Full Year 2026 Growthpoint Properties Ltd Earnings Call
Speaker #1: All right, good morning everybody. And a very warm welcome to all of you. Lovely seeing so many familiar faces here. In particular, some current directors, former directors, and a special welcome—she said I mustn't do so because she's going to walk out if she'll be embarrassed, but I'm going to do it nonetheless.
Speaker #1: That's exactly what I'm going to do. So, Angelique DeRove is sitting in the front row here, one of our earliest supporters, all the way from the UK.
Speaker #1: Angie, welcome. And lovely to see you as always. So thank you all very much for, you know, for your attendance, and welcome to the results presentation for Growthpoint Properties.
Speaker #1: For the year ended 30 June 2026. Just a brief comment: I mean, I'll be doing the presentation together with Jose Snyders. Jose joined us in 6 months ago, as the—at the beginning of the year, rather, I think.
Speaker #1: Sorry, January, so it's a lot more than 6 months already. As the new group chief financial officer. And so this will be the first time that Jose participates in doing the presentation, but also I guess in the absence of Estienne.
Speaker #1: So unfortunately, Estienne had to have a procedure in hospital 2 weeks ago or so, and is at home recovering and very successful operation. But he is going to be out of action for a short while.
Speaker #1: We hope to see him back in the office toward the end of the month. So I think the intention was that I would do a little bit less of this presentation, but I've stepped up and, you know, we just wish Estienne well in a speedy recovery.
Speaker #1: So just whipping through the agenda. I'll quickly look at the portfolio composition, touch on the highlights, talk to the strategy, touch on the international investments in Growthpoint Investment Partners, and then Jose will deal with pretty much the rest of the presentation.
Speaker #1: I'll come back right at the end on the conclusion and the forward-looking statement as well. So just briefly on the overall composition of the business today.
Speaker #1: Still very much South Africa, as the dominant part of the business, with 49% of total assets on the South African balance sheet, contributing 55% of the distributable income.
Speaker #1: 12% is the V&A Waterfront, our 50% share of the Waterfront, making up 12% of total book value of assets and contributing 18% to distributable income.
Speaker #1: We then have the offshore investments, GAS, at 22.8% of total assets, and 18.3% of contribution to DIPS, Global Worth 11% of assets, and 3.8% of DIPS.
Speaker #1: LANGO, pretty small at 1.8% of total assets, and no contribution to DIPS. And then lastly, we have the third-party fund management businesses, 2 of them collectively—we sort of group it under GIP, Growthpoint Investment Partners—and given it's an equity-like model effectively, our total balance sheet only makes up 3.1% of the book value of the assets, but contributes 3.6% to distributable income per share.
Speaker #1: Highlights for the period includes the increase in distributable income per share of 4.3% to 152.6 cents. The dividend is up 7.4%. That's driven by the increased payout ratio, where the average payout ratio for last year was 85%, but the total or average for this year was 87.5.
Speaker #1: The group LTV came down from 40 to 38.7. Group assets grew by 2.8% to 160 billion. NIV per share up 3.8%. And then the interest cover ratio is improving nicely, both on a group level and on the SAICR level, reflecting our overall lower debt levels.
Speaker #1: Looking at the year, that's was. I guess, you know, starting the year off on a new—with positive momentum, having returned back to growth in distributable income per share for the June 25 year, we then in August disposed of our holding in New River and effectively got out of the UK in August.
Speaker #1: Then in October, we announced the Cape Winelands transaction and our investment strategic investment into the Cape Winelands project, as well as the Boston Hydro green energy project, up in Clarence.
Speaker #1: Then in December, we announced the Aurea acquisition, or the healthcare fund announced the Aurea acquisition, pretty significant investment of 3.2—acquiring 3.6 billion rand worth of assets there.
Speaker #1: January we got the good news from the City of Cape Town that we've been successful in acquiring additional 440,000 square meters of bulk rights for the V&A Waterfront.
Speaker #1: And then February was quite busy with the disposal of the discovery building, announcing the 3 new logistics projects in one in KZN, one in the western Cape, and one in Gauteng.
Speaker #1: And then also in February we announced the Olympus residential development in the Sandton Summit Precinct. And then toward the end of the financial year in June, we did a very significant bond issuance of 1.8 billion rand, achieving all-time record low credit margins and literally the lowest margins we've ever achieved in Growthpoint's history.
Speaker #1: So some good momentum there. Continue to, you know, put a lot of emphasis, I guess, on the balance sheet. And ensuring that we have a strong balance sheet and I think Estienne one day is going to thank me for leaving him with a company with a well-capitalized balance sheet, and Jose giving them the opportunity to invest.
Speaker #1: As opposed to leaving them in a position where things are stressed and they're having to, you know, fight to bring down loan-to-value ratios and debt levels.
Speaker #1: But I think the 38.7% is well within, or below, the sort of 40% mark, so we've got ample capacity on the balance sheet to my mind.
Speaker #1: GAS LTV remains a little bit elevated, just over 40%, 41%. I think ideally GAS would want to be below 40. Speaking a bit more detail to GAS later, but clearly I think, you know, the Australian economy and GAS going through a bit of a tougher time than it might have been used to in the past.
Speaker #1: SALTV right down to 30%, and that's, I guess, where the real capacity now sits. We have 5.7 billion rand worth of access to capital, with unutilized facilities at balance sheet date.
Speaker #1: 323 million rand worth of cash, and then the payout ratio as we withhold 12.5% of the dividend, we're effectively retaining 647 million of cash pre-tax.
Speaker #1: So those achievements in terms of bringing down the loan-to-value and improving the balance sheet, largely attributable to the disposals. So for the period under review and, you know, it's an ongoing process, I guess.
Speaker #1: We have continued to look to dispose of underperforming assets and reinvesting in newer better well-located modern green energy efficient assets. But for the year we sold 29 assets, valued at 4.9 billion.
Speaker #1: That's 3 billion rand worth of offices, 1.3 billion of logistics assets, and 600 million of retail. On the other side, we did spend 1.3 billion on developments, 600 million of retail, 377 in office.
