Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Redefine's pre-close investor update for the half year ending 28th February 2026. As per usual, we will follow the usual format where I will kick off with a strategic overview. Leon Kok, our Chief Operating Officer, will talk about our local property asset platform. I will then go through the Polish asset platform, and then we'll end with financial insights from our Chief Financial Officer, Ntobeko Nyawo. Okay. If we just have a look at where we are in the property cycle, I think we all can tangibly for once see the strengthening real estate fundamentals coming through, renewed investor confidence, which is very, very welcome, and accelerating technological adoption, all of which is converging. If we have a look, our momentum now is really building, and we are transitioning from that recovery phase now into that building phase.
This anecdotally you can see from stabilized vacancy rates, retailing, industrial in particular, showing rental growth, improved port and rail performance, which is very welcome from an Operation Vulindlela point of view, which I believe can add significantly to GDP in the years to come. Welcome news was the South African exit from the Financial Action Task Force grey list. We are having stable electricity supply, which is very, very good from a confidence building perspective. The sovereign credit rating upgrade by S&P last year bodes very well for financial markets. Let's build on this, and let's hope that SoNA further adds to the momentum where we can see further improvements in our sovereign credit rating upgrades from the other ratings agencies.
Cheaper borrowing costs, you'll see, are coming through the numbers and hopefully we'll see some more interest rate cuts this year, which will further improve that borrowing cost. This is one benefit when you have high levels of gearing, when those cheaper borrowing costs do come, it does benefit the bottom line significantly, which you will see. Business confidence, as I said earlier, seems to be palpably better, much better than last year, and we have a feeling that this year we have started 2026 far more optimistic and confident than we have been since the pandemic period. Once again, better access to capital. This is both equity and debt capital markets, which is very welcome in terms of inorganic growth and improving that funding cost further through better access to cheaper margins.
In terms of focus areas for 2026, I won't touch on all of them. I'll just touch on the ones that I believe are key to us in 2026. You'll see here we are looking at taking our momentum now and turning it into durable growth. For us, growth is the big, big focus. If I just look at investing strategically from a focus area point of view, you'll see that simplification of our offshore joint ventures is a key priority. Under optimizing capital, reducing our see-through LTV by recycling non-core Polish assets, very, very important. In terms of operating efficiently, here we wanna restore that earnings base.
Yes, we would want to get to a level far better than where we are guiding, but there we've got certain headwinds and tailwinds, and Leon will touch a bit on that from an office perspective, which gives us some degree to be a bit cautious here. I do believe that we are certainly going in the right direction. From a staffing point of view, in terms of engaging talent, we need to align our structures and responsibilities to our strategy, and this is absolutely critical. Execution of our strategy relies on people, and it relies on pace of implementation, given the evolving landscape in which we operate. From a growing reputation point of view, we will continue to leverage our market-leading ESG position. For us, as we said, stability builds momentum builds value, and that's where we are focused for 2026.
In terms of some emerging themes for this financial year so far, and it's gone very quickly, given that as we came back from the December break, we are already into reporting on our first half of 2026. You'll see under investing strategically, a theme that's emerging is that improving leasing conditions are supporting and driving asset value improvements this period. Capital rate compression, et cetera, is in the base, and that is not something we do rely upon. Simplification of Polish joint ventures, you'll hear this repeat a few times in the presentation this morning, is progressing well, and we'll give you a good update thereon. We have seen a noticeable pickup in recycling opportunities. Funding costs are down. Investors who we turned away because of pricing before are now coming back with better pricing or.
We are looking at every opportunity to recycle non-core assets so that we can deploy that capital more productively in the future. In terms of optimizing capital, our loan-to-value ratio, Ntobeko will touch on this, but it is very pleasingly within our target range. Our interest cover ratio is improving, and we've refinanced a significant amount of debt, totaling ZAR 6.2 billion in EPP's core. This is well advanced. It's not totally done yet, but we are very confident it will be done by the time we report in May on our interim results. In terms of operating efficiently, we are on track to deliver the upper end of guidance. Yes, we wanna beat guidance, but we, as I said earlier, we do need to have a measured approach to how we sustainably generate growth and keep that trajectory in the right direction.
We'll have a better update post the March MPC to share with you as to how we see 2026 unfold. In terms of group net operating profit margin, as we sit here now, we're seeing an improvement. Property fundamentals, you'll see throughout the presentation, continue to strengthen. This is very, very important because we are relying on organic and sustainable growth. Not one-off, non-recurring or, inorganic actions to give us that growth going forward. In terms of engaging talent, we have been certified as a top employer for the 11th consecutive year. EPP has been recognized as a friendly workplace, and our employee retention levels are very high at 98.5% and 97.4% for Redefine and EPP respectively.
