Excellent. Good morning, everybody, and thank you very much for taking the time to join us. There have been a number of announcements from us over the last couple of weeks and we thought it would be a good opportunity to actually have this investor call to talk through the various transactions and explain what it is that we are doing and how these moves fit together. Really there are three things that I would like to talk about today. Number one is our capital rotation strategy in Spain. And that's specifically the sale of our retail parks, which you saw announced a few days ago. Then yesterday we announced the purchase of a new shopping center called Berceo.
The second thing is I'll talk about our stake that we recently acquired in Pradera, which we see as a very important strategic move for us. I'll give a brief update on some asset rotation work in South Africa as well. I'm not gonna be talking about a trading update. We will be issuing a trading update on Thursday this week, covering trade in South Africa, Spain and Portugal. Just to say that we are very happy with trade in all of those markets, but we'll unpack that in detail in our announcement on Thursday. Please keep a lookout for that. Let's start off with our capital rotation strategy in Spain. We decided to sell our portfolio of retail parks.
You'll recall that those were the initial assets that we bought when we entered Spain in 2017. Alfonso and his team have done a tremendous job in growing the NOI in that portfolio by around 23%... 26%, sorry, over that period. What we are finding in Spain, as in elsewhere in Europe, is there is a very strong interest in retail parks from institutional investors. We think the real reason for it is because the yields on industrial assets are very low. Retail parks generally are sort of, you know, much lower intensity to manage. Sorry, if I could ask everybody just to go on to mute. Thank you.
Retail parks generally are sort of, less intense, from a management point of view, and therefore we're seeing a lot of institutional demand coming in for retail parks, where they can buy assets that have got sort of, A, retail characteristics, but, B, industrial characteristics of not, you know, sort of requiring the kind of management expertise that's needed. As a result, we've seen pricing tighten on the retail park portfolio. We felt that this was a very good opportunity for us to exit the assets and be able to rotate that capital into what we believe are higher growth opportunities and shopping centers that we feel are sort of really, you know, showing a lot of growth potential in the Spanish market.
I think being able to leverage off our expertise in Castellana and adding value to assets, and I think many of you are well aware of the value that's been added. Very good entry price, solid assets, trading well, but perhaps where there is upside potential through value add, asset management, which Alfonso and his team are so adept at doing. Therefore we entered into the transaction. In fact, we were initially looking to sell only two or three of the retail parks. We got reverse inquiries for the sale of the entire portfolio, in the end, decided to conclude a deal with Ares, who coincidentally, were the party that we bought the assets from in the first place.
They've now bought them back from us. What's very exciting about the deal is, I think, recognizing Castellana's expertise in the local market, they've asked us to continue managing that portfolio, which we will do so. That will obviously, you know, bring in some additional fee income for us. Please, that's not to be read as a change in strategy of us now looking to get into third-party asset management for Castellana. That's not the case. This is to be seen in the context of part of the overall deal of selling. We've sold the portfolio for EUR 279 million, and that's in line with the the most recent values from Colliers. The transaction is on a yield of 7.1%.
The effective date of the transaction will be 1 April. Therefore there is no impact on the forecast that we've given out for FY 2026. This goes into the new financial year. From a modeling point of view, you know, don't look to make any changes to your FY 2026 forecast because the sale of these assets will not affect them at all. The proceeds from the sale, together with the proceeds from the capital raise that we did in October last year, together with cash resources, will then be almost immediately redeployed into new assets. The first of that is a center called Berceo. I'll just give you the high level and then Alfonso maybe come in later to give you more detail about the center.
It's a center that we bought for EUR 108 million on a yield of 7%. That's in the north of Spain, in Logroño, La Rioja. That gives us some exposure to the north of Spain, and we felt that that was also good to get from a geographic diversification point of view, in Spain overall. It's an asset coming from Barings. It's one of the stories that you've heard us, you know, go through very often before. Buying from a private equity seller. The asset, I would say, performs well. It is absolutely dominant in its catchment area. We've been obviously to see all the various, you know, centers around them. None of them can compete.
Really, we still feel a very undermanaged asset, and that with Alfonso and his team's expertise, we'll be able to take that asset to, you know, to a new and higher level. It's a very strong asset. You've got all the key tenants that are there. We've got the key brands of Zara, Primark, MediaMarkt. It does have a Carrefour shopping supermarket, which we don't own. They own that themselves. We think there's a lot of opportunity to add in food and beverage and more entertainment into the center, and that will sort of really strengthen it. You can see on the one hand, we're selling assets on a yield of 7%.