Speaker #1: That's essentially just buying up the 45% of the discovery phase 2 building, or the building number 2 at discovery. And then 172 million on logistics and similar number in trading and development.
Speaker #1: And at balance sheet date we had 3.6 billion rand worth of commitments, talking to churning of this capital having sold, having created capacity, now looking at opportunities to reinvest and we certainly still fancy the logistics and industrial sector.
Speaker #1: We've got 1.5 billion of the 3.6 is earmarked for logistics and industrial. 1.1 billion in retail. 200 in office and 700 in T&D. That's mainly Olympus and the development of an industrial warehouse done in Cape Town for into foods.
Speaker #1: So over the last sort of 10 years, or decade, we have been very active with this repositioning. Sold 19.9 billion rand worth of assets and reduced the number of properties actually from 471 properties to 302.
Speaker #1: In the process, you know, the actual let's call it portfolio composition has also changed. The two biggest moves there being office which used to be 46% of total value of the portfolio in 2015, now at 39.
Speaker #1: And industrial moving from 15 to 20. During this period, the total disposals of 19.9 billion, 8.5 billion of that was office, 4.5 billion of that was retail, 5 billion was industrial, and then we had 1.7 billion rand worth of disposals out of the trading and development business.
Speaker #1: On the other hand, we have been reinvesting and we have reinvested 9.2 billion into office, 5.5 into retail, 5.2 into industrial, and 2 billion into trading and development.
Speaker #1: Focusing a little bit more on the international side, we as I said, we've got the two international investments. They comprise they make up or contribute 22.1% of our distributable income per share.
Speaker #1: And they make up about 35% of the group assets. The rand equivalent foreign currency income via cash or script dividend alternatives has reduced from FY25 to FY26 by almost 300 million or 1.4 billion to 1.1 billion.
Speaker #1: A big chunk of that is the disposal of New River and capital and regional. So that still contributed to last year's distributable income numbers, but there's nothing in this year's numbers from New River and capital and regional.
Speaker #1: Then from GAS, the GAS dividend remained was slightly up. But global worst dividend on a dividend per share basis slightly down. A big mover in that 1.4 to 1.1 billion drop of in foreign income is also the rand strengthening this year compared to prior years.
Speaker #1: Obviously where we always used to rely on a fair bit of rand earnings uplift from a devaluing rand. I'm not sure who in the room would have been betting aggressively on the rand strengthening to the extent that it has, but that also played a was a factor in that number.
Speaker #1: So if I touch on the international investments individually just briefly, growth point Australia, we have 48 properties there just short of a million square meters.
Speaker #1: And about 47 billion rand worth of assets. That's 100%. Now we own 63.6% of it. As I said earlier, GAS and Australia more broadly, I guess, is going through a slightly tougher time economically than you know than in the past.
Speaker #1: And we're seeing 15-year high interest rates actually currently in Australia. They are currently predicting for even further interest rate increases, possibly another one in September.
Speaker #1: So that is constraining I guess the economic growth and some of the and certainly we all know the relationship between interest rates and real estate and certainly you know putting a lot of pressure broadly on the listed property and direct property sector in Australia.
Speaker #1: But notwithstanding that, we did grow or GAS did grow its FFO per share marginally by 0.9%. And its dividend by 1.1%. Declaring a dividend of 18.4 cents compared to the 18.2 and the prior year.
Speaker #1: And that excludes the the special dividend that GAS paid last year. So in rands we receive 946 million down from a billion. That is mainly as I said rand devaluation sorry rand strengthening.
Speaker #1: The payout ratio remained pretty constant at 78%. So the balance sheet as I said it remains it remains strong but is slightly above that 40% mark that everybody sort of generally is more comfortable with.
Speaker #1: In the period I think the company is looking at a number of options. Obviously to bring some of that gearing down. One in particular we're sort of call it a self-help option I guess.
Speaker #1: Ultimately is asset disposals. And post-year end the company did announce the disposal of a very significant industrial asset in Perth valued at 268 million.
Speaker #1: Now that sale if you just use those proceeds to reduce debt immediately the LTV is back down to about a 38% number. So I think all in hand nothing to be concerned about.
Speaker #1: The company refinanced 495 million rand worth of debt during the period. It's got good access to liquidity and debt the Australian banks and the Australian debt capital markets.
Speaker #1: NTA per share was down 1.3% driven mainly by the downward revaluation of the asset portfolio. And 1.9% down in the office portfolio and yeah I think and 0.9% down in the industrial portfolio.
Speaker #1: The debt is largely fixed 77% of all interest rate exposure is fixed. The weighted average debt maturity is 3.2 years and the weighted average cost of debt is just nudged to over 5%.
Speaker #1: The portfolio is a mix of office and industrial about 65% office 35% industrial it's about 4.1 billion rand worth of dollars rather worth of assets.
Speaker #1: And I think a very healthy tenant base with 29% of income coming from government tenants and 48% from listed corporates. The portfolio is very well let.
Speaker #1: I mean 96% occupancy weight 6.8% weighted average cap rate on valuations 6-year whale so if you look operation I mean they had a record leasing year with 81,000 square meters of leasing in the office space and 117,000 in the industrial space a record year for leasing.
Speaker #1: And like for like property FFO up 2.6%. So operationally and at a metrics are pretty good. The one challenge though is that with an office heavy sector whilst FFO is growing and as we see here up 2.6% the incentive levels in that Australian market for attracting new tenants or retaining tenants on renewal are very high.
Speaker #1: And we're seeing anywhere between 30 and 50% incentives in that market. I think the higher end of that in the Melbourne market. Melbourne is an office market at the moment is particularly challenged with vacancies.
Speaker #1: In the Melbourne government is not particularly investor friendly and certainly not friendly towards foreign investors. And that's causing challenges within that the broader market in Melbourne.
Speaker #1: On the funds management side we've got about 1.2 billion dollars worth of assets under management in the funds business. And during the year 331 million dollars was returned to investors where some of the funds matured and the assets were realized.