In terms of growing reputation, once again, we have been identified as a 2026 top-rated global ESG leader by Sustainalytics, and we've been awarded three badges. I don't think there are many REITs out there who can claim to three badges. In terms of awards from a retail perspective at the South African Council of Shopping Centres footprint awards, you'll see we earned 29 awards here in South Africa, and EPP won seven Polish Council of Shopping Centres Retail Awards as well during the course of this period. Just lastly, we are very proud of the fact that our logistics property at the Coega Special Economic Zone is the first 5-star Green Star rated building in such a zone in South Africa. Okay, just in terms of looking ahead.
What we are gonna focus on is what we can manage and on what matters most. As we have been alluding to, the shift has to come from a position of opportunity-led decision making now as opposed to defensive positioning. From a direct influence point of view on value creation, we will continue to build a quality, diversified portfolio that is capable of delivering sustainable risk-adjusted returns throughout market cycles. We will remain focused on conservative balance sheet management to enable that sustainable growth. We are looking to accelerate new data and digital platforms to lift that operating profit margin, and Ntobeko will touch on that. From a team point of view and a cultural point of view, we need to invest and transform our human capital to empower creativity and drive innovation.
Then lastly, but very importantly, from a stakeholder experience point of view, we are looking to embed ESG as an operational imperative across the business through fostering a good understanding of every stakeholder's needs through a collaborative approach. With that, I'm gonna hand over to Leon now, who's gonna take you through our local property asset platform.
Good morning, everybody. On the South African side, we've had a fairly busy first five months of the year. As you can see on the scorecard, we are very proud of what we've achieved so far, and we certainly look to continue this trend up to year end. From an occupancy point of view, we posted 93.9%, which represents a vacancy of just 6.1%. As you can see on the right-hand side, again, as usual, we try and indicate what the value of that vacancy is. As you say, I think that graph illustrates clearly the point we make that we've seen a flight to quality. For instance, in our office sector, whereby GLA, we are 11.8% vacant.
If we translate that into GMR or value, based on the rates that we're advertising at, it's only at 8.8%. Again, it highlights the points that for us, we've really seen that demand within the quality spaces and where the focus would lie. Particularly in the office side, yes, there is opportunity and we certainly look to convert that vacancy into revenue, but in the other two sectors, the opportunity is lesser. In terms of the renewal reversions, we'll touch on in the office sector. That certainly is only dragged by office. We're very pleased with the fact that our retail and industrial portfolio show positive reversions. Tenant retention and renewal success rate, very pleasing high 90s, but I must caution that's for the first five months.
As the year progressed, we would expect those numbers to trend slightly down as we have more leasing activity for the year. Our weighted average lease escalation is 6.4%, principally driven by our industrial and office sector. Still at a very healthy level, and we certainly would see the benefit of that coming through as the year progressed. The weighted average unexpired lease term at 3.4 years, again, indicative of very healthy leasing activity undertaken in the first five months. If you'll see there on the lease expiring profile, again, a fairly smooth profile, and we don't foresee in the next couple of years any undue spikes. For instance, if you see in FY 2026, only 9%, that represents six months of leasing. For the full year, it was probably around 18%.
You can see consistently how that is being managed. On the renewal reversion analysis, in terms of number of leases, about 88% of our leases were at flat or positive reversions, and that negative drag there at the bottom at 45 is principally within the office sector, some marginal small retail renewals. It's those big boxes in the office sector that continue to drag a bit. Again, I think the indication there is that there is decent activity and yes, we certainly do see some positive reversions coming through. Speaking to a fairly healthy demand within the particularly retail and industrial sectors. On the sustainability front, as Andrew said, that certainly is operational imperative, and in particular on the environmental front, where our core focus is around energy, water, and waste management. On the energy front, we're very pleased with our solar PV footprint.
Once we have those installations in progress, we will roughly have 68 MW peaks in stored capacity, which is roughly a 23% increase since last year, February. That, on an annual basis, would have resulted in electricity savings of 71 MWh. Now you'll see that solar PV penetration, 13.1%, would appear to be relatively low, but again, it is slightly diluted by our office sector, where our solar PV penetration is relatively low, given that the office sector doesn't necessarily lend itself nicely to on-site generation. That's why we are so focused on solar wheeling, because we do believe that will allow us to, particularly in the office sector, increase our access to renewable energy. As we've mentioned before, we concluded that power purchase agreement for 13 MW peaks, which will come online in 2027.
For us, the next big opportunity is to explore virtual wheeling, which will give us access to buildings that are supplied by municipalities. We are fairly well advanced with two work streams on that front, and hopefully in the next six months or so, we'll be able to make an announcement in that regard. That certainly would for us be an opportunity to increase that 13% penetration to going up to 20, or potentially even up to 25%. In terms of our Green Star certification, as you can see, again, we've been very busy, and that's certainly for us from a leasing point of view, puts us in a good position to attract those tenants that are seeking those certifications, particularly in the office sector.