We have recycled into another asset of 7% with higher growth potential. In addition, we get the management fees coming through from the management contract, so you can see an element of accretion coming through there. Then just to say that there are other transactions that are at a very advanced stage, which will be announced in due course. All of the next transactions, so in other words, again, Berceo plus the next couple that are coming along are already pre-funded. So to absolutely stress and be clear, there is no need for further funding. The funding is in place for all of these assets. I think the question often that gets put forward is, you know, when it comes to asset rotation, will there be any slippage of income?
I think we can confidently say, not only will there not be any slippage, but there will be accretion from the deals that are being done at the moment. If I just run through it again. The sale of the retail park portfolio effective 1 April, so no impact on FY 2026. Berceo is effective from the 1st of February. Yes, you should be including your income for the months of February and March in your forecast. That's a 7% yield on a EUR 108 million purchase price. Then the other deals will be announced in due course, and you'll see, you know, the announcements there, which will hopefully spell that all out for you.
Really, I think this is to be seen in the context of active asset management, asset rotation strategy, which I think has really been the hallmark of Vukile over the years. For those real longstanding Vukile followers, you'll recall many, many years ago, Vukile was a diversified fund with retail office and industrial exposure. Really, through the natural process of our asset management, the annual underwriting of the assets, we are really forever buying and selling assets and hopefully taking assets and cash always to its highest and best use. That is what we've done in Spain. I think what you'll find is that, you know, in the not too distant future, our portfolio value there is gonna start topping EUR 2 billion.
Sort of really just further entrenching our dominance and commitment to Spain, which is really one of the hottest markets in Europe at the moment. That is sort of really the first issue that I wanted to go through, is the asset rotation strategy. We are very excited by that. I think it sort of shows the maturity of the Castellana portfolio. Also, when it comes to rotation, remember, you know, the proceeds from Lar España were redeployed, you know, almost immediately into Bonaire. That center is trading very well. Really what we're demonstrating is our ability not only to recycle assets, but recycle the assets timeously and ensure accretion and not have any slippage as those deals are taking place. The second deal that I'd like to talk about is our stake in a company called Pradera.
That was announced a couple of weeks ago. This is sort of one that is very important for us from a strategic point of view. Financially, it's not a large transaction. A little bit of background around the deal. Pradera is a business that has been in existence for 25, 26 years. They are a specialist Pan-European retail asset manager. We have a long history going back there. Alfonso and his colleagues used to work at Pradera. Alfonso was there, I think, for 11 years and then joined us from there to start Castellana. In a sense, this is sort of the extended family getting back together for a celebratory meal. Pradera has a tremendous track record in what they do.
The founder of the business is a gentleman by the name of Colin Campbell. Colin sold 49% of the business a number of years ago to a business that then merged with an American fund management business. That business got into trouble, I think is in liquidation. Per Colin's initial shareholders agreement, was able to buy back the 49% stake in that business. Colin wanted to bring in both the management team as shareholders, as well as a partner that could bring a bigger balance sheet to potentially one day take him out when he chooses to retire. We started off with an initial 35% stake.
The senior management team led by the CEO, Rhys Evans, the Chief Investment Officer, Barry Cox, the Head of Europe, Alfonso Brunet, and Non-Exec Director, Rob Evans, have bought collectively 14%. Obviously all of us have come in at the same price. I'm not going to be able to disclose the pricing to you because this is a private deal. All I can say is that our stake is cost us well below ZAR 100 million. Not material from a financial point of view there. We do expect a little bit of accretion from it, but I really would not be modeling that if I were you into the numbers. The question then is: Why did we buy it?
The answer really is we bought it for strategic optionality and to create capacity for further growth that we may want to explore in other markets in Europe. Pradera is a business that manages about EUR 5 billion in net assets under management. They are managing on behalf of 60 investors. They've got a presence in 10 countries, and they've got - and this is the most important point - they've got 100 staff members, retail experts, operating in country. That means that if we look at other countries, we look at them on the basis of hopefully having now access to superior knowledge and access to teams on the ground that can then start managing the assets on our behalf.
I think what that does is significantly de-risk any expansion strategy that we may have going into new markets. Where I think we've excelled in our Spanish expansion is by building a team on the ground. I think we sort of really are big believers that by having locals who know the players, have deep relationships, know the nuances of the markets, you just end up with much better outcomes overall in terms of asset management. I think our track record in Spain and Portugal speaks volumes to that strategy. What we've done now is buy ourselves the capacity and ability to enter other markets on that basis. Having said that, I can assure you that, you know, we're not looking at multiple markets to enter. We're evaluating multiple markets.
