy as it matched 25 for Golden Acre in front of me, but it does reduce the overall vacancy because Golden Acre contains a very large office component and that contains close to 8,500 sq m of office vacancy. So it has the impact of reducing that vacancy from an office vacancy reduction in the retail value. That's part of that scheme. It normalizes that to a large portion down to 5.4% rate somewhere where other office vacancies in Australia may be slightly better.
Just for clarity.
It's, it's obviously you've got the shopping center, you've got the tower on top of the shopping center, then you've got the Grand Parade Center, which is adjacent and connected. Next to that is 11 Adley, which is actually in the office portfolio. That whole piece is currently on prep for disposal.
Let me just add that there is no retail vacancy in the retail components of that scheme. The vacancy is only in the office.
On both sides, 11 Adley has a vacancy as well.
We'll try and find that.
Also, question from Warren Riley. There is ZAR 2.5 billion in expiring South African debt in 1H 2026 and ZAR 5.4 billion expiring in 2H 2026. And then a total of AUD 200 million cross currency swaps are expiring in FY 2026, which we discussed. Can you give a broad guide as to your expectations on the direction of the interest cost in FY 2026? I know we've kind of answered it, but yeah.
There was a significant amount. I think in total for FY 2026, we started off with about ZAR 9 billion. We will refinance, and refinance is currently underway. The bulk of that will be left probably at the end of FY 2025 for FY 2026 with about between ZAR 3 billion and ZAR 3.5 billion of maturities left for FY 2026. We do not typically refinance everything because to the extent, you know, developments, the disposals, et cetera, move during the year, we do not refinance everything. There are also quite a few listed notes, which in the South African market, you do not typically refinance those early. Those come up December and then pretty much towards the end of next year. You know, we will make a decision later on through the year how much of that we would need to refinance and come back to market.
I think Estienne had mentioned earlier, we continue to see, you know, increased appetite from both institutional investors and the banks for Growthpoint debt. As a treasurer, I wish we could go and borrow more, but we have been reducing debt.
Yeah. I mean, we've obviously actively taken a position there that we're probably earning on the conservative side, just given the volatility in the world. We do have a strategic pipeline of disposals that we're busy working on. At the same time, there are some very interesting projects that down the line, you know, might mean that there's going to be a place for some of that capital, and then we can use some of those facilities again. We have found the bond markets as well as the banks are very eager, and specifically, you know, the V&A, which, as I've said, they're going to be using debt now pretty much for all these developments that we've spoken about. That's been pretty good. Their margins have been tight, very tight.
There was a question in there about hedging as well. I mean, we continually assess, you know, to what extent we want to hedge. Again, I think Estienne had mentioned we are going a little bit shorter on our hedges, just seeing that the three-year kind of swap rate in the South African market, we find is a sweet spot in there to, to be hedging now. We watch the rates carefully all the time to see because they have been quite volatile. The swap rate has been, you know, quite volatile through the year. Where opportunities come up, we think it makes sense to hedge. We do hedge. Our risk committee and board have been flexible in terms of, you know, typically we've said 75% we'd like to be hedged. We, we kind of in a range of between 65-75%.
We'll probably land at about 70% at year end in terms of an overall hedging ratio.
Okay. Question from Soren Naidu. We've got eight minutes. We've still got a bit of time here. In addition to the Western Cape and V&A Waterfront and Sandton Summit, in terms of investment plans, is Growthpoint considering expansion in Infanta? Considering office vacancies being lower there for several years, with Growthpoint saying the coastal cities are performing better, will it consider investments further up the coast, such as Sibaya Node, even industrial, near the airports in Ballito?
Yeah. I mean, I'll maybe take that question. In terms of looking for investment opportunities, I mean, it is continuous. We are always open for business. And if there are demand-driven opportunities, you know, we'll definitely, we'll definitely have a look at it. From an industrial perspective, we have made a commitment on land in the sort of uMhlanga area, and we do have an opportunity towards the west, so inland, for further development as well. You know, very much focused more on the industrial side, but we, as fate would have it, you know, we literally had 450 sq m vacant in a 89,000 sq m office portfolio.