Speaker #1: And capital returned to investors. But the team will also successfully in creating new assets to the value of 125 million dollars but all in the assets under management decreased from 1.4 billion to 1.2 billion.
Speaker #1: Global worth our investment into the entity that's listed on the London Stock Exchange on the alternative investment market there. Global worth we own just under 30% of global worth.
Speaker #1: It owns 56 properties across Romania and Poland. Just over a million square meters and our 29.6% share valued at about 14.6 billion rand. The dividend per share for global worth came down from 14 cents in the prior period to 12.
Speaker #1: We they have been declaring dividends albeit that the December dividend was a script dividend and we elected to reinvest. The June 26 dividend now that they've just declared is going to be a part cash and part share.
Speaker #1: So we'll take about 40% of our dividend in cash and the balance will be in shares. And that is consistent with the position of the controlling shareholder in that entity called Zakiono.
Speaker #1: The decrease in dividend was mainly attributable to the this is on a per share basis the significant discount that is applied when they offer their drip discount to NIV.
Speaker #1: And then the increase in finance costs as well as some additional tax charges in Poland. You know gave rise to the drop in dividend per share.
Speaker #1: Again on an operating level net operating income growing at 0.6% and the actual portfolio letting I'll talk on the next slide but I mean operationally similar story to cause actually the operational side of the property level pretty robust.
Speaker #1: The balance sheet remains very strong with 273 million of cash on balance sheet. We did repay 125 million of the bond notes during the period.
Speaker #1: There was some LTV improved by from 38% to 36.7%. The debt maturities 4 years 90% of the debt is hedged in terms of interest rates.
Speaker #1: And there's no major refinance risk in that debt portfolio. A fairly quiet period in the disposal and investment side at global worth with one asset disposal being the Phillips property for 9 million euros.
Speaker #1: And then on the development side we are in the process of building a new 17,000 square meter office building in the heart of Bucharest which is a demand led and demand driven development on a vacant piece of land that global worth owned since we invested there I guess in 2016.
Speaker #1: And in Poland the Renoma redevelopment project is finally complete. That took a fair while. That's a 48,000 square meter mixed use development in Poland.
Speaker #1: We saw marginal uplift in the value of the portfolio to 2.6 billion euro. We have 56 assets 36 in Poland and 20 in Romania.
Speaker #1: Very good letting period. Again record letting actually. In the year the vacancy came down from 14% to 13.4. And we actually saw a slight increase in vacancies in Romania and a decrease in the Polish vacancies across all three the sectors there.
Speaker #1: Or regions there. Total revenue up at 240 million compared to 228 in the prior period. Lango is the entity that invests into African gateway cities.
Speaker #1: It owns 15 properties 242,000 square meters and our the value equivalent value at the asset level of our 18.9% shielding is 2.4 billion rand.
Speaker #1: We own just short of 19%. It owns 12 office properties and three plots of land. The property valuations in the period were declined or written down by 3.7% to 788 million dollars.
Speaker #1: And our 18.9% stake is valued at 633 million. In the prior period the company did internalize its management company. We were about a 32.5% shareholder in the Manco.
Speaker #1: As they internalized the Manco the owners of the Manco received convertible notes into Lango as compensation. And that tranche A notes that we still own is valued at 207 million rand.
Speaker #1: Growth point investment partners the funds management business. The two growth point healthcare it's got 15 properties 129,000 square meters of TLA. And the portfolio value of 8.5 billion.
Speaker #1: We own 39 growth point owns 39.1% of it. As I mentioned earlier the acquisition of the Aurea business was a transformational transaction for the fund.
Speaker #1: Branching out from its traditional healthcare and hospital property portfolio into life rights and age care. And that the value of that portfolio at 30 June was 3.9 billion.
Speaker #1: We received 71 million rand worth of dividends down from the 90 in the prior year. The dilution mainly attributable to the inclusion of Aurea and the fact that you know the Aurea acquisition was fully debt funded for the period and was originally anticipated to be dilutive.
Speaker #1: And so slightly less dividends. But on the other hand the asset management income increased from 46 million to 56 million. So and then on the LTV front it's quite a complicated story with these life rights and how you account for them and whether it's a liability on balance sheet or you net it off against the asset value.
Speaker #1: But LTV went up to 40 51% given the fact that the entity fully debt funded the 1.2 billion equity check to buy the business.
Speaker #1: But if you exclude those life rights liabilities LTVs at 29%. And then the student accommodation business 16 properties 10,000 beds and the value of about 5 billion.
Speaker #1: Ongoing expansion of that fund with the addition of new properties the single largest one currently being constructed is a 2,400 bed unit done in KZN.
Speaker #1: It's called Schluma Studios. That'll be completed by the end of the year for occupation by students for the 27 calendar year. We received both dividends and asset management fees were relatively flat for the year.
Speaker #1: And then yeah this is a little graphic I guess of the Aurea assets. There are five of them. 670 units in total. And three of them in Gauteng.
Speaker #1: San Sereno in Branston. Melrose Manor in the Melrose area and Royal View near the Royal Golf Course. Coral Cove on the north coast of KZN.
Speaker #1: And then Woodside in the western Cape just outside Cape well Cape Town actually. All right. So at this point I'm going to hand over to Jose.
Speaker #1: And then I'll be back at the end. I tried to count this morning and I think Norbert this is your 44th results presentation as CEO.
Speaker #1: My first you told me yesterday you can do these things off the cuff now. I still need my notes. Okay. Morning everyone from an RSA portfolio perspective.
Speaker #1: We had a good year. Like for like NPI growth up 4.4%. We renewed just shy of a million square meters of space during the period and with some new lettings in that number as well.
Speaker #1: And during the during the course of it we had dropped our vacancies at a portfolio level from 8.2% to 7.2%. I think in considering the quality and sustainability of our income streams one of the key discussion points is always going to be the reversion rates on lease renewals.
Speaker #1: Overall in the portfolio for the year this was minus 2.3% but that varied quite significantly across the different sectors and the different regions in which we operate in South Africa.