At this stage, we, you know, we still are thinking which are the right ones to enter into. Most importantly, we're doing it now with a team on the ground, and that is tremendous. Also, through the Pradera relationship, we think that we'll get deal flow. When you look at now what Pradera together with Castellana means is that we probably are one of, if not the premium intellectual capital home for retail in Europe. That's not only in terms of deal flow and what's happening, but it's in terms of actual on-the-ground asset management capability and expertise. The ability to drive synergies in terms of thought processes, learnings, understanding of markets, tenant relationships between Pradera and Castellana is now tremendous.
You can see that there's a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from our side around the strategic capabilities and importance of the Pradera deal, which sets us up not only for further growth, but on a de-risked basis as we look into other markets in Europe. Finally, just and briefly to touch on some South African asset rotation as well. In December, we bought 50% of Chatsworth Centre in KZN. Sanlam own the remaining 50%. That was on a yield, if I recall, around 8.5% or 8.6%. Very strong center, very well known to our management team, and we believe some upside from an asset management point of view there. We also sold the Midrand Ulwazi Building, which was one of our last remaining office assets.
That sort of really comes down. We're on the verge of signing another shopping center in South Africa. That will hopefully be signed in the next week or two. That is an asset that fits perfectly within our portfolio of township retail. There equally are a few smaller sales that are currently on the go. Really what you're seeing is the ongoing rotation of assets within the Vukile Castellana environment. It's always a part of our strategy. It continues. It's about redeploying that money to accretive opportunities. In South Africa, often, you know, we can recycle that money into our solar sustainability strategies, which generally carry mid-teen yields. I think you'll find that that money also gets redeployed on an accretive basis.
I think with that, you know, let me perhaps pause for a moment and take questions from the floor. Please just, you know, if you can put your hand up and Marijke, if I could ask you please just to coordinate the questions from who's next, and we'll try and answer them. Right. Are there any questions? Marijke, I see you're still on mute.
No questions so far, Laurence. We've got Luqman. Then after him, Alistair. Luqman, you can go.
Cool. Thanks, everyone. Can you hear me, Laurence?
Okay. I can hear you, Laurence. Thanks.
Sorry. Can somebody put... I'm off mute now. Sorry. Apologies, I was on mute. Luqman, I can hear you.
Cool. Thanks for having the call and for giving us more info on the deal flow. I just want to clarify something, sir. If I back solve for the 8.6% yield on cash on the Berceo deal, it comes to sort of an odd number in terms of the net finance charges, in terms of what the implied sort of cost of funding is on that number. We're closer to 5%, which I'm assuming is incorrect. Maybe can you just give me some color on what's happening between the sort of NOI line and the sort of net yield on that investment. Is there some other costs that we're not aware of?
Is the cost of financing potentially higher than the sort of four mid four that we've been seeing of late?
No. The cost of finance, Omar, have you got the exact figure on that one, or Alfonso?
Laurence, it's about 4.7, if I'm not mistaken.
That's the all-in, cost of that one.
Yes. That's the all-in, yeah.
You're on mute, Laurence. Laurence, you're on mute.
Yeah. Sorry. I'm not sure, Marijke, it keeps muting. I don't know why. I'm not touching anything. I don't know if there's a setting that's doing that. Luqman, can I just guide through the question? You're saying if you take the yield of 7% on the purchase price, you then add in the debt at 46% at a cost of, say, 4.7%. You're not getting to the 8.6% cash on cash.
No. I'm obviously getting to a potentially higher sort of yield on cash, unless I imply a higher cost of debt. I'm just trying to work out the mechanics of that.
You've got some transaction costs in there. I don't know, Alfonso or Omar, do you guys wanna comment on that?
Yeah. Omar probably will.
We've got the feeling of the final number better.
There will be transaction costs definitely, and there will be some corporate take on costs as well. It's not just NOI less cost of debt. There's a little bit of cost in between.
Okay. Thanks. That clears it up. It's just the sort of deal year one transaction costs that are impacting the lower cash and cash yield in year one then.
Probably there's always this Luqman, there's always an assignment for the possibility of the team growing as well and other expenses related to the assets. Normally we apply into our models a bit of a corporate cost, as we call it, no? Something between Help me here, Omar, because I mean, I think that we have used 50 bips of GAV on that or less than that.
Normally between 25 and 50 bips, yeah.
25-50. Yeah.
Okay. Awesome. Thanks for the clarity, guys. Thanks.