I'm very proud of those nine net zero certifications in our office sector, and we continue with our efforts on the water efficiency front to reduce consumption, as well as on the energy front. As you can see, waste management, which we're fairly high, the penetration on that. The cost associated with that, though, is where the barrier is, because we can only recycle waste in those buildings that we are internalized the waste management through private means. Onto our retail sector. Again, a very good first five months, as you can see on the scorecards side of things, all metrics trending positively.
For us, in the retail sector, the growth will come from our positive reversions, managing our operating costs, particularly the benefits of our sustainability initiatives coming through, and then working on getting our average weighted lease escalations up. As you can see, it dipped slightly from 5.9% to 5.8%. That's simply as those high escalating leases that were concluded at above 7% were renewed. Our current renewals is down between 6% to 6.5%, and that's kind of where we're hoping that it will land. That certainly will drive our net profit and net profit income growth within our retail sector. As you can see on the tenant turnover growth, that is dipped slightly at 2.9% versus in August 2025, where we showed a 4%. That's driven principally by two factors.
Firstly, we've had those large cinema spaces that we converted into alternative tenancies. As you can see, there were long, large void periods that did not report turnover. In the next 12 months, we will certainly see the benefit of that coming through. Then secondly, in December 2024, we had that large spike in turnover. Against that high base, it dipped slightly. For us, we are still very comfortable with that trading density growth of 3.5%. Certainly our rented turnover at 7.7% is still on a very healthy side. We do believe that's an indicator that we are able to continuously negotiate those renewal reversions to trend positive.
For us, the focus going forward on the retail sector is certainly to look at those renewal reversions, to convert those vacancies that we do have, although it is coming at a relatively low revenue uptick. Then to look at, particularly on our fashion side, where we do believe there's opportunity to reconfigure certain of our stores to optimize in terms of driving that turnover and also to upgrade certain of the stores. On the office sector, bit of a mixed bag. The one aspect that we're very pleased about is that improvement in occupancy at 88.2%. We're touching on a vacancy rate, 11.8%. Now we set ourselves a target to go below 10, and the team is relatively confident that we should be able to achieve that come year-end, principally through leasing.
There's certainly also some non-core properties with high vacancies that is on the disposal list that we're confident will be able to be sold before year-end. The renewal reversion at negative 16.8% is driven largely by two leases, as we mentioned, at 90 Rivonia and Alice Lane. As the year progress, we anticipate that the impact of that will be diluted, and we're forecasting the end of the year to be roughly about negative 11%. Just on the renewal reversion analysis, again, as you can see, and that's the point we're trying to make, is that we don't think the entire office sector is recovering, but we certainly do see certain nodes and certain grade-A buildings showing better signs of recoveries than others.
We'll have the disproportionate recovery, and we can see that in our review renewal reversion analysis. Where the bulk of the leases have been a positive, it's just some of those large boxes, single tenancy buildings that have caused that negative reversion. But it's an area we continue to focus, and for us, at least the pleasing aspect is we have seen market rental growth at certain nodes, where asking rentals continue for the last three quarters now to be increased. Over to our industrial sector. Again, another sterling performance, and that's a sector that continues to perform very well for us. As you can see, at an occupancy of 97%, we've managed to lease Cato Ridge on a short-term renewal for the tenant that vacated. They resigned for the first six months.
Toyota is in there until end of July. That certainly will boost the property growth and maintain that occupancy. We're actively looking at Cato. That's our single biggest vacancy we've got in the sector. Apart from that, we are fairly confident that we should be able to continue this performance. The renewal version at 3.7% speaks to very healthy demand within, particularly in logistics space. We would kind of look to continue that positive trend going forward. Tenant retention, renewal success rates, all exceptionally good. Our weighted average lease escalation is 6.4%. We certainly would look to maintain that because that's kind of the level that we are doing new leases.
At the unexpired lease term of 4.2%, we do believe that's a very defensive quality within this sector, and it doesn't pose any renewal risk to us going forward. For us, the opportunity within our industrial sector is to convert some of that developable land we've got. As you can see, we're busy with two projects at Sky Park, the old Golf Park, and also at S&J. We would look to seize additional opportunities such as that. Then certainly also to look to dispose some of that excess land holdings we do have, particularly in S&J. We certainly wouldn't look to develop all of that ourselves. Then the opportunity is also to look at strategically redeveloping some of that very well-located assets that we've got.
With that, I'll hand over to Andrew to deal with Poland.
Thanks, Leon. Okay, moving on to Poland. As you will see from an EPP market overview perspective, I think the standout point to make here is that there are no new shopping centers currently under construction. That speaks to the strength of our core portfolio. From an operational update point of view, you'll see footfall across the EPP portfolio increased by approximately 1% for the past period. Our like-for-like turnover has increased by 0.5% compared to the prior period. Our rent collection remains pretty stable at 98.4% for both offices and our retail properties. Our occupancy across the retail portfolio is stable at 98.2% for the entire portfolio. Where there is pressure is on the office portfolio, where it has declined from 84.2% to 82.9%.