Speaker #1: The overall result was dragged down by the office portfolio that nationally delivered a minus 6.3% reversion rate on lease renewals. And Gauteng being particularly challenged at minus 10.2% on lease renewals.
Speaker #1: The western Cape had a much better experience where reversions in offices was actually plus 0.4% with a decrease in vacancies for our portfolio there outside of the VNA.
Speaker #1: From 5.39% to 3.6%. Escalations for new leases in the western Cape actually exceeded some 7%. Compared to the prior year. Average enforce escalations across the portfolio remains healthy at 6.8%.
Speaker #1: Lease tenures underpinned in the portfolio have increased by three years to 3.8 3.8 years on lease renewals for the office sector and our renewal success has jumped to north of 80% across the portfolio.
Speaker #1: We have seen a 3.3% increase in valuations of the property portfolio in SA by 2 billion rand. Most of that being led by the industrial portfolio.
Speaker #1: There's seen an uplift of 6.4%. And I think it is important to point out that that valuation uplift is driven by underlying income increasing and not by the valuation metrics having improved across the portfolio.
Speaker #1: As we all know bond yields last year improved significantly towards the end of the year. The benefit of those decrease in bond yields has largely in our valuations been offset by an increase in the risk factor applied to the discount rate.
Speaker #1: Looking at our office portfolio more specifically growth point South Africa's portfolio still is heavy weighted heavily weighted to offices with about 40% of the portfolio represented in that sector.
Speaker #1: Overall vacancies improved from 14.6% to 14.1%. Gauteng still sits at an unhealthy 18.6%. And all indicators would tell you that the Gauteng offices are the primary drag in the SA portfolio.
Speaker #1: We recognize this and our capital allocation strategy speaks to it. Within the past 12 months we have sold 4.9 billion in assets of which 3 billion was in offices.
Speaker #1: And as Norbert had pointed out earlier over the last 10 years we've sold 8.5 billion worth of office assets out of this portfolio. It's not all doom and gloom for offices in our view.
Speaker #1: Enforce escalations are still very good at 7.2% and on renewals this past year escalation signed upward 6.9%. Lease duration on renewals have also improved to 3.8 years.
Speaker #1: Like for like NPI growth for the office sector has dropped to 3.1% but importantly recoveries for electricity is now at 101% and for rates and other charges at 107%.
Speaker #1: So although we still have difficulty in the top line for growing rentals on a growth basis we are able to pass through more of the underlying cost to tenancies.
Speaker #1: Which is helping us on an NPI level. We believe Gauteng still remains the primary corporate and economic market in South Africa. As we stand year two-thirds of our office exposure are still in the province with vacancies concentrated in select areas like Midrand Parkdown and select pockets of Sandton.
Speaker #1: A place for offices still exists in our diversified portfolio but our but our exposure is becoming more selective. We are selling out of office with weaker long-term fundamentals and concentrating our exposure in modern sustainable efficient assets that offer more competitive competitiveness and growth in the longer term.
Speaker #1: Over time our relative exposure to offices will drop but it won't drop to zero. It's also evident that when economic activity improves the office portfolio will perform better.
Speaker #1: We've seen this in the waterfront where vacancies in the office portfolio are now sub 1%. And in our western Cape portfolio where our vacancies have dropped below 4%.
Speaker #1: So it's important to note that when economic activity in an area improves the offices will do better. As Estienne always says 20% vacant still means 80% let.
Speaker #1: The right offices in the right locations remain key. The decrease in our exposure will be deliberate and sensible. We have seen our office assets valuation increase by 3% for the period.
Speaker #1: Going on to our retail portfolio our retail portfolio currently also constitutes about 40% of our value by assets in the country. For the period we have seen densities in trading increase to 2.7% across the portfolio.
Speaker #1: Leading the way was the eastern Cape at 3.9%. The western Cape at 3.4% and KZN and further inland at 2.5%. Gauteng again was the lagout at 1.8%.
Speaker #1: Renewal success in the portfolio was in excess of 90% for the period. For the period. And we have seen a positive reversion in the portfolio for the first time in a while of 0.8%.
Speaker #1: Vacancy in the portfolio is exceptionally low for a portfolio of this nature. At 3.5% and enforce escalations still remain above 6%. We are also looking at the long-term positioning of the retail portfolio.
Speaker #1: To have assets in our portfolio that are dominant in the catchment areas that they that they serve and offer long-term sustainable competitiveness and growth.
Speaker #1: Our current rent-to-turnover ratio in the portfolio is up to 7.8% from 7.6% in the prior period. But at an annualized trading density north of 37,000 rand per square meter we are still of the opinion that this is relatively relatively healthy and affordable for the tenancies in our portfolio.
Speaker #1: On our logistics portfolio the portfolio is showing good strength and good progress in terms of the strategy and rollout that we envisage in the side of the the business.
Speaker #1: Currently about 20% of the portfolio and we expect that to increase over the next number of years as our development pipeline rolls out. In this portfolio we are also consciously disposing of assets that are in non-core areas and positioning the portfolio into modern logistics parks where the assets are grouped closer together to offer some operational synergies and long-term appeal.
Speaker #1: During the period we did sell 1.26 billion of assets in in industrial portfolio. Like for like growth was 4.9%. Vacancies are below 3%. I think I read yesterday that nationally there are they're at about 3% at the moment.
Speaker #1: So other landlords are also getting some benefits in this sector. This the renewal success rate is about 80% for this portfolio this past year.
Speaker #1: Enforce escalations are currently at 7.4%. And on renewals at 7.3%. I think the one number that will be questioned is that we have a marginal negative reversion in the portfolio for this past 12 months of 0.5%.
Speaker #1: That is concentrated to some non-core assets where we elected to drop the rentals to keep the buildings occupied as we progress our our our pathway to disposing of those assets.
Speaker #1: That's not reflective of the general overall industrial portfolio. The quality of the portfolio continues to increase with healthy development pipeline in Gauteng in the western Cape and in KwaZulu-Natal.
