April 25, 2024
Analysts endorse Grove Mall deal
A CONSORTIUM of local pension funds’ plans to acquire Namibia’s Grove Mall in a record US$113 million deal – led by Bard Santner Investors (BSI) – has been welcomed by analysts, saying it will preserve value amid rising inflation in Zimbabwe.
With the monthly rise in the cost of goods inflation quickening to 192 percent in June – from 132 percent the prior month – this has continued to affect all classes of investments, especially long-term retirement monies, and it was the first time it had risen to three digit figures since June last year.
“Given the current inflationary pressures in the economy, offshore investments can provide a cover. The diversification that results from such an investment can also prove to be helpful for a pension fund’s balance sheet,” Richard Muirimi, the Comarton Consultants managing director and pension fund investment expert, told The Financial Gazette this week.
Another local analyst said the transaction “would bring new activity in the market, which has of late been shaken by economic upheavals and currency volatility”.
Under the massive transaction to acquire the Windhoek property from Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Atterbury Group’s property division, Senziwani Skhosana’s new financial advisory firm BSI and Stratus Capital Partners are leading negotiations, and coordination of the deal.
And Atterbury is a real estate development, investment and management company, with several mixed-use properties – across retail and industrial – across Africa, and even Europe.
Despite its South African roots, the multi-billion dollar company has developed a portfolio of assets, which local pension funds – until recently restricted to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and bonds – can in addition to their new classes of assets, including private equity, infrastructure and other inflation-hedging securities.
This also comes as the current Pension and Provident Funds Act is being amended through the Pensions and Provident Funds Bill to modernise, and strengthen the regulation and supervision of the pensions industry.
