Old Mutual plans South African property IPO

Old Mutual South Africa (OMSA), a
unit of UK insurer Old Mutual plc, has announced plans to list a
large portion of its property investments on the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange (JSE).

The properties are currently housed
in Triangle Real Estate Core Fund, a pension fund investment
vehicle of OMSA’s life insurance division.

The total value of the listed
property fund will be some ZAR12bn ($1.65bn) including a targeted
ZAR5bn to be raised in the initial public offering scheduled for
mid-2011.

This will make the fund the
third-largest property fund listed on the JSE, according to
OMSA.

The fund will comprise 40
properties of which the five largest – all shopping malls – will
represent half of the total value. Overall the fund will have 68%
exposure to retail properties.

Driven by sharp falls in bond
yields, listed property funds have been the top performers on the
JSE so far this year, producing a total non-annualised return of
just over 19%.

Sign up for our daily news round-up!

Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights.

Sign up