Speaker #1: We often do start some of these developments on a speculative basis to be ahead of the demand curve. I think growth point is aimed to be in industrial assets that are more generic smaller boxes and not the large very specialized boxes that some of our competitors are are invested in.
Speaker #1: We have as as at yesterday there's a development we're doing in Montague Gardens that's meant to be complete in 2027 for about 38,000 square meters.
Speaker #1: And that entire development we got a lease agreement signed yesterday for for a large user to take up that space in 2027. Demonstrating the demand that the ease for these types of assets in the right locations.
Speaker #1: There is a lot of churn in our portfolio at the moment as Norbert had indicated. I think our run rate will be about 2 to 3 billion per year as a rolling statistic.
Speaker #1: We have managed to sell most most of the assets that we have sold at or better than book value. I think we won't sell at all cost.
Speaker #1: It does have a dilutive impact. Okay. We will do what a sensible at the time that we make the disposal what the market is like what it means to our business in terms of dilution.
Speaker #1: But we are hoping to sell that amount of assets per year as we roll out and reinvest that capital into new more modern and longer lasting competitive assets in our portfolio.
Speaker #1: One of the disposals that we have made last year was discovery. We have said that the dilutive impact on that transaction on its own for a full year would be about 1%.
Speaker #1: We do in our annexes disclose the yields at which we have sold certain assets and when we have sold them. So you can go and figure out what the dilutive impact is.
Speaker #1: Most of those yields because they are older assets are north of where our cost of debt is. So it will have a dilutive impact.
Speaker #1: But it's a necessary cost as you reposition the overall portfolio going forward. Our trading and development business their profitability depends on the timing and completion of the developments that they are busy with.
Speaker #1: They are quite busy at the moment with a lot of development in the ground. For the healthcare business they've completed a hospital type asset this year as Norbert had mentioned there's a large student accommodation building that's being completed towards the end of this year.
Speaker #1: In our own portfolio we are currently developing at Naka Park in Montague Gardens. As as well as an asset called Indlovu also in Montague Gardens.
Speaker #1: The palm oil redevelopment will be complete in November of this year. The Olympus residential development you see across the road here will be complete in 2028.
Speaker #1: So there have been quite busy. The pipeline of developments for them are healthy and profitable developments and when we book the income depends on when the development completes.
Speaker #1: But as long as the team remains busy on yielding projects we are not too concerned about losses in any particular year as those developments come into fruition.
Speaker #1: These are some of the developments currently underway. As you can see there when they will be completed and what the developments team are currently busy with.
Speaker #1: From an ESG perspective growth point over time has spent now north of a billion rand or 98 solar plants that have a peak generating capacity of 69 megawatts.
Speaker #1: The Boston Hydro plant has started delivering power wind to our portfolio on a wheeling basis since October 2025. Our renewable energy penetration is now up to 19% compared to 7.9% in the prior year.
Speaker #1: We have maintained a level one BE score we have made some appointments that better improve diversity at our board level. We have also appointed Nuraya Khan here for gender diversity on our board.
Speaker #1: And and she's recently joined us as an NAD. More work of course needs to be done but growth point is moving in the right direction.
Speaker #1: We have spent for the year close to 60 million in CSR similar to the numbers spent last year. We are a key supporter of property point that aims to create job jobs in our sector amongst the other initiatives that they pursue.
Speaker #1: Our social spend also includes a large emphasis on education where we have spent 24 million rand in this last year. One of the flagship programs is our GEMS program which is education for staff for for for children or staff in our business.
Speaker #1: It's been around for 10 years. I think this will be one of the legacy things that we're implemented in Norbert's tenure that he is most proud of.
Speaker #1: Every staff member at Growth Point who earns less than 400,000 a year gets to have their kids' education paid for. There's a whole committee that does the allocations.
Speaker #1: So far in 10 years no one has been turned away. It's quite a significant project for our staff that Growth Point has managed to achieve.
Speaker #1: At the V&A Crown Jewel Investment in our broader portfolio distribution for this past year of 965 million up from 810 million in the prior year 21% NPI growth.
Speaker #1: That includes profits from the sale of residential apartments at five Dock Road that benefited us to the tune of about 139 million rand in that period.
Speaker #1: Excluding those profits the NPI growth would have been 6.9%. Importantly during the period the table Bay Hotel was closed for its redevelopment now rebranded and opened as an intercontinental it was always the plan that the resi sales the profit from that would offset the loss for having the hotel closed for a period of time the resi has exceeded that loss and that's why the waterfront numbers are looking so good.
Speaker #1: If we're adding included the opening of the table Bay Hotel on a normalized basis and excluded the residential sales the NPI growth would have been around 10%.
Speaker #1: The highest growth areas for the waterfront has actually been in the marine and industrial which has seen a 13.7% growth. Office rentals growing by 8.2%.
Speaker #1: So you can see in the right locations offices are still doing extremely well. Followed by retail at 6.2% and hospitality at 2%. That hospitality number of course being impacted by the fact that the table Bay Hotel was was closed.
Speaker #1: Vacancies in the broader waterfront is now at below one at or below 1%. The V&A is of course heavily dependent on tourism and we are happy to report that visit the footfall to the area has increased by 7% year on year.
Speaker #1: In the overall income pool that we generate from the V&A there's has there has been an uptick in the amount of operational income exposure that we have.
Speaker #1: Historically around 16% now up to 20%. It gives us the benefit of participating in the high growth currently be experienced in the precinct but also comes with the risk associated with the dependency on tourism footfall etc.
Speaker #1: The V&A has low gearing. There is an extensive development pipeline that's being rolled out over there. But it has such low gearing that it can fund of that balance sheet of it at least for the next quarter three to four years.
Speaker #1: It's development pipeline. Going on to our financial results for the year. Our NPI is up 4.4% on a like for like basis on the SA portfolio.
Speaker #1: Overall distribution has increased by 216 216 million rand. The primary impact there on has been the decrease in our interest cost of about 371 million.
Speaker #1: And this follows the decrease in our average debt levels from 39 billion to 33 billion together with our interest costs having dropped from 8.9% to 8.6% this year compared to last.