All right.
Thank you. Alistair, you can go.
Yes. I just wanted to ask you, guys, firstly, well done on the deals. How many malls are you expecting to potentially buy, I suppose locally and in Iberia this year? Is it quite aggressive? It's just from the press release, it's, you said you've got a strong pipeline of deals. Just getting some kind of idea of the scope of what's gonna happen there.
Sure.
I mean, the fund's growing quite fast now, being the third biggest in SA.
Alistair, what's currently in the active pipeline in Spain, is another three transactions. Both at very far advanced stages. The team are busy on that. In South Africa, there is the one transaction specifically that I just mentioned, which is very close. And that's sort of what I would call the active pipeline. Okay? I have another three deals, two in Spain, one in South Africa. You know, thereafter, we're always active in the market, always looking at opportunities, et cetera. The current active pipeline is what's funded and what we're busy working on at this stage.
Perfect. Thanks.
Thank you. Glenda, you can go next.
Two quick questions. First one is just want to clarify the retail park portfolio was non-retail parks. Is that correct?
Yeah. Correct.
Okay. Does the sale have any impact on your offshore exposure?
No, because remember, that money is going to be recycled into the new assets. I think what you'll see is that, the amount of cash offshore in fact will increase, because when we take the other deals that are, again, are not yet finalized but are advanced.
Mm-hmm.
Assuming those finalized, the net exposure will increase, you know, to that extent. Yeah. Working at increasing slightly, but not decreasing.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Okay.
We have one from Ridwaan.
Hi. Morning. Thanks, team. Laurence, quick question from my side would be around just understanding the size of the deals going forward and where the balance sheet is. If you're looking at proceeds and then the capital raise, cash resources, is it safe to assume that the two potential deals in Spain would be looking at around EUR 100 million each? Given if you're spending on that, then the SA, the size quantum would be between ZAR 500 million-ZAR 1 billion?
No. I think, Ridwaan, I'd rather not comment at this stage on the deal size. The South African one I'm happy to comment on. No, it's below ZAR 500 million, that I will tell you. I think the Spanish deals are still, you know, obviously under confidentialities, et cetera. So I don't think it's appropriate for me to be commenting, you know, more on the size of the deals. It is simply safe to say that we are tremendously excited about the two prospects that we're working on, and think that they are great centers. You know, more information will come out in due course as and when those deals close. You know, at the moment, I think don't make assumptions until that information is out, would be my best advice.
I think, you know, again, if I'm, you know, I know that a lot of the sales side guys particularly wanna build their models.
Mm.
Guys, just wait. There are a lot of moving parts. I can tell you that the moving parts, in my opinion, all add up positively. you know, I think that's what we've demonstrated here on the sale of the retail parks, the purchase of Berceo, the management fees coming in, you know, and maybe let me preempt a question as to how much we're gonna earn on the management fees.
Yes.
We think that the management fees, net of costs, okay? Because obviously we're gonna hire one or two more people to handle that. Net of costs should bring in about EUR 1.2 million per annum as fee income to Castellana.
This management fee, is this related to the retail parks or to Pradera?
No, that is to Castellana on the retail parks.
Okay.
Okay. Again, my best advice on Pradera is don't factor anything into your models in terms of income from Pradera. Pradera is there to unlock strategic capabilities for us. It will wash its face. It will give us a small little, you know, income from it, a little bit of accretion. In the scheme of Vukile, it's not a material number at a profitability level. This is very material in terms of strategic capability and what we do from here on.
Lastly, the question is regarding, can you comment on potential yields that you're seeing in the SA and Spanish market? Not specifically related to these transactions, but what you're seeing on the ground.
Sure. I think that's a very important question. Look, there is definitely a growing interest in retail. Funnily enough, not only in Europe, but around the world. I was listening to a podcast, in fact, just this morning from [AWE]. Their, you know, their top asset picks are senior living, data centers and retail, which is really, really interesting. What that's telling us is that we are, and we are seeing it on the ground, there is more money starting to look at retail assets in Europe. Not only in Spain and Portugal, but other markets as well. We sort of feel that, you know, there is still a very good window of opportunity to buy assets at good prices, but that is gonna start closing.
I think you're going to see yields coming down. I think in Spain, you already have seen that contraction taking place. We continue to see, you know, good interest in the market. I think yields are sort of starting to trend a bit downwards. Obviously, that has very positive implications for the assets that we bought last year. Last year was, you know, we called it a bit of a watershed year, a transformational year in terms of the purchase of Bonaire and the five assets in Portugal. We think we should start seeing good growth in valuations coming through from those as more transactional evidence has started coming through in the Spanish market. We have seen yields trading at around 6.4%, I've seen it trading at 6.4%.