From a rent to sales, as well as a occupancy cost ratio perspective, you'll note that we are trending in the right direction at 7.2% and 10.2% respectively for the past period. If you just have a look there at the ESG outcomes, you'll see that EPP is doing great work in terms of their sustainability in action program. Moving then on to just some priorities for EPP. Before I do the priorities, just touching on the EPP core portfolio outcomes. You'll note there a very healthy active occupancy at 99.4%, and all the other metrics trending positively. I think what really, really pleases me is to see that rent to sales ratio at 8.1%.
I think from an indexation point of view, we just wanna make the point that in January, at the back end of January, the EU published their inflation outcomes for the calendar year 2025. You'll note that these numbers are for last year, but they will start coming through in the reporting cycle at the interim stage, where you'll see indexation will come through at approximately 2.6% for EPP's retail portfolio. Coming back to the priorities for EPP, this is for the entire retail portfolio as well as offices. Improving that operating profit margin is a priority. We wanted to get to 80%. Assessing our options to simplify joint ventures, we'll talk about, but it's a continuous process for us. It's a top of mind issue.
Optimizing our debt funding profile to eradicate debt amortization is well advanced, and with it comes reduced margins as well. Unfortunately, in a number of cases, our base rate comes off a very low, almost 0% to the current 2-odd%, which to some extent does offset that. Even with that, we are seeing savings on our overall interest rates cost. Just lastly, upping the cash distribution from EPP is a priority. We want it to be as close to Redefine's current payout policy of between 80%-90%, and we're working very actively on ensuring that going forward. In terms of the joint ventures, I think you'll note here that the active occupancies are stable.
However, I must stress that in the EPP Community case, as well as in Henderson's case, there are office portfolios there that do drag down to some extent the occupancies and similarly renewal reversions. You'll see in EPP Community, for example, the offices reverted at -10.7%, and the retail was -0.6%. Having said that, there were two very, very big boxes in that portfolio. A cinema of 5,185 sq m at Zakopianka, for example. In Tęcza, there was a Media Expert, a home appliance store of almost 900 sq m that did put pressure on that retail line. Otherwise, it would have been a lot better.
Similarly, if you look at the Horse portfolio, it is slightly negative, but there have been very big relets or renewals there in the form of, at Zabrze, there was a AAA AUTO car dealership of 19,500 sq m that was renewed. That's coming through that line. At Radom, there was a MediaMarkt of about 3,200 sq m. Młociny, you'll note, is trending the right way. It is positive now from a renewal point of view. But sitting in there was a huge office renewal for Inter Cars of just over 5,700 sq m, and that's upstairs. There's an office component to the retail outlet. If you just look at all the other kind of fundamentals coming through, all trending positive.
I just wanna stress one last thing. The like-for-like footfall, although it doesn't look like it's going or growing very well. Poland this year had its coldest winter in 10 years. Many months were well over 20, -20 degrees. It tells you that weather does play a part in retail, unfortunately. Then you'll see there the rent to sales, very, very healthy, all trending in the right direction across the portfolio. That's what we like to see. Our tenants are doing well, and that means that we have a sustainable tenant base, and we are able to negotiate better rentals going forward. Okay. Just moving on to ELI. From a market overview perspective, I think the standout point to make here from a market overview point of view is that supply and demand for space is balanced.
There isn't excessive supply coming to the market, and demand is mopping up whatever there is, which strengthens our ability to grow market rentals, and that comes through on renewal revisions and so forth. From an operational perspective, we are very pleased that the vacancy rate now sits at 1.2%. That's a significant improvement from two years ago, where it was almost at 10% when we split from the Madison arrangement. If you look at lease renewals, we've had a very busy period, and we are renewing well over EUR 5 a square meter. Rental growth of 2%, more or less in line with if you look at the Eurozone inflation rate as well, which tells you that it supports the earlier points about demand and supply remaining balanced.
First-time lettings of 8,700 sq m were recorded in the period. 4 developments, these were key rentals, but we are filling space, and we are generating cash flow at EUR 4.11 per sq m. From an ESG perspective, as you will also see here, our portfolio being newly developed is compliant from an energy perspective, which is absolutely important from an EPBD ordinance perspective, as well as from an energy performance, as well. Moving on to the priorities for ELI. Here, we're gonna continue to actively pursue asset management opportunities, as well as securing pre-letting arrangements for two undeveloped land plots adjacent to existing developments. We are well advanced in selling Targówek, which is vacant land with low development projects. It's adjacent to M1 Marki.