Speaker #1: SA LTV as has been mentioned by Norbert is now at 30.2% and group LTV at 38.7%. Group ICR now being better than 2.6 times.
Speaker #1: Our distributable income for the year 5.2 billion gave us 152 cents per share of distributable income and at our payout ratio that translates to 133 cents per share.
Speaker #1: 7.4% up on the prior year. Our portfolio has seen uplift in valuations of 3.3% or 2 billion rand excluding healthcare and the student accommodation fund driven predominantly by income increases rather than the metrics underpinning the valuations changing.
Speaker #1: Within the SA sectors however the valuation uplift was quite different amongst the sectors that we I have exposure in. Industrial as I'd mentioned at 6.4 offers at 2.9 and retail at 2.1.
Speaker #1: The healthcare assets and student accommodation assets have seen uplift of 3.8% and 5.3% respectively. I think Norbert has mentioned that GOS saw a slight decline of 1.9% in offices and 0.9% in its industrial assets which we consolidate onto our balance sheet.
Speaker #1: And that is on the back of rental growth being outweighed by cap rate expansion. Our balance sheet is very healthy at 33 billion of debt in SA.
Speaker #1: GOS as Norbert has mentioned is at about 41%. Still well within their target range but probably a little bit higher than we would have wanted to be given their current interest rate environment.
Speaker #1: In SA we have unutilized facilities at year end of about 5.7 billion rand. During the last quarter of the financial year our treasury team refinanced about 1.8 billion through a public bond issuance.
Speaker #1: At 108 basis points over Zyronia at terms of 3, 5 and 7 years. That bond issuance was six times oversubscribed which shows healthy appetite for Growth Point paper and delivered at the lowest margins in Growth Point's history.
Speaker #1: Shortly after year end our treasury team did some further private placements to the tune of about 3.1 billion this time around one and a half billion thereof was at the 10 year tenure and the clearing average margin was 134 basis points above Zyronia which for that kind of 10 years is exceptional.
Speaker #1: These issuances have moved the split in our debt exposure between bond markets and banks to about 57% in the bond markets. Banks remain our friends.
Speaker #1: Having reduced our debt we have good capacity now to support our development pipeline and seek opportunities for growth. You will note in the annexes to the presentations Norbert has indicated our commitments are still about 3.6 billion to be spent overall.
Speaker #1: Those commitments for the projects that we are currently busy with amounts to about 4.26 billion. Most of that being directed towards retail and industrial.
Speaker #1: Of those commitments 280 million only relates to offices and that is for a regional head office for discovery in Canubia. That we hope to build least for a while and sell to them in another couple of years.
Speaker #1: I think what the key message is as we have this liquidity and debt capacity is that we are aiming to fund the development rollout with the sale of non-core assets.
Speaker #1: Okay there is a timing mismatch what the balance sheet capacity allows us to do is to manage that timing mismatch and also allows us to have the capacity to seek some opportunistic growth as opportunities arise in the marketplace.
Speaker #1: In conclusion the outlook for FY27 the guidance that we've given is 1 to 3% up. There's a couple of points that Norbert will expand on when he comes to give some closing remarks.
Speaker #1: It does obviously have the impact of dilution of sales in there. The offshore investments are in difficult macroeconomic circumstances and that has an impact.
Speaker #1: Some of the GOS cross currency swaps that are coming up for renewal this year in our managing our exposure to Australia are rebasing to higher levels given Australian interest rates and that has an impact we also expect that SA interest rates will stay higher for longer and that has had an impact on how we see this next year unfolding.
Speaker #1: I'd like to say thank you to the broader finance team this has been a hell of a task my first one in this portfolio the volume is immense and I never expected it to be this much but I'd like to thank the team for all the long hours and the late nights that they've had.
Speaker #1: Norbert didn't want today to be about him and the more than 20 years that he has been Growth Point CEO or about the fact that the market cap at the time that he started was about 3.7 billion and his 57 billion rand today.
Speaker #1: With a total shareholder return north of 12% consistently over that 20 odd year period. Includes the GFC includes COVID and includes all the other factors that Estienne commonly refers to as the nine plagues happening over that time.
Speaker #1: As I welcome him back onto the stage I just want to acknowledge the huge effort the legacy that he leaves and to say thank you.
Speaker #1: Great leaders do not necessarily leave you without challenges but they certainly leave you in able to take them on. Thanks Norbert. Thanks Jose. Thanks for the kind words.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Probably don't need this. Right. Thanks very much for that. We do have a couple of questions here on maybe just a I think Jose made the remarks that I was probably about to make in relation to the outlook and the dividend guidance for 1 to 3%.
Speaker #1: Obviously this year you still had the interplay between a higher payout ratio and average. So giving you a higher dividend growth rate relative to the dips growth rate.
Speaker #1: Next year it's in the base. So it's 87 and a half with a constant payout ratio. We're looking at 1.3% dips and dividend. And you know the key drivers I guess we ourselves would have been a bit disappointed.
Speaker #1: We were on a continue to build on the growth last year. I think it was 3 and a half this year 4.3. We all aspire to continue to show growth in dividend.
Speaker #1: But the 3 or 4 factors I guess that are putting us back at a very high level I mean it's fair to say Growth Point continues to remain overexposed to the office sector not only in South Africa but also in its international investments.
Speaker #1: GOS being 67% office and global worth being effectively 100% office. The I use the phrase yesterday one of the reporters latched onto that I called it the Achilles heel the Achilles heel at the moment though is probably still Khao Teng office.
Speaker #1: Khao Teng office has not performed well for a fairly extended period of time. I'd say even before COVID you know Khao Teng office started underperforming and there's a multitude of factors that are at play there not only let's say the lack of infrastructure investment you know from the municipalities perspectives but generally lack of economic you know growth generally you know if you have one year of zero economic growth and 3 or 4 or 5 years of 3 or 4% you know you get a particular trajectory.
Speaker #1: If you've had 10 years of like sub 1% economic growth it's not conducive to stimulating office growth and office demand growth. So we continue to be hamstrung by that a little bit and I think we should be looking to accelerate our disposal out of the underperforming areas as Jose said office is not dead.
