Delta delivers 15.7% rise in FY distribution

25th May 2015 By: Natasha Odendaal - Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

JSE-listed Delta Property Fund on Monday announced a distribution of 84.07c a share for the year to February 28, a 15.7% rise on the prior financial year, as revenue surged past the R1-billion mark.

The specialist real estate investment trust property fund posted a net operating profit of R735-million and a profit for the year of R865-million for the period under review, compared with the prior year’s net operating profit and profit for the year of R466-million and R761-million respectively.

Profit from operations increased from R727-million in the year to February 2014 to R1.1-billion in the 12 months under review.

“Delta has remained consistent in its strategy to operate as a predominantly government-tenanted fund with 59.3% of revenue being derived from the government office sector,” Delta CEO Sandile Nomvete said in an update to shareholders on Monday.

Offices, retail and industrial properties made up 32.5%, 5.9% and 2.3% of overall tenants.

During the year under review, Delta pursued about R737.3-million in property acquisitions.

“These were acquired at an aggregate yield of 11.06%, adding 94 918 m2 to the portfolio’s overall gross lettable area (GLA). The average property value in the portfolio is R102-million with a weighted average rental per square meter for the full portfolio of R95.84,” he said.

Vacancies reached 7.1% of GLA by February 2015 as a result of the acquisitions, compared with 4.6% in the corresponding period the year before.

“The increase [in the vacancy rate] is primarily due to the vacancies acquired with the Marine Building and Delta Towers, which were not paid for and once tenanted will increase the forward yield of the Fund,” Nomvete concluded.