Improving the dividend yield to 6% is a focus area for us, and we are making good progress in this regard. In terms of self-storage, I think the standout market overview point to make is that Poland remains underserved in the European self-storage sector. This is our opportunity in the larger cities where we can command good rentals and similarly good demand. From an operational point of view, we have the technology platform and the executive team in place to drive the tenant acquisition and to ensure operational performance is at the level we expect it to be. Our leasing performance at our new facility, which just opened in Kraków about six months ago, is in line with expectations. During the reporting period, we did dispose of some containers. I'm not a fan of the containers.
They do generate cash flow, but those that are not, we are closing. As you'll see, there were three where we canceled leases for the land, and we've redeployed those containers to other sites. Then just in terms of the total NLA of that active portfolio, the operating assets, sits just under 29,000 sq m spread across 18 locations. As I said, those containers will whittle down as we build up the internal units through development activity. Our average occupancy stands at 66.5%, but you'll see that the internal units are where we are doing well, at 69%. Now, it does seem a bit low, given that we should average out at about 85%-90% on a stable level, but there are developments coming into the mix here that is dragging that percentage down.
From a development activity, we are very, very busy. You'll see that we have completed a development in Warsaw, and it opened just last week, totaling an NLA of 4,890 sq m. It's called Warsaw Bemowo. There are three developments located in Warsaw, Kraków, and Wrocław that are under construction. They will be complete by end of this year. That will add a further 13,900 sq m of net lettable area. We are looking at two new developments in Warsaw and Gdańsk, which will add a further NLA of about 9,600 sq m.
Once we've done these developments, we will have exhausted our EUR 50 million of equity, and we will now seek an equity partner to, like we did with, ELI and Madison, we'll do the same with this portfolio going forward. From a priorities point of view, the usual complete developments on time and within budgets, goes without saying. Divesting from the underperforming container sites and redirecting those resources to larger developments is ongoing. Sales and marketing to not only build a recognized brand, but to boost occupancy and income is absolutely imperative. This is a very active management sector, and you have to run this on a daily basis. You have to have your finger on the pulse daily, on the hour to ensure that you are charging, in a dynamic environment, rentals that can adjust according to demand and supply.
Lastly, creating an institutional investment grade self-storage platform to attract that equity partner is very, very important to us. Just from a last slide from me from Poland, simplifying our joint ventures, as I said, is absolutely a key focus to reduce complexity. A by-product of that also is reducing our see-through LTV. From the Horse Group, you'll see that we have been very busy. We've sold surplus land at Kraków and Łódź, which is subject to rezoning, and it's underway. We are making good progress to simplify this joint venture, and we hope that in May we will have a transaction that we can announce to you. We are in the process of selling Power Park Kielce and Power Park Tychy as well.
EPP Community for now is a medium term hold, and that joint venture we will extend beyond March 2027 when it comes to a review. Henderson is an office portfolio that we would love to dispose of, but like we make the point at the top there, large scale institutional commercial real estate investment activity remains subdued. Here is a bit of a slow process. We are marketing Malta Office Park to see how investor appetite sits, and we'll let you know in due course how that goes. Galeria Młociny is an asset that is now starting to stabilize and provides us with optionality. We have a partner who's a developer, so he's not a long-term holder of his 30% interest. We are buyers at an IRR yield of 7.5%. That translates into an equity yield of circa 11%.
Similarly, we are sellers at an IRR of 6.5%, and we'll see how that unfolds. ELI, given that we are now split from Madison, we also have optionality here, or flexibility, as we like to call it, given that we have a very attractive asset profile and a long weighted average unexpired lease term. For now, we will focus on improving that equity yield and then also optimize the assets that we believe are capable of either disposal or those that are unproductive, such as Targówek that we spoke about earlier. With that, I'm now gonna hand over to Mr. Nyawo, who's gonna take you through financial insights as well as very importantly, the outlook.
Thank you, Andrew, and morning, everyone. I think on the financial insights very clearly that our positive medium-term growth is driven by a stabilizing earnings base and improving property fundamentals. If we look at the earnings outlook just from a sustainable organic growth, we continue to see that it's being supported by our portfolio's quality and its diversification strengths. You can see that playing out in the first quarter of FY 2026. In South Africa, the net operating profit margin just very stable around 79.2%, which is an improvement compared to what we printed in FY 2025 at 78.4%. Similarly, in our EPP directly held properties, slight improvement to 72% of our net operating profit margin. That compares favorably to the 71.4 that we printed in FY 2025.
From a group point of view, last year in FY 2025, we printed 76.2. In the first quarter, it's printing at 77.1%. Now, the important factor for us, if you look at the quality of our earnings, we show you a journey from FY 2025, where non-recurring earnings were sitting at 4.2%. We always want to maintain those and reduce that below 5%. In last year's numbers in our distributable earnings, that improved to 0.4%. In the first quarter, we're pleased to also report that there's no non-recurring items at this point, and we expect that to be a very immaterial number in FY 2026 at distributable income quality. We always share with you on the right some of the sensitivities.