Speaker #1: Office in good areas can still be a very good investment and we're seeing that in the western Cape in particular at the moment in our portfolio.
Speaker #1: And there's no doubt in my mind that Aussie you know will turn as it comes out of its sort of particularly high interest rate cycle that it's in at the moment.
Speaker #1: So but so that does I think you know drag on our growth prospects. So the other one is the disposal process. So we have disposed of a fortune of assets over the last couple of years.
Speaker #1: 2 and a half billion last year. 4.9 billion this year. That's like close on 7 and a half billion of disposals. If you just I don't know take a 10 I can only do simple math.
Speaker #1: So 10% on 7 and a half billion that's 750 million of lost revenue. Let's call it NPI. And you got to you know you got to make that up.
Speaker #1: So we have been reinvesting as we disclosed but not at the same rate that we have been disposing of. Or at. So next year we are definitely going to see the absolute NPI number.
Speaker #1: This year the absolute NPI number is still up but next year it's likely the absolute NPI number will be down. So that's having an impact.
Speaker #1: The interest rate outlook is having an impact. Waterfront this year with 21% increase in its contribution. That can't be repeated and we've shown you that a big chunk of it was one off.
Speaker #1: You know linked to the residential developments in the waterfront. So we do anticipate the waterfront will continue to perform very well. We make a remark I think on the previous slide before this one where we see the operating income probably growing at double digit within the waterfront.
Speaker #1: But you have to normalize for the one off residential sales that are in this year's number. So there's one of the questions from online.
Speaker #1: I'll address it as part of this remark. At a holistic level for next year we're probably looking at single digit lowish single digit growth from the waterfront considering the exceptional performance and base that has been created through this year's numbers.
Speaker #1: And then yeah I think internationally you know the international investments for the last year or two have been a bit disappointing. Slower dividend growth coming out of Australia.
Speaker #1: And negative dividend growth coming out of global worth. And so if you add all of those things into the mix you know we have come to a conclusion that our dividend growth projection for next year will land in that sort of 1 to 3% space.
Speaker #1: So hopefully that gives you a little bit more feel and color for perhaps why it's not why it's going backwards next year relative to this year.
Speaker #1: I'm going to quickly deal with a number of the questions that are you know come from the online audience. The first one talks to can you provide guidance on the discipline income growth for the V&A.
Speaker #1: So I think I've dealt with that one. The expectation for dividend withholding tax from GOS for next year because this year was quite low.
Speaker #1: That one remains a bit of a mystery and it is dependent on the activity within the portfolio on asset disposals, asset acquisitions. So we can't really predict we generally work on 10% as a dividend withholding tax number.
Speaker #1: Sometimes it's a bit more sometimes it's a bit less. But it's I think there is going to be you know you may recall we sold a big chunk of industrial assets into the growth point Australia logistics partnership which is the fund that we created.
Speaker #1: And we realized significant capital gains in the disposal of those assets. Now this Perth asset that GOS has sold 268 million has also got a very significant capital gain attached to it.
Speaker #1: And those capital gains have a big impact ultimately on the withholding tax calculation. The exact outcome of it I can't predict right now. But it is just something that I would highlight.
Speaker #1: There's a question that says given the increased payout ratio what would be the key considerations for growth point in offering a drip option. I think the board did discuss the drip option.
Speaker #1: I think a couple of considerations. One is the share price obviously is still trading at a pretty big discount to underlying NTA on the one hand.
Speaker #1: But on the other hand you know given our LTVs and the fact that our SA balance sheet is now down at about a 30 odd percent LTV our access to debt capital liquidity is exceptional at the moment.
Speaker #1: We don't believe it's appropriate to be doing a drip when we've got that level of access to debt and let's call it it's a bit of a tricky phrase and it sometimes can come back and bite you but a lazy balance sheet with debt capacity.
Speaker #1: So there wouldn't be any sort of rationale to be raising equity specifically via a drip. Besides the own occupied transactions we were the natural buyers for the properties in Khao Ting.
Speaker #1: It is mainly the own occupiers and then the residential converters. So there are probably more guys playing in that space today than there's been in the last couple of years.
Speaker #1: And certainly the most recent one we sold here I'm looking at Tim for the name of Sandton Close but also the one literally around the corner from here.
Speaker #1: Fred Metaos. Yeah Fred Metaos was also recently sold to a resi converter. So mainly resi converters and we hesitant to sell I guess just to other office landlords.
Speaker #1: You know at the end of the day there is an oversupply of office in Khao Ting. There's an oversupply of office in Sandton given the vacancies.
Speaker #1: By selling it to another office landlord you just handing that landlord the opportunity to compete with yourself. And that's not necessarily you know good as far as we're concerned.
Speaker #1: It's not to say we won't depending on the price. If somebody wants to pay a particular price for an asset that we think is attractive you know we'll consider it.
Speaker #1: But as a broader statement or a broader philosophy we'd rather sell to you know a resi converters or owner occupiers. Can you quantify FY25 dip sensitivity to rolling your foreign earnings hedges at current exchange rates.
Speaker #1: So I mean the only comment I would sort of offer there Jose dealt with it to say that when we looking we have we've actually just dealt with them in the last week two Aussie CCRSs which were we were paying about two just over 2% on them.
Speaker #1: We've refinanced them at just over 4%. So they have become quite a lot more expensive. Let's say doubled pretty much in terms of the actual interest we pay on them.
Speaker #1: And so that is in the mix in our overall let's say outlook for what interest our interest number might look like next year. And then there's here what is the risk at the extent of densification at the waterfront decreases the attractiveness and therefore the reversions and escalations.
Speaker #1: Look it is an ongoing challenge to find the right balance. And I often urge management at the waterfront to be very sensitive to the pace of rollout of new developments but also it's not only rolling out new developments it's also the infrastructure reinvestment that needs to take place.