You know, we are talking to tenants and if there's a good quality credit that wants a long-term office solution, I mean, we'll probably have a look at that and develop something for them. The metrics at the moment are quite interesting in that, I mean, you know, we are seeing, certainly in the past few months, quite a firming in the rental levels. One has to understand that new developments, whether they're industrial or office, come in at quite a bit of a higher rental rate per square meter. That is something that, in our minds, if you look at the context, it makes no sense to develop and the rental levels were unjustified development really.
Even that, you know, there are clients that are looking for new, for new space, even in, in the sort of, let's call it Sandton Rosebank area, you know. We are quite sensitive to looking at those rental levels that they make sense and really that we can see, meet those return hurdles that we've spoken about.
Okay. A question from Ridwaan Loonat. This might be the last one. What is the average yield expected on disposals and accretion or donation on recycling this capital? Following question, I think was answered.
Yeah. Look, I mean, there's a variety of different return levels. I don't think we've averaged them yet. I mean, obviously do it at year end once we've got the full picture. It is probably fair to expect that there will be a bit of a dilution in that the sort of assets that you are exiting are smaller assets. They are typically older on the industrial side and on the retail, they are also the smaller, sort of more CBD assets. The yields on those are slightly higher. You know, initially we put it into debt. Maybe there is a, I don't know, give or take maybe a 1% differential there between what you're selling at and what you're sticking into the debt.
As I said, we are endeavoring to try and get initial yields on our developments of in and around 10. That should not be too materially dilutive, but there are timing issues.
Yeah. 100%. This is normally quite neutral. So this, let you, I'll just make this the final question yet. Maybe a strategic one from François. He's asked, well, he says, you've mentioned that you would support guys with capital for growth opportunities. Would you not rather buy more guys' shares at the current price? Does the guys' share price present a benchmark for Aussie capital allocation decisions?
Yeah. I think just on that score, I think, you know, there are, I guess, various ways in which I guess we can provide that support. And certainly, you know, one of them would be, you know, should the guys have got some gearing constraints of its own. It's sitting at roughly 40% odd. So its ability to, you know, to fund any meaningful opportunity would probably be requiring some equity. You know, as opposed to buying shares in the market, we certainly support an equity raise as one option.
And secondly, you know, one of the other alternatives we're exploring is, as, you know, in terms of the growth prospects for the company being funds management, you know, we're also considering at the moment whether we potentially allocate some capital into a fund as opposed to into the head stock itself. I think we're looking at various options and alternatives at the moment, including, you know, and I wouldn't discount, you know, acquisition of some shares in guys' itself, but, you know, that is one of a number of options and opportunities we're looking at.
Okay. Cool. Maybe just before handing over for final comments, it just seems as though if I'm getting this picture right, there's a big emphasis on sweating the assets in South Africa and getting a really strong performance out of that. Perhaps also limiting the different areas you would go offshore and maybe just kind of focusing a bit more on Australia. It does seem like this will be easier to sort of have a clear forecast and understanding of the business going forward. Looking forward to the, you know, guidance you guys give in September. But yeah, handing over to you to give closing comments.
Thanks, Mauricio. Yeah, I do not think I have got anything to add really other than to say, you know, as I started off by saying, you know, things are definitely feeling a little bit better. You know, we look forward to closing off the year on a positive note and engaging with you guys again post, or at the time of release of the results.
Okay. Awesome. Thanks, guys. Appreciate your time. Yeah, right, closing business now. Chat later. Bye.
Thanks for hosting. Yeah, thanks very much.
Thank you.
Cheers, Mauricio.
Cheers, Mauricio.
Cheers, man.
Something like that, right? Let's start off.