The first two, clearly it is a function of both the euro interest rates and the ZAR interest rates. If those change by 50 basis points, that gives you the ZAR 0.005 and the ZAR 0.006. Indexation, a 1% change will have a ZAR 0.004 impact. In the SA admin cost, a movement of 5% will result in a ZAR 0.003. The office reversion rate, if that varies by 3%, will have a ZAR 0.001 impact on our earnings. Just to move on to the balance sheet management. I think our consistent prudent risk management is really starting to anchor the long-term value creation.
What is pleasing for us to report into the first quarter is that our interest cover ratio improved to 2.3x on the back of lower interest rates, as well as some strong cash generation that continued to be achieved both in our South African portfolio as well as our Polish portfolio. On the liquidity front, I think very stable. If you look at our committed undrawn facilities and cash on hand in the first quarter, it's sitting at ZAR 5.3 billion. We're busy now with our valuation exercise. We value our assets twice a year. In this exercise that we do now for the interims, we expect the valuations to remain largely stable.
I think the point that Andrew touched on is really gonna be driven, the income assumptions driven by the leasing. They're very stable in terms of cap rates. I think our focus on sustainable medium-term growth from our asset platform, that continues to be there from a balance sheet point of view. Let's just touch on some of the weighted average cost of debt for the group. Remains stable at 7% compared to what we printed at 7% last year. We're pleased with the reduction that we saw on our rand-denominated weighted average cost of debt to 8.7% compared to the 8.9% last year. On the FX debt, let's say, that we've maintained our weighted average cost at 4.5%. We're also progressing, I think Andrew touched on this point, really we're progressing on the financing of EPP core debt.
The focus there for us is to reduce debt amount impact and then lower the cost, which is the margin in that debt. Fairly hedged. I think if you look at our interest rate hedges at 82.1% in the first quarter, compares at a very stable to the 83.2% that we achieved in FY 2025. To move along, just to touch on some of our debt maturity and then and available facilities. I think our healthy liquidity levels and the low debt maturity risk profile continues to enhance our opportunity optionality.
If you look at a graph that we provide on our debt maturity profile as at the end of November 2025, we have largely dealt even with FY 2026. We've only got about 4% of our debt maturing now that we need to deal with in FY 2026. That translates to about ZAR 1.7 billion, and we'll deal with that. Where we have a concentration, if you look at FY 2028, we're dealing with that proactively, and I'll touch on that just now. If you break down our ZAR 5.3 billion of liquidity with the cash on hand and the facilities that are committed but undrawn at ZAR 4.7 billion, fairly healthy liquidity profile as well as at the end of November.
Let me first touch on the refinancing of our cross currency swaps as well as our interest rates swaps. In the first quarter of FY 2026, we had EUR 45 million cross currencies that expired at a fixed rate of 5.1%. Those were refinanced in December at a very attractive rate of 4% for a tenure of two years. If we look at our interest rate swaps, ZAR 2.75 billion of swaps that expired at the rate of 7% expired during the period. We entered into new swaps of ZAR 3.5 billion, and those were entered at a very attractive rate of 6.6% for a period of two years.
You'll start to notice that we're starting to take the tenor because the forward curve is starting to look attractive. Let me just give you some of our debt refinancing. I think I've touched on the EPP. That refinance of EPP core of EUR 3-3.9 million, which is a ZAR 6.2 billion equivalent. That we are achieving a five-year at a margin of 2%, which results in a 56-basis point margin compression. That is quite pleasing. Moreover than that, is that ZAR 5.1 billion of that really relates and us proactively addressing that concentration in FY 2028.
On the South African side, we early refinanced ZAR 4.1 billion, which we transched as well, in four years at ZAR 1.4 billion, and ZAR 1.7 billion in six years, and the remainder of ZAR 1 billion in seven years at margins that are attractive. If you put it all together, we're able to achieve a 16 basis point margin compression. We also proactively dealt with about ZAR 0.9 billion of FY 2028 maturities there. In terms of the FX debt in SA, we had two facilities there. There was a USD 10 million, as well as the EUR 47.6 million that we refinanced into a single EUR 56.2 million facility for a four-year period at a tenor of 2%. That achieved a 65-basis point margin compression.
We had two small notes that matured, which is the ZAR 144 million as well as the ZAR 55 million that were matured in September. From our cash resources, we actually settled those. We will look into going to the market and as it is an optionality, and we're seeing quite attractive rates on the DMTN market. Just on the loan-to-value ratio. I think the large part of it is gonna be on the, you know, if you look at where the rents trended, as well as the stable asset values, that will, we expect that our LTV will behave and be firmly within our target range of 38%-41% during FY 2026.
We do give you a glide path in terms of where we printed at the first quarter, but we expect that 41.4% to normalize to 40.9% by the end of the year. I think we must say that the LTV of 40.9% excludes any assumptions in terms of the property values. We are pleased if I just look at the covenants, that all the covenants were fairly within there. If you look at our interest cover ratio, which was relaxed 1.75x up to the end of the year.