Speaker #1: That the original assets 25 years old we're in the process for those of you that drive in and out of the waterfront on a regular basis or might have been there for the rugby two weeks ago you would have seen that the road that goes around the marina all the way through to the main shopping center is now down to one lane.
Speaker #1: And of course chaos during the rugby. But you know the reason for that is that the water pipe the main water reticulation road. And those are needing to be replaced after 25 years.
Speaker #1: So that so it's finding the right balance between new development new exciting initiatives and then obviously the let's call it maintenance infrastructure work. Also you know I think it's very important to maintain the balance between what I call public spaces and you know and let's say just densifying you know with new residential or new office buildings etc.
Speaker #1: What makes the waterfront such an appealing precinct is the fact that you know it does have green spaces. It does have you know all these different activities and you don't want to destroy that.
Speaker #1: So I think the point is very well made to the V&A management. I don't think they will be irresponsible in that regard. I see the waterfront as a very responsible developer not all developers are always responsible.
Speaker #1: They try and maximize the last little bit of bulk that they've got. That's not the waterfront's philosophy and that's not our philosophy. So we would be ensuring that they do it responsibly.
Speaker #1: What's the risk that the okay that is the waterfront one. So the last one I'm going to deal with now from online is what is your view strategy on the international portfolio particularly global worth.
Speaker #1: This minority stake has been underperforming for a long time. And I can't deny that. It has unfortunately been so. It wasn't by design. We'd never intended to be a minority.
Speaker #1: We've ended up there due to corporate activity by some of the original by the original founder of the business. In fact who we backed into that business.
Speaker #1: And so you know we continue to find to engage with the other shareholders and management to try and find a solution whereby each party could be more in charge of their own let's say portfolio or you know where we the entity's got 95% of its shares.
Speaker #1: Held by four shareholders. That's there's no it's not tapping the equity capital markets. So there are many many factors and reasons I think why that entity shouldn't necessarily be listed.
Speaker #1: But ongoing discussions with all stakeholders. Are currently underway. And probably more active discussions now than in the last two or three years. I remain cautious on what I say about that because it is a listed entity and there are JSE or LSE rules and all sorts.
Speaker #1: To adhere to. So that I think closes the what deals with all the questions online. I'd be very happy to take questions from the floor.
Speaker #1: There are roving mics. And if anybody's got in fact I did check. I mean it's 12:00. How's that for timing? Sure. And I think that's the best we've done in the last 10 years.
Speaker #1: So the only conclusion I can come to must be Estienne who can't stop blabbering and taking way too long dealing with these sections. So we did well to finish it off in an exactly an hour.
Speaker #1: Happy to take questions.
Speaker #2: Yeah. Question here. Yeah. Mission NF from SPG Securities. Just to get a sense on the guidance again. I know you've already discussed it but you said that you're expecting rates higher for longer.
Speaker #2: That wouldn't necessarily drive a decrease, right, on your net finance costs. Are you guys potentially expecting any rate hikes in that time? Is that part of the assumptions?
Speaker #1: We have got I think in our budgets we do have an inter I think there two interest rate increases that we have modeled in our in our current assumptions.
Speaker #1: Yeah.
Speaker #2: Okay. Cool. And then maybe also this might be geared towards José but then the strengthening of the round against the Aussie dollar wasn't that large.
Speaker #2: So what sort of like sort of 2%. I'm just wondering if you guys are having a different view on how to hedge your income going forward or are you guys going to be more aggressive to sort of protect against any potential downside going forward?
Speaker #1: So I can just maybe make a start with an initial comment and maybe hand over to José and Usher. So whilst the average rates or the actual year-end rates might only have moved by that 2% obviously we had progressively throughout the year.
Speaker #1: Now our average we don't always disclose our see-through average hedge rates. But I think there was a much bigger differential between what we had hedged at last year well over 12 12 and a half.
Speaker #1: I can't remember what our number was to where rates are at the moment. So it was a much bigger delta than the 2%. We constantly review I guess our policies.
Speaker #1: All policies in terms of interest rate hedging, use of cross-currency interest rates, swaps. And forward hedging of the currency. And there's nothing at this point in time to suggest that we're going to be changing the way in which we have been dealing with it in the past.
Speaker #1: So in essence I guess what we try and do is we predict the cash flows that we're going to be receiving in the next 12 months and then the closer we get to the actual date that we need to convert those Aussie cash flows into rand cash flows we want to be more certain about how many rands we're going to get.
Speaker #1: So you know we have this progressive hedging sort of strategy. And but you know whenever we do see you know weakness in the rand you know we do take you know take it's quite sometimes it's quite opportunistic in terms of you know taking out the hedges when the rand is particularly weak.
Speaker #3: So you've got another question.
Speaker #2: That's fine. Are you guys looking to expand your exposure to the bond market just given the price and that you're able to receive right now?
Speaker #2: And are there any reasons why you wouldn't?
Speaker #1: I you want to see off the people in the room run out. So look it is obviously very tempting you know to continue to you know tap that bond market to maximize the opportunity.
Speaker #1: I mean the reality is we do have we've always had a policy and a philosophy of diversifying our debt sources. And sometimes you know the market is supportive you know of bonds as it is at the moment and we've I mean José you know I think we've gone from 50/50 to almost 60/40 where we the mix between bank funding and bond funding.
Speaker #1: In essence we have been raising money in the bond market and repaying the banks banks are not happy the banks understand to a point.
Speaker #1: I think we also need to understand that you know the cycle will turn and eventually we you know so it's about relationships as opposed to only being fixated with maximizing the last cent out of the margin in a particular market.
Speaker #1: So we yeah I mean we're going to we're going to continue to you know to maximize our opportunity there. But responsibly and taking into account I guess of the broader relationships that we have within our funding mix in particular the relationship with the banks.
Speaker #1: Any other questions? So if there are no further questions ladies and gents, I thank you all for your time and attendance. Thank you very, very much.
Speaker #1: And we're going to be around for at least another hour or so. If you wanted to come and ask a question in private, please feel free.
Speaker #1: And I'll see you next year. But I'll be sitting in the audience as opposed to standing on the stage. Thank you all very much.