I think that's, you know, probably a good indication at the moment of, you know, where demand is. We haven't seen any pricing yet going sub- 6. I would say, you know, your prime assets are now probably sellers expectations, around 6-6.50. Buyers expectations are probably 6.50-7. I would say, Omar, in my mind, that probably summarized. I don't know if you'd comment, you know, differently on what you're seeing on the ground.
No, Laurence, I think you summed it up quite well.
Then regarding the South African market, you know, we often get the question of, you know, do we have appetite to buy more assets in South Africa? I'll be very clear and unequivocal. The answer is absolutely yes. We have a very strong appetite to buy more assets here. I think you've seen the excellent work that Itumeleng and his team do in managing those assets. You know, we'd love to find them. If there's a turnaround, for example, like BT Ngebs , that's been a tremendous success story for us. We, we've got a strong appetite. The problem we're finding in South Africa is there isn't much stock available for sale. And no, we don't want Hyde Park, given that that sale has now fallen through. It's not a center for us.
We are looking to keep trying to grow in our core markets. We have one that's being lined up now, and we are actively thinking of ways to try and find more stocks. If anybody has ideas, what I'm doing now is putting up the flag saying we're open for business. Please bring us opportunities. We would like to grow further in SA as well.
Last question, just regarding on Pradera and potential new markets. you know, last we talked, we're looking at places in the Sun. Is that still the case?
Ridwaan, I know you're a big soccer fan, so we really try and look at good football leagues, and then we follow there, right?
Yeah. Okay. It's either U.K. or Italy.
I would say that there are a number of markets that we are exploring at the moment. I think what it does now... And that's not a surprise. We've spoken about that for a while. What now happens is that there is a tremendous overlay that we can put on the analysis of what we're doing, which is to say how much, you know, on-the-ground knowledge do we have that we can tap into through our Pradera colleagues? And where do we have Pradera teams that we feel that we can then go back and look to drive, you know, further growth. You know, markets that, you know, markets where they have good presence, the U.K., Italy, Germany, France.
All of those markets are always where they have a presence. They're managing assets as well in Poland. They've got one in Turkey. You know, all of that is on the Pradera website. You'll be able to pick that up as well. A lot of that overlaps in the markets that we've been doing some homework on.
You said soccer, I guess you're gonna be selling your. You're not looking at Madrid or selling assets in Madrid?
I'm gonna let you wanna take that. Do you wanna take that question?
Perfect. Thanks.
There are four teams in Madrid, Ridwaan.
They didn't make it to UEFA qualifications. Thanks.
Great. Any other questions?
Right. We have a last question from Suren.
Suren?
Thanks, Laurence and team. I think Ridwaan asked it about potential markets outside of EMEA within the context of the Pradera deal. Yeah, I think we're covered. Thank you.
Great. Thank you, Suren. Okay. I think, you know, that's it then from our side. You know, maybe just to summarize, asset rotation always a key part of our strategy. I think what we have demonstrated is an ability not to get emotionally attached to assets. When the time is right to sell assets, we do. I think we've equally demonstrated our ability to redeploy the money. You know, most recently, I think the Lar España to Bonaire example is there. We've now seen retail parks into Berceo, and there will be some other deals coming shortly that we are hopefully finalizing.
Obviously to do that on a basis where there is no dilution, but instead you're looking for accretion, and I think that we've achieved all of that in what we have on the table at the moment. Really just to say that in order to fund our existing pipeline, which is the next two deals in Spain plus the South African one, there is no need to raise equity. We have all the required equity available for that. You know, we continue to look for new opportunities to grow. We think this is a very exciting time in the markets. I think we've been well ahead of the curve in terms of our retail exposure. I think we're starting to see more investors getting into that space.
I think that all goes well for our business. Certainly, it feels as though there are now tailwinds behind not only real estate, but retail real estate as well, you know, that we can take advantage of because of our track record, because of our presence, and so on. We sort of are looking, you know, at markets and the way to try and get that done. Again, happy to take any questions. If we finish on the call now, always feel free to give me a shout directly, and happy to try and answer any questions you may have. Great. I think we are done. Thank you all for your attendance. Really appreciate it, and wishing you a great week ahead. All the best.
Thank you very much, Laurence and team. Have a great weekend. Bye.
Thanks. Bye.
Bye.
Thank you.