We've rebuilt from that, and now we're sitting at the end of the first quarter with an ICR of 2.3x , which gives us ample headroom in terms of our ICR. On the right-hand side, we do share with you which is that these are the sensitivities you have to give in terms of some sensitivities. If you look at our property values in SA, if they were to move by 1%, which is ZAR 0.7 billion, that will have a 0.3% impact on the LTV. Equally also on the EPP side, a 1% movement, which will be ZAR 0.2 billion, has got a 0.1%.
We also share with you on the joint ventures in terms of the investments in the joint ventures that will have a 1% movement will have a 0.1. But really where most of this year, given the rand strengthening, is the volatility in terms of where the rand depreciate or appreciate by 5%, you'll have a 0.5% impact on the LTV. From a see-through point of view, the focus I think it is on that and Andrew has touched on that. Just to close with our trading update for FY 2026. I really think for us, you know, it's pleasing that our medium-term growth profile remain quite robust, and I think it's on the back of the improving property fundamentals.
We do expect that the upper end of our guidance, which we gave of 4%-6% in terms of growth in our distributable income per share. Some of the factors, if you look at the stability of the national Government of National Unity, as well as later on in this year, there's local government elections here in South Africa. That will inform some of the pace that we've seen in the reform agenda in South Africa. There's a bit of uncertainty, I think, it continues to play out.
You know, in terms of the geopolitical environment, its impact on inflation and probably where the pivoting of central banks in terms of the interest rate cutting cycle, that will also have an impact on that. From a focus point of view, I think simplifying our joint ventures and taking some opportunities to recycle capital out of non-core assets, that will continue to be our focus. From inflation expectations, I think in South Africa, you know, even though the inflation is anchored at 3%, the rand strength and oil prices will be very central to where inflation expectations land in South Africa. On that note, if you look at the euro inflation, we are pleased that it's quite stable to their target range of 2%.
From an ongoing focus, I think our proactive asset management approach, our laser focus in terms of improving operating margins across the group, really are the things that will drive our sustainable organic growth period through market cycles. Thank you. I'll hand back to Andrew.
Thanks, Ntobeko. We'll move on to some questions now. If we can just start at the top, please. The first one, Nazeem, you straight off, first out the blocks. What is the catalyst for an equity raise? We ask ourselves that question every morning, Nazeem. I think for us, the short answer is opportunity. We will raise capital when we have an investment that makes sense from both a capital and an income perspective. Then obviously bearing in mind that we're still trading at a discount of circa it depends on where you pick a share price, let's say about 18% discount to NAV. I think what we would rather do, Nazeem, to preserve that NAV, for us, NAV is very important, maybe for others, not so much.
If we can do a transaction using our shares as currency, we can perhaps do a deal that is neutral on NAV and accretive on earnings. For us, that's better than a cash equity raise. At this point, given that, as Ntobeko said, we have quite a lot, in fact, in my view, a bit of a lazy balance sheet here in South Africa from a liquidity perspective. In terms of retail in-force escalations reducing by 1.1% since FY 2025, what are the in-force escalations on renewed new retail facilities? I'm assuming this is a question for Leon, Nazeem.
That's right. Nazeem, as I indicated during my section, our new leases, we're aiming to achieve between 6% and 6.5%. That 1.1% reduction was simply some of those high escalating leases that 7.5% just came off during the period.
Okay. Moving on, Maher, I see you need to match Nazeem here with some questions. The first one from Maher is: Can you quantify the potential proceeds on sale of land and assets in the Horse Group? Maher, I don't have those numbers offhand. I don't think Ntobeko has either.
No.
We did announce it last year. If I recall, it was around EUR 30 million.
Yeah.
was the Horse proceeds. There is more to come, about another 11-odd million from the Kraków land sale. It's a little bit more tricky in that we have to develop a parkade as well to replace lost parking, but it is EUR 11 million, so it's about EUR 40-odd million of proceeds. Then we will announce once we've committed pen to paper on Power Park Tychy and on Kielce, we will give you the actual disposals there. I can tell you that they are at book value.
Yeah. Stay with us for deep, Andrew.
Okay. In terms of improving the ELI equity yield, yes, we were at 4%, we're now at 5%, we're looking to go to 6%. Where is current gearing relative to FY 2025? At the moment, it's circa 45% or so. That's where we are, and we don't wanna push beyond 50% gearing on this portfolio. Lastly, do you consider the expected positive impact to be recurring or non-recurring? Everything we're doing, Maher, is recurring. No more streaky shots. We're not swinging for the fences here. We're looking to do recurring, reliable, and also visible from a predictability point of view, earnings going forward. It's all being driven off property. Is the Cato Ridge vacancy excluded from active vacancy? If so, what progress is being made on Cato Ridge reletting? You weren't paying attention here, Maher.
I just wanna tell you, 'cause Leon told you, that we've got Sahana checked in for six months. It is actually occupied as we speak. All right. Mawethu from Standard Bank is asking Leon a question. Are you able to give us a sense of what the difference in solar PV yields in retail versus offices are?
Certainly, Mawethu. The point I would like to make is that the application of solar and office is a bit more complicated than retail. Whereas in retail you've got a rule of thumb yield of between 16%-18%, given that in the retail environment you've got a consistent electricity demand for seven days a week, and you've got access to large, reasonably well-located roof space and very little shadow pollution. Whereas in office environment, your limitation, limiting factor is the size of the roof, given the height of the building. Often you have to compete with shadow pollution in that you are in an environment where there's lots of available space and such like. The yields in office is far more difficult to have a rule of thumb yield.
The point to make, though, is that the opportunity is less, given that it doesn't have a consistent seven-day-a-week demand, particularly in daytime. Only a five-day typically, and those roof spaces are often not conducive to us. That's why the office penetration typically is so much lower. In the office environments where we have deployed it, obviously we've managed to deal with those issues. The yields in specific applications are similar to a retail thing, but you cannot apply a rule of thumb yield within an office environment.
Okay, moving on. Tshepo from Standard Bank is asking Leon a question. How much are your energy needs covered by solar in the retail portfolio?
Tshepo, in the last 12 months, our retail portfolio, 25% of the market comes from solar, and we expect that with those installations currently in progress to rise up to about 28% of the new model retail will be supplied by solar.
Okay. Mawethu's got another question for Leon. What discount or premium to book was it De Beers and Rosebank Corner disposals done at?
Rosebank was done at a 6% discount to book, and the De Beers done at a 50% discount to book. Both of those were residential conversions. We suspected De Beers will also be a residential conversion.
All right. Another question from Maher. What is the current NOI yield on Młociny? It's roughly 6%, Maher. Nazeem is asking Leon a question. Are you seeing any changes to office tenant requirements on the back of AI? Potentially less space required due to AI efficiencies. Any specific segments in office of concern?
Nazeem, we certainly haven't seen anything of that. We've heard from our colleagues in Poland, for instance, that AI may have had influence on some of the call center applications in that environment. We certainly haven't seen that play through in this space. However, that is a factor that we are aware of. Again, the point to make there is rather than to be scared of AI is rather to be more alert to certain sectors where you've got potential concentration risk. For instance, within a call center environment, we manage that and sort of monitor that quite clearly.
Okay, thank you, [Maher] for that question. Moving on to Mawethu. Perhaps a question here for Mr. Nyawo. Can you please explain why you converted the $10 million U.S. dollar facility into euros, please?
Yeah, Mawethu, remember that $10 million facility was really relating to our investment in Lango, which over the years has became very immaterial in the group asset. I mean, I think if I look at where Lango is, it's less than. It's about 0.2% of our group property asset, platform assets. Combining it and changing to euros actually also was resulted in a 65-basis point margin compression, which achieved a material saving on.
All right. Nazeem, I'm not too sure I understand your question here. Because the question for everybody's benefit is, following on from the equity raise question, 18% discount to NAV implies that your earnings yield would need to get to 6.7%. Is this realistic? Nazeem, we're currently at a NAV discount to that price, so it's not being unrealistic or not. Can you rationalize that? Maybe that's the question, and that's why we're not looking to raise capital at this point in time, but to rather use it as currency. That would be my preference, yeah. From Ridwaan Loonat, would you look at reducing the cost of cross currencies given ZAR strength at present, or would you need to match it with a JV disposal or restructure? I will just preempt Ntobeko Nyawo's response.
I know he's got one, Ridwaan. If we were looking for one-off non-recurring benefits and to shoot the lights out from outcomes point of view for 2026, we could close out all our cross currencies that are well into the money now. Then we would have problems next year. We're in a sustainable business, so we need to obviously balance. Today, Pro, what is your response?
Yeah, you're right. I think yes, we are in the money, Ridwaan, given the rand strength. I think we'll have to look, given that we need to make it a sustainable outcome. We will have to look and match it with either a material JV disposal or a restructure offshore.
Yeah. I think this is important. Those cross currencies are actually supporting equity positions that we have in these various offshore investments. You're quite right. As you dispose of a investment, you naturally would need to also settle debt along with that. Okay, that seems to be all the questions. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. We always enjoy interacting with you. Please reach out if there's anything that you think of that we haven't touched on, that you may need clarity on. You can reach us through many, many avenues. You, you'll see them up top there. Follow our LinkedIn pages, please, if you don't. We're now on Instagram as well. Please share, follow, like if you don't. Please, we just need your support in every respect.
I just wanna say thank you for your confidence, your patience with Redefine. I think we are finally now opting for the upside of us, where we can actually see tangibly all of that optimism translating into momentum, and that is what truly builds value. With that, thank you. We look forward to seeing you in May for our-